Disabled person sits near the prostheses at a rehabilitation centre in Phnom Penh May 24,2006. More than 30 years since the end of the Vietnam War, more and more people in impoverished Cambodia are being killed trying to cut up unexploded bombs and shells to sell as scrap metal, a report said on May 24. REUTERS/Chor SokuntheaBy Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH, May 24 (Reuters) - More than 30 years since the end of the Vietnam War, more and more people in impoverished Cambodia are being killed trying to cut up unexploded bombs and shells for scrap metal, a report said on Wednesday.
According to the latest update from the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the country's main mine-clearing agency, there were 506 casualties from unexploded ordnance (UXO) in 2005, compared to 391 in 2000.
Despite public education campaigns telling farmers and children in particular not to go near -- let alone cut up -- any bombs, most of which were dropped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, the message does not appear to be sinking in.
"Almost all the UXO victims are poor villagers who break the bombs apart because they need the metal to sell," action centre spokesman Leng Sochea said.
One kg of scrap sells for about $0.25, but with more than a third of the country's 13 million people living on $1 a day or less, many are forced to play a deadly game of Russian roulette in order to survive.
The trend is such that in the past five years, unexploded wartime bombs and shells have killed or injured more people than landmines in what is regarded as one of the most heavily mined nations on earth.
According to the mine action centre, the number of landmine-related casualties dropped to 359 in 2005, compared to 467 five years previously.
It did not say how many of those were fatal, but previously nearly half have ended in deaths. Children make up about a quarter of all victims.
As many as 6 million landmines are thought to lie near or along Cambodia's borders, a legacy of the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge and years of Vietnamese and Cambodian government fighting against the remnants of Pol Pot's guerrilla army.
In the northern province of Oddar Meanchey, a former Pol Pot stronghold, at least 27 people have been killed in the past six months in three separate incidents involving anti-tank mines.
After destroying 1.6 million mines in the past decade, the government has the ambitious target of becoming a "mine-free" nation by 2015.
Continued funding for its own operations, as well as those of British agencies such as the Mines Advisory Group and HALO Trust, remains the crucial issue.
"Our journey to make Cambodia free of landmines remains a big challenge because it is technical, financial and expert," mine action centre director Khem Sophoan said.
According to the latest update from the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the country's main mine-clearing agency, there were 506 casualties from unexploded ordnance (UXO) in 2005, compared to 391 in 2000.
Despite public education campaigns telling farmers and children in particular not to go near -- let alone cut up -- any bombs, most of which were dropped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, the message does not appear to be sinking in.
"Almost all the UXO victims are poor villagers who break the bombs apart because they need the metal to sell," action centre spokesman Leng Sochea said.
One kg of scrap sells for about $0.25, but with more than a third of the country's 13 million people living on $1 a day or less, many are forced to play a deadly game of Russian roulette in order to survive.
The trend is such that in the past five years, unexploded wartime bombs and shells have killed or injured more people than landmines in what is regarded as one of the most heavily mined nations on earth.
According to the mine action centre, the number of landmine-related casualties dropped to 359 in 2005, compared to 467 five years previously.
It did not say how many of those were fatal, but previously nearly half have ended in deaths. Children make up about a quarter of all victims.
As many as 6 million landmines are thought to lie near or along Cambodia's borders, a legacy of the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge and years of Vietnamese and Cambodian government fighting against the remnants of Pol Pot's guerrilla army.
In the northern province of Oddar Meanchey, a former Pol Pot stronghold, at least 27 people have been killed in the past six months in three separate incidents involving anti-tank mines.
After destroying 1.6 million mines in the past decade, the government has the ambitious target of becoming a "mine-free" nation by 2015.
Continued funding for its own operations, as well as those of British agencies such as the Mines Advisory Group and HALO Trust, remains the crucial issue.
"Our journey to make Cambodia free of landmines remains a big challenge because it is technical, financial and expert," mine action centre director Khem Sophoan said.
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