Cambodian mine expert gets peace in Seoul

Phnom Penh (2 March, 2012): Cambodian peace campaigner Aki Ra this week has received award from the Society for the Promotion and Practice of Manhae’s Thoughts in Seoul, South Korea.

In the announcement of the Society for the Promotion and Practice of Manhae’s Thoughts on March 1, Akira – one of Cambodian experts in removing landmines – received the Manhae Prize in peace. He is among another winner — Song Wol-ju who is a Buddhist monk of Korea.

According to a news release from Seoul, the award-giving ceremony will be held on August 12 when the Manhae Festical is scheduled to kick off.

Aki Ra has led a campaign in Cambodia to find and remove antipersonnel landmines, moving all across his country. He was a Khmer Rouge soldier and was forced to plant an many as 4,000 to 5,000 mines a month when the country was under civil war.

Cambodian authorities presumed that there are still four to six million landmines being buried all across the nation. As many as 63,000 cases of landmine-related accidents have been reported until now and some 19,000 people lost their lives in connection with the accidents.

Last year, Akira was also nominated as the CNN hero.

Major winners of the prize in previous years include former President Kim Dae-jung who also won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa. (CN staff)