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24-Aug-2005
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Landmine casualties climbing in Cambodia

Phnom Penh — The number of Cambodians hurt or killed by landmines and unexploded ordnance has soared in recent months as rising scrap metal prices tempted people to try to salvage the deadly weapons, the Red Cross said Monday.

The number of casualties rose 44 per cent in the first four months of this year to 462, compared with 320 in the same period last year, according to a report released Monday by the Cambodian Red Cross.

The rise in scrap metal prices has prompted many people to scavenge for metal parts of discarded weaponry, including unexploded shells and bombs, said Chhiv Lim, the project manager at Mine Victim Information System, which compiles data on such incidents.

“The explosions were caused by tampering with the devices … with the purpose to break them apart for sale to scrap metal buyers,” he said.

Cambodia is among the nations most heavily contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance. An estimated four to six million mines and other ordnance remain from the Vietnam War and almost three decades of internal conflict.

Last year, there were 756 casualties, including 111 deaths, from unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, said the Red Cross report.

The United Nations estimates the total number of peacetime mine victims at about 36,000.

In April this year, 20 people were killed by landmines and unexploded ordnance, compared with seven deaths in April, 2003, the Red Cross report said. Tampering with the devices accounted for 54 per cent of April's cases, it said.