House Sawed In Half Over Divorce

After nearly 40 years of marriage, a couple in Cambodia decided to part their ways. In Cambodia, it can take sometimes years for a divorce to go through the courts and the couple decided they didn't want to take the chance of waiting.

Because of the fact the divorce didn't go through the court it could cause problems in the future because they won't have a legal recourse, said Prak Phin who is a lawyer for Legal Support for Woman and Children in the province.

"This was a not a legal divorce. It never went to the court," he said. "If they have disagreements in the future, they will not have a legal (recourse)."

The woman and her husband had been living in the house in Southern Cambodia near the province of Prey Veng. The province is around 50 miles away from the capital.

Neither one in the couple would talk to reporters but the village chief said that the husband had been angry with the wife when she wouldn't care for him when he was sick.

The week before now, the husband and his friends moved all his belongings into one side of the house then proceeded to saw the house in half. The couple in addition to sawing the house in half, divided their land into four parts for their two children and themselves.

The man has reportedly moved his half of the house to his parents' property and is living there with them.

"It is the strangest thing I've ever seen," said May Titthara, a reporter for the "The Phnom Penh Post" which is an English newspaper in the Cambodian capital, "People there never saw this happen in a divorce. It is very interesting for them."