Guns Kindle Flame of Peace

Ireland Online today carries a story Cambodia burns arms reminders of Pol Pot.

It says that as part of Cambodia’s Flame of Peace program, officials at the village of Anlong Veng burned more than 3500 guns, rocket launchers and other munitions in a ceremony meant to help expunge the former Khmer Rouge stronghold’s association with Pol Pot, the group’s leader who lived out his final years there.

More than 3,000 people, including villagers and former Khmer Rouge soldiers, watched as officials stacked the weapons in a pile and surrounded them with sandbags, apparently to protect against explosions. The weapons were then doused with diesel fuel and torched by officials holding long bamboo sticks with fuel-soaked clothes wrapped around the end.

To me, bullets and bonfires seem an odd mix when celebrating peace.

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