Yem
Para, from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Yem Para was shot several times by someone known to her. ‘One
day we argued. I was with some other people, planting vegetables,
and he shot me through the leg – my
left leg, here above the knee. Then he shot
me through the chest, and the third bullet
just skimmed my hair, it was so close. He used an AK-47
and was only about 20 metres away, and then came closer.
At first everyone was afraid to intervene, but when he’d finished
the rounds, the neighbours came and stopped him bashing
me with the butt of the gun. I still get pain from my wounds.
I only had the metal pin out of my leg five months ago. And now I can only do about half what I used to. Before, I
could
lift 50kg of rice, but now I can only lift about 10kg.’
Covert arms shipments from China and the USA to Cambodia’s
anti-Vietnamese factions began in the late 1970s. Around
500,000 small arms are believed to remain in Cambodia – half
of them controlled by the official military and police
forces and half by militiamen, demobilised soldiers, and other individuals. |
