Landmines

Cambodia's recent history is rife with devastation. In the past 50 years, it has witnessed political upheaval, invasion by the Vietnamese, bombing by the US, Civil war and genocide. The Khmer Rouge and the US military left massive amounts of unexploded ordinance behind. I visited the Cambodia Landmine Museum, founded by a former child soldier that laid mines for the Khmer Rouge who has now dedicated his life to removing them. He has personally cleared thousands of landmines. Landmines were designed to injure rather than kill, and the museum has devastating pictures of people, especially children, who lost a limb or were badly burned when encountering a mine. In rural areas, people live in fear that when going about their daily lives (collecting firewood, getting water, tending animals) the ground beneath them will explode. Although NGOs and the government are making progress, it's estimated that there are still over 6 MILLION unexploded landmines / bombs in Cambodia.