How did Cambodia get a landmine and ERW problem? This brief summary of Cambodia’s recent history should not be construed as definitive and I encourage readers to research the details. Basically: American forces dropped an obscene amount of bombs on the Vietnam-Cambodia border during the Vietnam War but not all of them exploded. When the Communist group known as the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot usurped power in 1975, they haphazardly set up landmine fields on their western border with Thailand. Eventually Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, ousted Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and scattered them towards the Thai border areas. The Khmer Rouge then engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Vietnamese-installed government. Landmines, usually set by young men (see: Aki Ra), were again deployed and cases of grenades, bullets,
rockets and bombs
were sprinkled in hiding places around the countryside — buried under rocks, planks and in caves. With unexploded bombs and rockets scattered throughout eastern Cambodia and landmines and ERW on the western border, some places more than others were literally mine fields. Fast forward some forty years later and many of these ERWs are still in their hiding places — just as deadly, waiting to be found by de-miners, farmers or children playing or looking for firewood.
Due to the high contamination rates in Cambodia, they have high levels of
recorded casualties. According to the Monitor, “…the
186 casualties recorded in 2012 were 13% fewer than the 211 mine/ERW casualties identified in 2011 and more than 90% less than the over 3,000 casualties identified in 1996.”[iv] International
A Handicap report states that Cambodia was around 4.7% of the population.[v]
the prevalence of disability in During my time
in the field, I met hundreds of people with disabilities and diseases that I had never encountered before, from all age ranges. I would say that the majority of these people did not have easy lives; most lived in dire poverty, and according to their surveys, many lived in physical pain from their injuries and quite a few felt ashamed or self-conscious about their situation.
When asked what they could do to improve their own situation, most people over 35 or 40 years old were despondent or didn’t have an answer. But I remember very clearly three of the answers young people gave me: a boy blind from birth wanted to be a musician so he could play for tourists at Angkor Wat temple; a well- dressed young woman in a modified wheelchair, a polio victim, wanted to be a seamstress to make clothes to sell at the market; and a young man with a crutch from Handicap International who
lost his leg below the knee wanted to become a mechanic, to repair motorcycles and mopeds. I met four men, some in their 20s or 30s, all missing parts of their legs, who worked together to build outhouses for each other and for other disabled people — in 40 o
C heat and for not a lot of money. A separate article
would have to be written about the de-miners, the people who risk life and limb to rid their country of landmines. All of these people were hard-working and desired a chance to provide for their families while remaining hopeful, despite all that was stacked against them.
Young Cambodians today are also playing leadership roles beyond the field level. Advocates in the CCBLCM are intelligent, motivated citizens who have been pressing governments for increased rights for PWDs for years. These include the many young men I worked with in the CCBLCM office in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, and Song Kosal, a youth ambassador for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), who has dedicated her life for the realization of a mine-free world.
Sadly, the youth in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, just to name a few places, will be called upon to rebuild their countries and they will face many of the challenges Cambodians have faced. Hopefully they will be able to network and learn from the experiences of Cambodians and build a better present and future for all of their citizens, including persons with disabilities. To my knowledge, delegates from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Nepal and Eritrea have already met with the Cambodian government and mine action workers from the Cambodian Mine Action Authority to exchange knowledge and best practices. Although each situation is different, I hope they can learn a lot from each other so they do not have to “reinvent the wheel.” If governments can sign onto the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and then implement the terms of those treaties, it will be an encouraging start for rebuilding their countries.
In addition to the landmine problem, the youth in Cambodia
face severe challenges beyond those I have already mentioned: corruption, abuse, human and sex trafficking, political unrest and an uncertain economy. Yet I can’t help but admire the tenacity showed by the people I met. I want to dedicate this article to the youth in Cambodia, who continue to work so hard to make their country a better place for themselves and future generations.
iAM March 2014
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