World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 - (Page 13)

Skull-and-crossbones signs warn not to leave the road. since 1970, most of them farmers and rural villagers. Roughly one in 290 Cambodians is an amputee, giving the poor nation one of the world’s highest amputee rates. The presence of mines steals valuable land from impoverished farmers and limits development. And many of the nation’s 43,000 mineaccident survivors can find little social-service help. Some eat by begging on the streets of Phnom Penh or relying on their children to work. The Cambodian government and nongovernmental mining groups including the Mines Advisory Group and the HALO Trust began clearing land mines in the early 1990s. So far, they’ve destroyed more than 433,000 mines and a million pieces of unexploded ordnance, according to the Cambodian government. In 2002, there were 1,724 square miles of land heavily contaminated by mines in Cambodia, according to a Landmine Monitor Report put out by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Today, that figure is down to an estimated 177 square miles—the result of mine clearing and the reclassification of formerly suspected areas. In 2006, about 450 Cambodians were injured or killed by mines or unexploded ordnance. That number represents a significant decrease from the 2,700 casualties in Cambodia each year in the 1980s and 1990s. While mine clearing gets some of the credit, more awareness, an economic upswing that reduced the need for risky farming and a growing number of aging, inoperable mines also helped, experts say. September/October 2008 | WORLD ARK AILIN, Cambodia— It’s nearly noon in the scrubby fields outside of remote Ban Hoy village as we pull on flak jackets and blast helmets to prepare to walk into the minefield. “Don’t throw anything, don’t pick up anything, and follow my steps exactly,” warns Nhek Sergsokhom, a supervisor with U.K.-based Mines Advisory Group, which works to remove the mines. Threading past ominous red skulland- crossbones signs reading, “Danger!! Mines!!” we enter a thicket dotted with painted sticks marking land mines laid by the Khmer Rouge and its enemies. So many mines remain in this region near the Thai border, it is called one of the most dangerous places on Earth. More than a dozen trained locals in helmets and bulletproof vests pause from their work with metal detectors, picks and hand tools. We walk up behind one worker, crouched low to the ground, gingerly digging away the dirt from a mine he’s just found. Radios crackle with orders as he plants a stick of dynamite and we retreat to a sloping field nearby. Three long and three short warning whistles later, the crack of dynamite booms through the hills and sends a small mushroom cloud into the air. Among those watching with satisfaction is Pham Bunsont, 43, who lost a leg from a land mine in the 1980s and is now paid by the Mines Advisory www.heifer.org P Group to remove them. “It’s a dangerous job,” he says. “But I don’t want mines to hurt others like they hurt me.” A DEADLY LEGACY ambodia remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, the legacy of decades of conflict including Pol Pot’s long guerilla war after the fall of the genocidal the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Although the fighting ended years ago, land mines still litter farm fields, pastures, trails, rice paddies, riverbanks and villages. Some of the mines here date back to the 1960s, but most were planted during the 1979-1989 Vietnamese occupation. As the Khmer Rouge retreated to camps along the northwest border, both sides laid massive amounts of mines as they lost and reclaimed land. In the 1980s, Vietnam drove many into camps in Thailand and planted a mine field barrier along the border, hundreds of miles long. By the 1990s, Cambodian government forces and the Khmer Rouge were battling in a civil war, with both sides using land mines to defend villages and roads or make land unusable by their enemies. By 1999, much of the fighting subsided as the Khmer Rouge were captured, gave up or sought amnesty. The nation banned land mines in 1999, but millions remained in the ground. Some estimate 4 to 10 million mines are still buried, but no one is sure. Mines and unexploded ordnance killed or injured 63,000 Cambodians C 13 http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Digging Up the Past Not a Drop to Drink Facing the Ogres of Progress Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

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