Bomb Disposal
him, couldn’t swim at all. “First they had to teach me to
swim in a pool,” he says, laughing at the memory. “I swallowed a lot of water while I was learning. Later we went to train in the sea and again I drank a lot of salt water and choked there, too. It was really difficult.” But he persevered, and now
Sarath and his colleagues are members of an elite team, with the skills and techniques equal to military dive teams around the world.
Swords to ploughshares Given the U.S.’s involvement in bombing Cambodia in the late 1960s and early 1970s (see sidebar), it seems right that Washington funds the dive team program, which to date has cost hundreds of
44 Magazine
thousands of dollars. Emma Atkinson is the East Asia
and Pacific Program Manager with the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Although addressing war legacy issues in the region is important, she says, the department’s focus is on the future: removing explosive ordnance (EOD) to make the country safe for ordinary Cambodians. “These efforts include supporting
demining in the areas that affect the most people today, especially in the west of the country where mines and UXO from participants in Cambodia’s lengthy civil war – and not the United States – pose the greatest threat,” Atkinson tells DIVER by email, adding that this is
choked there too. It was really difficult Top left:
Later we went to train in the sea and again I drank a lot of salt water and
Local villagers
recover a bomb Top right: Small charges are
used to detonate unexploded ordnance.
Above: Visibility in the silt heavy Mekong river is measured in inches
the first time the State Department has worked “hand-in-hand with the host government” to build a comprehensive national underwater UXO disposal capacity. “Cambodia is already a leader
in landmine and UXO clearance,” Atkinson says. “It is our hope that they continue to share their expertise and can indeed share lessons learned and the technical capacity of their underwater EOD team both in the region and globally.” Back on the Mekong and
watching the mission from a second
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