The Defense Ministry enlisted the prayers of Buddhist monks on Friday after workers suspected supernatural forces had prevented them from destroying a military statue to make way for new buildings inside the ministry .
Workers began destroying the memorial statue, bearing the inscription “Everything for the sake of defending and building the motherland Cambodia,” with hammers on Friday morning.
However, the workers soon ran into difficulty when they were unable to topple the structure, decorated with a Naga head fountain and ornamental pond, using a steel cable connected to a mechanical excavator.
As they battled to fell the Naga, a freak rain shower drenched the Defense Ministry compound sending the workers running for cover and the spiritual assistance of monks.
“The problem was the head of the Naga could not be moved and we were concerned about the spirits,” said a construction worker who declined to reveal his name.
Co-Minister of Defense Tea Banh said the monks gave offerings to the spirits and sought permission to remove the statue.
Co-Minister of Defense Nhiek Bun Chhay said the statue was being demolished to make way for new offices for the ministry’s departments of defense services and international relations.
Both departments are currently located in four residential villas behind the ministry, which have been traded with a private company which in return is building new offices on the site of the statue, Nhiek Bun Chhay said.
“I don’t know anything about the land swap. The government made this deal a long time before my arrival,” he said.
Lieutenant General Meas Savorn, director general of defense services, declined to reveal details of the swap, or of the construction company that has obtained the ministry’s four villas.
