From correspondents in Phnom Penh
Agence France-Presse
TWO Cambodian boys were killed and seven other children seriously wounded when a grenade they had found exploded while they were playing it.
The boys, aged nine and 12, died instantly in yesterday's blast, said Tep Mean, governor of Phnom Srouch district, where the accident happened some 65km from the capital Phnom Penh.
The children had been watching a herd of cattle when they found the grenade, he said.
"They wanted to make a game out of the bomb, which was left over from the war, but it exploded and killed them," he said today.
Cambodia is recovering from nearly three decades of conflict which only formally ended in 1998, but millions of mines and other pieces of ordnance are still strewn across the country.
Organised mine clearing efforts began in 1992 and 252 square-kilometres have so far been cleared.
Intensive public education campaigns have also dramatically reduced the number of mine casualties.
But roughly 2900 square-kilometres of mine-infested land remains, while extreme poverty forces many to try to salvage the deadly munitions for small amounts of money.
The boys, aged nine and 12, died instantly in yesterday's blast, said Tep Mean, governor of Phnom Srouch district, where the accident happened some 65km from the capital Phnom Penh.
The children had been watching a herd of cattle when they found the grenade, he said.
"They wanted to make a game out of the bomb, which was left over from the war, but it exploded and killed them," he said today.
Cambodia is recovering from nearly three decades of conflict which only formally ended in 1998, but millions of mines and other pieces of ordnance are still strewn across the country.
Organised mine clearing efforts began in 1992 and 252 square-kilometres have so far been cleared.
Intensive public education campaigns have also dramatically reduced the number of mine casualties.
But roughly 2900 square-kilometres of mine-infested land remains, while extreme poverty forces many to try to salvage the deadly munitions for small amounts of money.
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