Cambodia

As my family stepped off the plane I was hit by a wave of hot and humid air. We had just arrived and it was nothing I had expected men armed with AK-47s surrounded the small airport. I had heard that Cambodia was violent but this was insane. I asked one of the guards who spoke English who they where protecting against the guard said “The Camir Rouge” one of the most danger guerilla terrorist group in all of southern Asia considered more violent than the Islamic Ultranationalists.

Just as the man finished what he was saying there was a deafening explosion followed blasts of gunfire the guard who I was taking to threw me on the ground and began returning fire. Looking around me I saw what had exploded, it was one of the planes preparing for takeoff but now nothing more than a heap of burning metal.

Amongst the chaos I had forgotten about my parents and began searching, then I saw them my dad was laying on the ground my mother crouched over him. I ran to them and saw that my dad had been hit and was losing blood. He had been hit in the upper thigh and was having trouble walking.

As we kneeled over my father the gunfire had stopped as I looked up I saw that all the guards that had previously been defending the airport where now all either dead or wounded and men in jungle fatigues and red and white plaid bandanas around their necks and some with red berets on their heads, they where the Camir Rouge and where heavily armed regulars with AK-47’s and Russian RPG’s.

They had spotted my family and me and where charging toward us yelling angrily in a language I didn’t understand but could guess was Cambodian. As they approached I knew that it was now impossible to escape if I tried I most likely be shot and possibly even killed. One of the soldiers shouted loudly in Cambodian and his soldiers approached us and had us stand up. They did the same with my mother and me. Once standing our hands where tied behind our back and we were loaded on a truck and driven away.