- By John Greaves, MAG Trustee, from Battambang Province, Cambodia
 |
|
Me. |
When you’re in the field, you quickly discover that statistics are king.
Numbers of mines and UXO neutralised; square metres of land returned to safe and productive use; number of adults and children educated about mine safety. All important and positive stuff and all measurements that indicate the productiveness of a MAG intervention.
But there are other statistics that you hear when you’re in the field, that by comparison are numerically much smaller but in many ways are much more indicative of the success of a programme and actually cut to the heart of why MAG does what it does.
 |
|
Deminer Ngin Sarun. Nine per cent of MAG Cambodia's staff are amputees. |
 |
|
One of the most heavily mined places on the whole of the planet. |
In north-west Cambodia, about 30 kilometres from the town of Pailin, is a very small village. There are around 125 families in the village, overall around 650 people.
And since 1996, there have been 22 mine-related accidents, the latest of which was in June last year when three village people were killed when their vehicle ran over an anti-tank mine. That’s a village where everyone knows everyone else and they all look out for each other; they are a big extended family.
These are people for whom the words “subsistence” and “survival” were invented. They have experienced more conflict and more hardship than anyone should encounter in their lives and now, as they struggle to maintain a stable existence in a relatively stable environment, they are blighted by the remnants of the conflicts they and they parents lived (but most probably died) through.
They live in one of the most heavily mined places on the whole of the planet. In the scrubland next to where they plant their maize crops are mines. In the undergrowth next to where their children walk to school are mines. Next to their houses are mines. And from time to time, as they are going about their daily existence, an accident happens and a mine claims another victim.
That’s the deadly truth about landmines, and it’s something that you don’t truly experience until you come to the field. Because for all the mines destroyed, the land cleared and the people educated, until we get to the very last one, there will still be victims.
That’s the number that matters.
Links:
- CAMBODIA: Mine accident survivor becomes deminer
- CAMBODIA: A former battlefield, one year after clearance
- News from Cambodia
- Donate to MAG online - more than 90 per cent of MAG's income is spent directly on clearance programmes
- Other ways to Get Involved - shop, run, walk, skydive, drink wine...
7 October 09
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||
Back to top
