CAMBODIAN tomb raiders have made a mockery of every institution that has tried to stop them so far.

The government’s Heritage Department proved powerless, the police and local authorities have failed and even Unesco has made little impact. Now a comic book is being used to fight against the looters.

Wrath of the Phantom Army plays on popular superstitions to ward off potential raiders. When the protagonists dig up ancient graves in search of treasure, the village animals fall sick.

As they continue to loot, an army of skeletons rises from a burial mound to confront them. The young men soon conclude that grave robbing is a profession with no future.

Heritage Watch, the archaeological organisation, hopes that the launch of the comic last night in Siem Reap, Cambodia’s cultural centre, will at least slow the looting. The main historical sites such as Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples are now well protected, but Cambodia’s less-celebrated monuments are regularly plundered.

Preah Khan temple in Kompong Svey province is a case in point. Once considered a rival of Angkor Wat, its isolation has proved to be its undoing.

One night, five years ago, the local official of the Heritage Department heard the chink of chisel on stone coming from the temple and went to investigate. He found the temple surrounded by armed men, was beaten and then fled for his life.

Many of the artefacts are stolen to order for clients overseas, but some end up on sale at international auction houses or on the internet.

Ancient necklaces, beads and even statues can easily be found at markets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Many rural villages are built on or near ancient burial grounds without the inhabitants even realising. When antiques dealers find out about the grave sites and offer the impoverished villagers cash for anything they find, they spark a frenzy of digging and inadvertent destruction.

Dougald O’Reilly, the director of Heritage Watch, said: “The cemeteries that people are destroying every day represent the answers to those questions of how we came to be where we are today, not just as Cambodians, but as human beings, so it’s priceless information.

“It’s our responsibility to at least give people an informed opinion about what they’re doing.”

The comic uses a wise old monk to educate the looters in the error of their ways. Illiteracy is common in Cambodia’s villages, and a picture- heavy, text-light publication stands at least a chance of making an impact. Its use of ghosts is also likely to strike a chord in a highly superstitious country.

Nonetheless, some remain highly sceptical. At the old market in Siem Reap, only a few miles from Angkor Wat, Srey Raksmey, read the comic surrounded by the prehistoric gold beads and ancient temple bells in her souvenir shop.

“People in the villages have money problems,” she said. “As long as they’re poor and the dealers have cash, they’ll continue to dig.”

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