The small village of Peam Sitha, sited 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh on Route 5 at the ...

The small village of Peam Sitha, sited 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh on Route 5 at the confluence of the Tonle Sap River (in the background) and a smaller river across which Australian contractor and engineer Clay Semchyshyn and his Cambodian crew were building a concrete bridge. Semchyshyn, known as 'King Clay' to his crew, was one of three Australian engineers contracted by Transfield Australian Pty Ltd (a company specialising in construction, engineering, defence and telecommunications) to rebuild six bridges destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. Route 5 runs northwest from Phnom Penh to Poipet on the Thai border and is renowned for banditry, becoming especially dangerous in the period leading up to the May 1993 elections, when bands of Khmer Rouge regularly terrorised villagers and members of Semchyshyn's construction team who slept on site, in an attempt to keep them away from registration and polling booths. One of tasks facing the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and assisting the non government agencies (NGOs) was the reestablishment of basic infrastructure such as water and communications.