Aftermath of War

This image is taken at the gate of the Museum in Phnom Penh which

shows 2 of the victims of land mines.

 

United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993 brought peace - of a kind -

to a country that has been ravaged by civil war for most of the past

30 years. But war still echoes throughout Cambodia.

 

Nine-year-old Meak At is on a slat bed in Kampot Hospital. He had dug

up a landmine while playing in front of his house the day before. It

blew up in his face, and now he is blind, has lost several fingers

and may lose his arm.

 

Nobody is sure who put the landmine there. It could have been the

Khmer Rouge, or Cambodian government troops, or the Vietnamese, all

of whom have fought backwards and forwards over the area.

 

An estimated four to six million landmines are still littered

indiscriminately across the country. They are planted along village

paths, in rice paddies, around temples. No one ever made any maps,

and when the rains come, some of the plastic-bodied mines are washed

out of the ground and float across the countryside.

 

Mine-laying became part of the culture, said Ieng Mouly, Minister of

Information and chairman of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre

(CMAC). "Unfortunately, they work - they are cheap, effective and

terrifying.'' Most of the mines are Russian, Vietnamese or Chinese,

costing just a few dollars to make.

Again thankyou for the information Alec. This image is framed well between the gate posts but I would like to see it lighter and also I'd like to see more of the second wheelchair occupant.