CAMBODIA : Ex-Green Beret Puts Heart Into Amputee Limbs

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Ron Podlaski is an angry man.

A former Green Beret who fought in Indochina in the late 1960s, Podlaski thinks it is shameful the way the United States has denied assistance to its former enemies for the past 17 years.

“I think America owes more of a debt to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia than anyplace in the world,” he said. “In Cambodia, the assistance the government is giving is too little, too late. That’s why we came here--the government is doing nothing.”

The we in question is the Vietnam Veterans of America. And the here is Kien Khleang, a dusty peninsula in the Tonle Sap River directly opposite Phnom Penh.

Kien Khleang is home to one of the most pathetic institutions in a pathetic country, a home for war veterans with major injuries. It is so horrifying that even Podlaski had nightmares after first visiting the place--soldiers without eyes, double and triple amputees, many with the crudest of surgery and little or no rehabilitation apart from a stick or a young relative to lean on.

“The residents were sent to Kien Khleang because they were begging outside markets in Phnom Penh and the government thought they were an eyesore,” Podlaski said.

It is of little concern to Podlaski that many of the wounds visible on the young men at Kien Khleang were caused by guerrilla forces supported by the United States in their long quest to oust the Vietnamese-backed Phnom Penh government. Or perhaps it only increases his anger.

“The United States has to re-evaluate its aid,” he said.

With a $100,000 grant from the Vietnam Veterans of America Fund, Podlaski set up shop in Kien Khleang last December to provide prosthetic devices free of charge to the wounded, whether they are civilians or former soldiers.

Under the guidance of a Vietnam Veterans leader named Ed Miles, who is himself a double amputee, the Kien Khleang project imported technology from India known as the Jaipur foot.

Invented by Dr. P. K. Sethi 20 years ago, the Jaipur foot makes use of an aluminum leg and a rubber foot.

“The beauty is that you don’t need electricity,” said Podlaski. “The program can go anywhere and make legs with local tools. The rubber foot is very, very practical for people involved in agriculture because it’s water-resistant.”

At the moment, another source of Podlaski’s anger is those Western aid organizations that he said have criticized the Jaipur foot. Podlaski said the other groups use higher technology to make prosthetics, but he insisted that those devices are not cut out for life in the rural tropics.

After 14 years of civil war and millions of land mines, Cambodia has the world’s highest per capita population of legless people. So there is plenty of work to go around. The Vietnam Veterans project has imported three Indian technicians to make the legs and to teach Cambodian assistants their craft. In addition, the project is providing medical services to Kien Khleang and an ambitious program to teach Cambodian amputees fish farming as a means of supporting themselves.

“We’ve got guys amputated right up to their shorts who are getting out of their wheelchairs and building dikes for the fish ponds,” Podlaski said proudly.

Suon Somol lost his leg in an artillery accident and went eight years without a prosthetic device. His face, hardened by years of suffering, split into an ear-to-ear grin when he took his first steps.

“I’m very happy with my new American leg,” he told a visitor. “I will use it only for walking. For farming, I don’t want to risk damaging it.”

A second American is scheduled to join Podlaski soon in administering the project, but the former social worker from New Hampshire said he cannot imagine giving up his job and returning to the United States.

“The program is really reaching people,” he said. “I’m here for the long haul. This is a wild place--I kind of like it.”

The Vietnam Veterans of America Fund is at 2001 “S” St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.