Yeetle Box - Don't Ask, Just Look

Near Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in a rural area of outside the capital of Cambodia, a couple has terminated their 18-year marriage with a divorce settlement that entailed sawing in two the wooden house they once shared.

The husband, 42-year-old Moeun Sarim, has taken away with him all the bits and pieces of his half a house, said his 35-year-old wife, Vat Navy.

"Very strange, but this is what my husband wanted," she said byy phone from a village about 62 miles east of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. She said they ended their marriage last month. She plans to rebuild - her life.

"He brought his relatives and used saws to cut the house in half," she said, adding that she now owns the other half that is still standing. The house is made from wood with a tile roof and propped up on wooden pillars, a typical style for a Cambodian country home.

She said her estranged husband and his relatives, after ripping apart half of the house, carried all the debris to his parents' house nearby where he crushes the debris repeatedly into smaller and smaller halves.

The divorce was prompted by Moeun Sarim's jealousy about her alleged relationship with a policeman in the village. She denied having an extramarital affair. The policeman could not be reached for comment.

Vat Navy noted that Article 39 of Cambodian law covering cause for divroce clearly tabulates the grounds for divorce thus:

1. desertion without a good reason and without maintenance of and taking care of the child;
2. cruelty and beatings, persecutions and looking down on the other spouse or his or her ancestry;
3. immoral behavior, bad conduct;
4. impotence of penis; and
5. Physical separation for more than one year.

"Maybe there is something he isn't telling me. He wanted a divorce, and I said, `Let's divorce,'" she said. "Then, he said, 'Fine!' Then, I said, Fine! Then he said he was owed half of everything. And I said, Whaddya gonna do, cut the house in half?"

The husband could not be reached for comment, but was last seen with an axe and a chainsaw, mumbling something about in-laws.

Bou Bout, a village chief, said local officials and police were present as witnesses the day the couple split their 20-by-24 1/2 foot house into half. Unlike Western police, who would have prevented this action, Cambodians pride themselves on their "Don't ask, just look," policy when it comes to sawing houses in half.

"Local officials tried three times to get them to mend their differences, but the husband would not budge," Bou Bout said by phone. "He just sat fuming for a long time, then threw saws at the local officials."

The YeetleMaster