High school shut down due to deadly secret discovered nearby.
Cambodian High School Temporarily Closed After Discovery of Deadly Secret
In a shocking turn of events, Cambodian authorities have made the decision to temporarily close a high school in the northeastern province of Kratie. The reason? Thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance from the country’s devastating civil war have been unearthed on the school grounds.
The discovery was made when de-miners were called in to search for buried landmines before the construction of a new building. To their horror, they stumbled upon a cache of explosives that had been hidden for decades.
Queen Kossamak high school, which is attended by over 1,000 students, was once an ammunition warehouse during the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. It was later converted into a school, with the belief that all the ordnance had been removed. Unfortunately, this turned out to be far from the truth.
Cambodia: Thousands of war-era explosives found buried at high school https://t.co/eQXgXtn9pl
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 13, 2023
Over the course of three days, de-miners from the Cambodian Mine Action Center collected a staggering 2,116 pieces of ordnance, including M79 grenades, FuzeM48 shells, and ammunition for the B40 rocket launcher. Photos shared on social media showed the dirt-covered items lined up on the school’s campus.
However, it is believed that there are still many more dangerous explosives buried beneath the surface. As a result, the school will remain closed while de-miners work tirelessly to collect the remaining material.
“I know that this school site used to be a big ammunition warehouse of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, but I could not believe that there was a huge amount of ammunition buried underground like this,” said Chheang Heng, the provincial deputy chief for education. “How many casualties would have happened if this ammunition exploded?” he added.
#Deminers discovered more than 2,000 #explosives, including more than 1,000 M79 #grenades, inside the grounds of a high #school in Kratie province over three days, said Mr. Heng Ratana, director-general of the #Cambodian #Mine #Action #Centre. #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/Dk7hr1cuko
— UK Tutoring Services (@TutorCambodia) August 13, 2023
The Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule in the 1970s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians due to starvation, illness, and execution. Although the civil war ended in the late 1990s, the country is still plagued by the remnants of the conflict. It is estimated that Cambodia is littered with 4 to 6 million landmines and other ordnance.
While significant progress has been made in clearing these deadly explosives, they continue to claim lives. Since the end of the fighting, nearly 20,000 people have lost their lives, and approximately 45,000 have been injured by leftover war ordnance. However, the average annual death toll has decreased from several thousand to less than 100.
The Cambodian government has set a goal to clear all the nation’s remaining landmines and unexploded ordnance by 2025, in an effort to protect its citizens from further harm.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
The post High School Closed After Deadly Secret Found Buried Near the Building appeared first on The Western Journal.
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