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Story: Nongluck Mytreemitr
Photos: Photography staff |
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"I'm not scared - I've never been. It's been like this since the war... I had to flee with my child in one arm, my nephew in the other, running from the sound of gunfire. It's the same now for my son... He's grown up already and has been recruited to find and salvage landmines. There are injuries and there are deaths... My eldest brother was shot and killed by a Cambodian a long time ago. My elder sister-in-law was killed by a
detonated landmine. Children, nieces and nephews... some injured, some dead. When it was my turn, I had awoken with a thud in an excavated landmine hole... there was dust everywhere... I told myself then that I couldn't die like this, not before I screamed for help..." |
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Currently, landmines are stockpiled in over 107 countries around the world totaling 100 million, not including the over 110 million that have been placed in landmine fields. Although there has been a near consensus protesting the existence of landmines, not to mention announcements made by many countries committing themselves to a cessation of landmine production, there are still 5 to 15 million landmines being produced per year. Coupled
with the fact that landmine production is cheaper than their procurement and destruction, the odds are stacked against fast achieving a mine-free world in the near future. |
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In one given day, there are an estimated 70 blasts. That is, in every 20 minutes, a landmine will have exploded, blowing off someone's arm, someone's leg, or killing a loved one. Whether the explosion occurred in Yemen, Kosovo, Angola, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Bosnia, Laos, Cambodia, or even Thailand is an unnecessary distinction. What is distressful yet important to note instead is the sobering statistic that pleads to the international
community to understand the following - 90 percent of those negatively impacted by the landmines are innocent civilians unaware of whatever war or fighting brought the deadly explosives to their homes in the first place. |
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From May 1999 until June 2001, Thailand managed to destroy a near hundred thousand landmines as a show of determination and commitment to the Ottowa Convention, which bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Considering that the landmines destroyed were the country's stockpile, and that millions of undiscovered landmines remain hidden under the ground, it represented one country's arguably meager, yet
decent start. |
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