More than 60 boxes of bullets believed to have been buried by the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s were unearthed in Oddar Meanchey province on Tuesday after a farmer spotted the ammunition while plowing his cassava plantation, officials said on Thursday.
The farmer notified authorities at about 9 a.m. after spotting the boxes, which he feared might contain unexploded ordnance (UXO), in Samraong City’s Bansay Reak commune, said Un Sopheak, the city governor.
Police and soldiers soon arrived on the scene and unearthed 61 boxes of ammunition, including four boxes of bullets for Soviet-made RPK machine guns and 57 for .50-caliber machine guns, he said.
“The farmer informed the village chief that he found 20 boxes of bullets, but after the military and police removed those boxes of bullets from the hole they found more,” Mr. Sopheak said, adding he suspected the bullets were buried by the Khmer Rouge as they fought against the Hanoi-backed government in the 1980s.
Samraong City police chief Sun San said the bullets were being stored at his police station and would soon be sent to the Cambodian Mine Action Center.
