Aki Ra (sometimes written Akira) is a former Khmer Rouge conscripted child soldier who works as a deminer and museum curator in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He has devoted his life to removing landmines in Cambodia and to caring for young landmine victims. Aki Ra states that since 1992 he has personally removed and destroyed as many as 50,000 landmines, and is the founder of the Cambodian Landmine Museum.
Aki Ra is unsure of his age, but believes he was born in 1970 or 1973. His parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Like many others, he soon became a child soldier once his strength became sufficient to make him useful to local Khmer Rouge military commanders. When the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia with the intention of toppling the Khmer Rouge political regime, he was taken into the custody of Vietnamese soldiers. Later he enlisted with the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces formed by the new government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea. His duties included placing landmines along the mined area on Cambodia's border with Thailand. The name "Aki Ra" was given to him by a Japanese acquaintance and is not his birth name. He was born Eoun Yeak, but one of his supervisors once compared his efficiency to AKIRA, a heavy-duty appliance company in Japan. (Wikipedia)
Recently, there was a fire at the museum in Aug. 2018. A provincial court spokesman said that Mr Yeak (Akira), Mr Sokunthea and Mr Yun were all charged with illegal possession of weapons. “The court decided to detain three people, including the owner and his two officials, for illegal weapons possession on Saturday”
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