After the bitter 30-year civil war and unrest ceded just before the Millennium, Cambodia was left with millions of landmines which were put in the ground by a variety of warring armies. The ceasefire didn't effect the killing and maiming potential of landmines, daily victims occur ever since. Those kept killing or dismembering cattle and people at random day after day and their latent danger doesn't vanish with time. Mines keep their killing potential for very long times!
Hardest hit are the territories bordering Thailand, that area was also the last stand of the infamous "Khmer Rouge" killer hordes. So many different armies fought the bloody wars, invaders from Vietnam also played a major force in them. Everyone used landmines and no one kept track of where they were put. School-kids were victimized on their way to and from school, no step was safe outside the beaten path and secured zones. NGOs tasked the dilemma and they scored a limited success. Minesweepers were immediately deployed and grid-mapped troubled areas, local units were educated and large areas were cordoned off unsafe or staked out with red painted minefield markers.
Most public areas and territories around touristic attractions can be considered safe now. Thanks to the enduring effort of humans involved here. Much has been done and quite some sweeping task accomplished, but mines are an ever present danger and will remain this for a some more decades of intensive mine sweeping. Some areas were cleared and are considered safe now, but experts estimate another hundred years for Cambodia to be considered mine-free again.Next to landmines, unexploded ordnance and bombs or grenades do yield danger potential just as well, they also have to be dug out carefully and defused or dissembled by specialists.
The are along the Thai border is considered densely mined, some floods or erosion may have even moved the mines and spilled them on Thai soil! Minesweepers have been visited by the author in the Provinces of SaKeo and Buriram. There are areas in Chantaburi and Trat as well as in SiSaKet Provinces, which are also considered unsafe to trespass for humans. Mine clearance there is on it's way. Thai territory will be mine free in the near future.
If you encounter any warning signs, please pay attention and do not venture into the wild. The unsafest spot may be right under your foot doing the next step. If you find any unexploded ordnance, please see immediate help from local authorities, they have the proper personnel and channels to deal with this. The below picture shows me with my Austrian friend Stefan P. in Cambodia, where he got the crash course in dealing with these matters. Stefan is a professional Teacher at some college near Vienna and a certified pilot instructor in his regular time. He made a tremendously gifted travel companion for me during our excursions into rural Cambodia.
My son Frank jr. is displaying a mockup built from a defused anti-personnel-mine. Junior accompanied me a few years back on a number of trips and had shown great interest in landmines and especially de-mining activities. You can see it won't take much to hide such a device in any ground and the aren't any less lethal as the bigger ones. They trigger at around 10 pounds of pressure on the top part, any human will enforce much more with every step they take.
UXO or unexploded ordnance falls into the same dangerous category. A fired artillery shell or a grenade remains "hot" until safely defused, dismantled or simply blown up by secondary devices. Field teams of sweepers hate them a lot and extreme caution has to be the utmost priority in dealing with them. Often they cannot be defused on-site, blowing them up or transporting the dangerous explosives to a safe dump or special lab are the common valid options. This dump here shows the daily finds from one single specialist-team in Cambodia:
Don't let a corroded exterior fool you, the dangerous mechanisms and chemicals are well protected inside, just waiting to ignite! Bombs are hard to identify, they are usually partly or completely buried. Call for professional help or notify authorities should you encounter any such objects! Do never touch or handle them yourself!
Divers, please beware when doing your recreational dives in the Gulf of Thailand near Cambodia or in Cambodian waters. Naval ordnance has been discovered near coral reefs, there is still plenty of it unexploded and rotting away on the sea-bed. Some reefs or even rocks and islands have doubled in the past as naval targets, it can't be considered safe until checked by professional divers and Navy staff.
Any landmine and unexploded ordnance must be handled by experienced de-mining specialists. retired armed forces engineers and explosive-handlers make up a large percentage of the volunteer force that is aiding the NGOs in their tasks to make this country safe again. Other specialists worry about geopositioning and gridmapping the questionable turf. Anti-tank mines are rare, and the Cambodian train from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville doesn't require to push a ballast wagon in front of the diesel engine anymore. This was a common procedure up to the millennium and saved a number of expensive diesel engines!
The airfield of Koh Kong had an incident, where the domestic inaugural flight from Phnom Penh hit a mine on the dirt runway. Nobody gut hurt then and any damage was restricted to the wheel of the airplane. This incident however marked the end of civil aviation in Koh Kong, just after the inauguration of it. Airplanes are a treasured commodity in Cambodia and minefields don't make perfect runways.
Modern mines, like the directional "Claymore" mine were not widely available then. and pose no danger in this scenario. Their added danger is that they can be triggered by trip-wire, infrared beam or other sophisticated ways, they rarely are dug in but can be used in many ways from overhead to any possible upright position. My son Franky is displaying Claymores here:
Clamores are not found in Cambodia for a long time now, their defensive Character and high price made their presence here a rarity, they pose however a big danger in other worldwide theatres and are due to their directional killing potential a very dangerous object to deal with.
Hundreds of small steel balls or bullets are encased in a single Claymore-mine, the load behind them blasts them to a given direction, hence the term "directional mine".
The 700 steel balls are propelled by the mines C4 load to a high speed of about 1200 m/sec. The projected shrapnell pattern is 2 m high, about 60 degrees in an arc-shaped pattern and very effective up to 50- 100 m in range. M18A1 is their military code and they are worldwide used and copied. They are said to be slowing an enemies pursuit-speed and efficiency in times when forward deployed teams are withdrawing and being hunted. Their ease of operation and fool-proof setup with so-called "command detonation options" brought them out of the "victim triggered" reach of international mine-treaties and landmine-bans.
Most of the horrific landmines in Cambodia are of Chinese or Vietnamese origin, they were used very uncontrolled and deliberately by all war parties. The lack of metal on some models makes it hard for clearance-teams to identify a hidden mine. Areas with a high landmine probability still put a stranglehold on agriculture and the people. Please be careful and use extreme caution when you see the specialists doing their hard work.
© by Frank P. Schneidewind
