Asahi Shinbun 15 June 2007

“Farewell to Weapons”

[Phnom Penh, Akihiko Kaise]

JSAC (Japan Assistance Team for Small Arms Management in Cambodia), currently collecting weapons scattered in the country due to the Cambodian civil war, is now working on the creation of monuments with these collected and destroyed weapons (photograph taken by Souichirou Yamamoto). The young Cambodian artists mark their eternal farewell to weapons and their commitments to peace as they create the sculptures.

JSAC has started their activities since 2003 under grant aid from the Government of Japan to the Government of Cambodia. By appealing to residents to surrender their weapons, so far around 28,000 weapons have been collected, and then destroyed in public. The production of the monuments has started in February by 10 Cambodian artists with the support of a British artist and British NGO. The two monuments will be completed at the end of September and installed in Battambang and Kampong Thom Province.