Since 1979, over 64,000 people in Cambodia have been killed or injured by explosive items and there is still an average of one death or injury every week.
Landmine contamination continues to block safe access to land that could be used for agriculture, schools, and housing for returning families. It is an injustice for the people of Cambodia that decades on, they still live in fear of a war that ended years ago.
For those that survived the years of Cambodia’s civil war – and for those born after it ended - it’s not good enough that they are still living in danger today. It’s not acceptable for people to have to farm land knowing that any day, they could strike a landmine and be killed.
You can help end this injustice. It’s time that the people of Cambodia truly experienced the safety promised by peace, but denied to them by the lethal landmines that remain in the ground, as powerful today as the day they were placed. Please donate today.
Sean Sutton, MAG
Sok Vas's Story
Sok Vas and her husband, Kong Beat, are members of the Indigenous Por community. Needing to farm to provide food for themselves, they sought affordable land with fertile soil and nearby water to supply their crops.
But they are all too aware of the risks they face by farming in this landmine contaminated region.
Sok Vas and Kong Beat’s lack of choice, and their daily fear, is a common story in Cambodia. Decades after peace was achieved, so much of west Cambodia is still contaminated with landmines and there just isn’t enough safe land for returning families who need to grow crops to survive.
This is not peace. This is not safety.
"This place was a battlefield. But I can’t see underground so I don’t know for sure. What can we do? We worry, we are scared, but we have no choice.”
We urgently need to clear more land to make it safe for families in Cambodia, to build homes and to grow food.
