Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LAND
MINE LEGACY
Land mines
are supposed to maim rather than kill, but more than a quarter of Cambodians
injured by mines die of shock and blood-loss before reaching hospital. For those who survive
- more than forty thousand Cambodians have become
amputees
as a direct result of
land-mine injuries - the impact of an injury on their families is financially devastating,
emotional consequences aside. To meet the costs of treatment, their families usually have to
sell what few possessions they have, reducing them to an extreme poverty from which they
seldom recover. For
young
female
mine victims, the stigma is often unbearable: being
disabled means that they are frequently unable to find a husband and have to remain with
their families, where they may be reduced to the status of slaves. The more fortunate
amputees have access to a
prosthetics
workshop where, once their injury has healed
su
ciently, they can receive a false limb. However, even if they are subsequently able to get a
place at a skills or crafts training centre, there's no guarantee of employment once they've
completed their training, and without the capital to set up on their own, land-mine victims all
too often find their prospects little improved.
In Cambodia, international and domestic
NGOs
are undertaking the delicate, painstaking
task of mine clearance. Trained crews of Cambodians (many of whom are the widows of
land-mine victims) work hard to inform rural communities in heavily contaminated areas of
the
dangers
of mines, which are more subtle than might appear: during the rainy season,
mines which are buried too deep to go off can move towards the surface as the land floods,
rendering previously “safe” territory risky.
The actual process of mine clearance is slow and expensive. As yet no mechanical system is
available that is reliable enough to allow land to be declared as cleared. So, once a minefield
has been identified, the site is sealed off and divided into lanes for trained
personnel
, lying on
their stomachs, to
probe
systematically every centimetre of ground for buried objects, using a
thin blade. The mines thus detected are carefully uncovered and destroyed, usually by blowing
them up in situ. Given that as many as six million land mines (according to some estimates)
have still to be removed, the scale of the problem is easily appreciated.
and inherit property. This was all very well, but the country was virtually bankrupt;
practically no aid was being received, electricity and fuel were in short supply, and
even basic needs such as health care couldn't be provided. Corruption, although
not on the scale of earlier regimes, was still rife: the nouveaux riches built spacious
villas, drove smart cars and ate out in restaurants, while the majority of Cambodians
could barely afford rice. On the borders, a black economy thrived, with gems and
timber flowing out, and consumer goods - which commanded a premium price on
the home market - coming in.
Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge was stepping up guerrilla activities, capturing Pailin in
1989. During 1990 they consolidated their position along the Thai border and
regularly encroached further into Cambodia, destroying bridges, mining roads and
raiding villages; by the end of that year they controlled the jungle areas to the
northwest and southwest, going so far as to threaten Sihanoukville and Kampot. In the
middle of that year, however, first the US, then China,
withdrew support
from the
Khmer Rouge, which was to prove something of a turning point: a ceasefire was
declared in July 1991, and in October a conference was held in
Paris
to discuss the
country's future.
1970
1975
1975-78
Prime Minister Lon Nol stages coup
against Sihanouk. Sihanouk forms a
government-in-exile in Beijing
The Khmer Rouge capture Phnom
Penh and drive the capital's
population out into the countryside
Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia.
Millions are executed or die
as the result of starvation or
disease
