Like swords into plowshares

Thanks to Lutheran support for clearing land mines in Thmey, Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia, Khan Trang (right) and her husband, Yoy Yon (left), safely grow vegetables to sell at market and feed their five children.

Story by Chham Rivann and Margaret F. Sadler
The Lutheran (USA)
February 2008 issue

In Cambodia, Lutherans help replace land mines with vegetables, fruits

Morm Saveurn, 46, his wife, Mou Ly Viseth, and their six children live in Kam Prong, a remote village in northwest Cambodia’s Battambang Province. Saveurn and Viseth (both former soldiers) left the capital, Phnom Penh, and returned home a little more than 10 years ago. Saveurn still works part time as a soldier (10 days a month) but also depends on farming for the family’s income.

Home is the site of a former battlefield, where Khmer Rouge troops fought those of the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments. Battambang is the most heavily mined province in Cambodia. From January 2004 to August 2005 alone, Battambang recorded 458 casualties from undetected land mines. Current estimates place 4 million to 6 million land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered across Cambodia—threats to lives, limbs and economic recovery.
Since hostilities ceased in 1997, some 40,000 people have lost limbs to mines in Cambodia.

A Lutheran World Federation partner, the U.K.-based Mines Advisory Group, is one of the country’s main
de-mining operators. The group has spent the last five years clearing nearly 4 million square yards of land in Battambang. In the first half of 2007, the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System reported 232 victims—a 28 percent decrease from the same period in 2006.

Since 1979 the LWF Department for World Service has worked in Cambodia, taking an approach to sustainable development that empowers vulnerable groups such as poor farmers, female-headed households, landless families, returnees, internally displaced people, rural youth and people affected by HIV/AIDS in remote and isolated areas.

Farmers risk death, maiming

Like Saveurn, 85 percent of Cambodia’s 13.9 million people depend on subsistence farming. Undetected land mines threaten their survival. “All of us in this village do not feel safe,” he said. “When I came here for the first time I found mines. As a soldier, I knew what they were.”

So far Saveurn’s family has been lucky. “Over the last few years eight people in the village have had land mine accidents, with seven of them becoming amputees because of their injuries,” he said.

De-mining is a consultative process between villagers and mine-clearance partners. After village proposals for land clearance have been accepted, the Department for World Service selects and trains community members to help clear the mines, said Mey Sarun, the agency’s project manager in Battambang. The work can involve clearing brush, using various detection devices and detonating smaller explosives.

During the work, LWF staff help build the confidence and capacity of mine-affected households and communities, empowering people to exercise their civil rights. Staff also help residents plan and carry out projects that address issues such as food security, education and 
HIV/AIDS.

In Kam Prong alone, Mines Advisory Group, with funding from FinnChurchAid through the LWF, cleared 70,272 square yards of land from April to June 2007, freeing it for resettlement and making it safe for 29 families comprising 142 people. From January 2003 to mid-2007, the mine clearance work of the LWF and MAG in
 Battambang had benefited 8,380 families consisting of around 41,900 men, women and children.

Fruits and vegetables

Saveurn hopes workers will soon be able to clear additional mines from his land. “My plan is to grow some fruits,” he said. “I plant soya beans from July to October and other beans from January to April. I also grow cabbages, cucumbers, chilies and eggplants. But I still really worry about mines on the rest of the land, which [has yet] to be cleared.”

To the community-based work of groups like LWF and Mines Advisory Group, he would like “to say thank you. After the [land] has been cleared it is safe to cultivate. Then we can plant some fruits and vegetables without the fear of land mines that could kill or injure us.”

Saveurn’s wife, Viseth, said clearing the mines makes a world of difference for the children too. “They are so happy now—they know that some of our land is safe for them to play on. ... It makes me happy to see that they are happier.”