wfn.org | FEATURE: Living on a powder keg

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF World Service facilitates de-mining, resettlement in northwest Cambodia

GENEVA, 26 March 1998 (lwi) - Phat Sao runs a small fruit and drinks stand
in her village on Route No. 10 from Battambang to Pailin in northwest
Cambodia. Barely a hundred families live here - about 1,000 people -
literally on a powder keg because, half a year ago, they built their houses
on mined territory.

"We had to flee over two years ago when Red Khmer and government troops
were fighting here. They burned down our village and planted land mines.
The government forced us to come back last year, otherwise we would have
had to forfeit claims to our land", the 17-year-old explains. When fighting
between the armed groups abated, Phat Sao returned with her parents and
four younger siblings despite the risk in every step.

In the seven months they have been here there have been ten mine accidents,
three people have died, and two had limbs amputated. Those most at risk are
the young men who go to collect fruit and firewood in the woods. The
villagers will be able to plant vegetables and rice only after the area has
been de-mined. No one goes to school here - the nearest school is 30
kilometers (19 miles) away.

Since several weeks, red and white plastic ribbons have been fluttering all
over the village: the mine detectors of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) are
at work. The numbness of the villagers' feelings has disappeared since the
24 men and women in bullet-proof vests and khaki suits began working. Their
hope of living a normal life again grows as every yellow and red stick is
pushed into the earth.

"A yellow stick means that a mine has been found and destroyed, a red stick
indicates a piece of unexploded ammunition", Colin Beyer, leader of the MAG
groups in the region of Battambang, explains. "Out of a hundred pieces of
metal traced in the ground by our people's detectors, 98 are harmless
splinters or even can tabs. But you only find out once the piece has been
carefully exposed with scalpel-like instruments!"

Many sticks already have been planted in the Baset minefield closer to
Battambang. "So far, we have detected 68 mines and 97 pieces of live
ammunition", explains Scot Sam MacLloyd, who supervises the work on the
some 40,000 square meters (10 acres) of land. This is where LWF World
Service employs MAG to prepare the ground so that the villagers, who fled
and found shelter nearby, may return. The biggest problem was the removal
of vegetation - during the villagers' long absence the fields became
overgrown with bamboo thickets and trees. Now, there is only short grass -
literally every square inch has been examined.

Twelve two-person teams of young Cambodian men and women are at work, here
too. The relatively high monthly salary, considering local conditions, of
USD 200 that they receive goes with the dangerous nature of the job. "It's
not possible to use machines for de-mining in this area", MacLloyd
explains, mentioning good cooperation with the village's monks: "At times,
they even bring us something to eat! They started rebuilding the little
pagoda when we started de-mining - and it looks as if we'll finish our work
at the same time. The villagers are already preparing a big feast to
celebrate their homecoming!" Sarany Chhum, deputy coordinator of the
Integrated Rural Development Project Battambang, is optimistic: "Together
with the villagers, we have thought about what should happen next. People
build their houses themselves, they find the necessary materials in the
vicinity. But they badly need a well to irrigate their fields, and they
also want to build a schoolhouse. So, our well-boring team will arrive, and
the apprentice masons of the Vocational Training Center in Battambang -
another LWF World Service project - will help to build the school," she
said.

LWF World Service provides seed, everything else will come later. Perhaps
the villagers will decide to start up a village bank. Each participant
would regularly pay small amounts into the bank and after a few weeks could
obtain credit, for instance, to buy chicken or equipment for a small trade.
Perhaps they will consider it important to learn reading and writing
themselves and will ask LWF World Service for support for adult training
classes. "People decide for themselves what they need the most urgently and
what they themselves can contribute. We help only when they are no longer
able to continue under their own steam", says Sarany, explaining LWF World
Service's concept. "This is the only way people really assume
responsibility."

The greatest problem is whether the land is habitable. This will be solved
when the MAG hands the land over to the villagers in a festive ceremony.
Many thousands of other people are still waiting to return to their
villages or to be able to move around in them without fear - as Phat Sao
can do on Route No. 10. What are her dreams? "Not to be driven away from my
village again - to be able to visit my friends without fearfully keeping to
the well-trodden path tracks - to learn reading, writing and arithmetic and
earn a decent living."

(Editor's note: Regina Karasch, who wrote this article, works as a
journalist for the German National Committee of the Lutheran World
Federation - Main Board for Church Cooperation and World Service, in
Stuttgart, Germany. She visited Cambodia last month.)

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/