Aki Ra

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Aki Ra
Photo of Aki Ra by Antonio Graceffo
Born	unknown c.1973 Siem Reap, Cambodia
Occupation	Landmine campaigner, museum curator
Spouse	Hourt
Children	Amatak, Mine

Image supplied by Antonio Graceffo

Aki Ra is a former Khmer Rouge conscripted child soldier who has now devoted his life to making Cambodia safe again in addition to providing assistance to his country’s numerous landmine survivors through humanitarian programs.

He and his wife Hourt have brought home nearly 20 children who have lived through a landmine accident. They provide these children with an education and family atmosphere they had never received before.

Since 1993, Aki Ra has led a concerted effort to rid Cambodia of landmines and unexploded ordance (UXO). He is a maverick with very unusual but safe de-mining techniques. Working only with a knife and a sharp stick, Aki Ra has made untold acres and acres of land safe for Khmer farmers and children.

Aki Ra’s parents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge during the Pol Pot regime (1975-1979) and he was raised in a jungle camp to be a boy soldier. He fought for the Khmer Rouge until 1983 when Siem Reap province, where he lived, was captured by the Vietnamese. He was conscripted into the Vietnamese army on threat of his life while still a boy. He later served with Cambodian army while still a teenager and yet later received landmine clearance training with the United Nations.

He is the curator and founder (1999) of the Cambodia Landmine Museum, a fully-licensed Kingdom of Cambodia non-governmental organization (NGO), and the Akira Mine Action Gallery which is supported by the Akira Mine Action Centre, a fully-licensed enterprise which provides some of the much-needed funding still necessary for the extraordinarily cost-efficient landmine safety and education program which Aki Ra regularly conducts in Cambodia's still extremely dangerous rural countryside and jungles.

Aki Ra is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on landmines and