08/11/2022 Cambogia, Battambang
“If you ever come across anything suspicious like this item, please do not pick it up, contact your local law e enforcement agency for assistance”
Mazoe Ford and Yin Soeum
On a steep and slippery hillside beside a quiet village in Battambang province in north-west Cambodia, a small team is hard at work clearing land mines from conflicts decades ago. It is an arduous and painstaking task, with de-miners using detectors to manually map every centimetre of the ground and a range of tools to excavate every signal picked up. It is exhausting work too, with each person wearing body armour, a helmet, and a thick visor as the hot sun beats down through the trees and the humidity swirls thick in the air. Red signs featuring a skull and cross bones and the words ‘Danger! Mines!’ are stuck into the earth in areas that are untested no-go zones – some just centimetres from where the work is underway. North-west Cambodia was littered with an estimated four to six million land mines after the Vietnamese army ousted the brutal Khmer Rouge in 1979 and during civil conflicts throughout the 80s and 90s. With the population expanding into once-remote areas, the risk of stumbling across an old unexploded device is a terrifying fact of modern life. In the first six months of this year there were 40 land mine accidents. On the minefield, everyone works alone, many metres apart, just in case there is an accidental explosion. “At first I was very nervous doing this job, but after training I have knowledge and I’m not a novice anymore,” minefield leader Oeurn Phors told the ABC.
“I feel very happy to clear mines from the ground, I’m happy to help the community.”
The painstaking search for five million decaying bombs
Ms Oeurn is one of almost a thousand de-miners who work in Cambodia across different sites for international mine-clearing charity The HALO Trust.
If you find anything that appears to be an explosive device, do not touch it, leave it where it is and call the police. We will contact the appropriate agencies to properly dispose of the item.
Dear editors, Biography of a bomb is aimed at highlighting the danger caused by unexploded bombs. Moreover, the most important aspect is that we work completely non profit, raising awerness about this topic is what drives us. We apologize if we make use of pictures in yours articles, but we need them to put a context in how findings are done. We will (and we always do) cite source and author of the picture. We thank you for your comprehension.
