untitled on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Pic of the Day: Children play as their mother and father harvest rice close by, on land cleared of landmines by MAG.

[Battambang province, Cambodia, 2012]

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Pic of the Day: Muxirinjinji village, Angola, 2011 

This water tower in the Angolan province of Moxico was able to be reopened after MAG cleared the surrounding area of explosive weapons.

This gave more than 1,200 people in and around the village of Muxirinjinji safe access to water.

Two anti-tank mines and six items of unexploded ordnance were removed and destroyed.


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Pic of the Day: Mr. Thu with his wife and child, at his pepper plantation in Quang Tri province, Vietnam - standing on land cleared by MAG.

Twenty-four years ago, Mr. Thu was hoeing the small piece of land his parents gave him, when he struck a bomb that had lain undisturbed for 13 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

“I didn’t know what happened,” he says. “There was a very big bang and later on I found myself covered in blood. I could hear people around me discussing how to take me to the hospital.

“We are poor now, but at that time we were much poorer. The village had no ambulance, no taxi, no motorbike, not even a bicycle. They had to carry me in a hammock for 25 kilometres to the nearest medical facility. My two hands have been blown off and my body was riddled with shrapnel.”

Working in partnership with Roots of Peace, MAG’s development partner in Quang Tri, Mr Thu’s land was identified as a priority area for an agricultural project which aims to produce commercial crops for the most in-need households in the area.

In August 2012, MAG cleared the area of land on which Mr Thu had been injured all those years ago. After two days, 11 more explosive remnants of a war that ended almost 40 years ago had been safely removed. Roots of Peace then helped the family to plant pepper trees on the land which MAG had cleared.

“MAG has helped me earn a living,” says Mr. Thu. “After the land was cleared, I planted the pepper. It will take four years for the first harvest, and then we will get one crop a year. We will use the additional income to send our children to school.”

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Pic of the Day: Land cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance by MAG in Cambodia

This photo was taken in Banteay Meanchey province, north-western Cambodia, in December 2012. The family has finished harvesting land for the day, land which had been unusable due to the hidden dangers.

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by Sean Sutton, International Communications Manager, MAG

It is nearing the end of the rain season here in Cambodia. I visited Buor Sankreak village to see life along the swollen water canal. It was a hive of activity, with men, woman and children making the most of the seasonal abundance of fish.

Some children were using baited hooks to snare small fish, others were using hand nets to scoop them out of the river. Fishermen were throwing nets every twenty metres along the channel. It was going to be a fish feast tonight.

Most of the smaller fish are left to ferment to produce ‘prahoc’, a very strong but nutritious sauce that can also be dried and preserved. Nutritious or not, this is not for me. The smell gives some indication of the taste.

Nearby, women were harvesting rice and groups of cows stood in close huddles, feeding on vibrant green grass: an idyllic setting - typical of Cambodian rural life. »

Twenty years of MAG Cambodia: timeline

» During the war in Cambodia, landmines were used both offensively and defensively. Trees providing shade and shelter, solid structures such as temple buildings, and water sources were all commonly mined to deny them to the enemy.

When the community returned to Buor Sangkreak village they discovered that the old water canal running through the village and the surrounding rice paddies, connecting two water sources, was mined. This had a massive impact on the community and affected 584 villages in the area.

“We couldn’t irrigate the paddies and give water to the cows in the dry season, so we could only grow one rice crop per year. It was really bad,” said Chuen Chorn. “It was overgrown and we couldn’t do anything.”

“Then MAG came to clear mines, and little by little living has improved.”

MAG cleared almost 50,000m² along the channel and found five anti-personnel landmines. One of MAG’s development partners, Life With Dignity, worked with the Commune Development Fund and villagers to rebuild the canal, and life in the area has been transformed.

Chuen Chorn: “We have a road and we can grow dry season rice. Things are progressing bit by bit. We can fish and we will prosper in the future. Progress ahead, progress ahead. Thank you MAG.”

Ros Sophon, 41, added: “I’m so excited about what MAG has done in my village; we have a long canal now that is very useful - especially for agriculture activities such as rice farming, fruit trees and vegetables. Now I make enough money to send my children to school.”

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Landmine clearance + development = progress in Cambodia mag-blog.tumblr.com/post/373958919…

— MAG (@MAGsaveslives) December 7, 2012

by Sean Sutton, International Communications Manager

Malai District is located in the far west of the Cambodia in Banteay Meanchey province on the Thai border. The area is developing very quickly and many people from other parts of Cambodia continue to move here due to the opportunities that exist.

Because of the close proximity to Thailand, there are many business interests in the region and the soil here is extremely fertile. This puts additional pressure on land - a huge issue in many parts of Cambodia - and more people are risking themselves by pushing into land contaminated by landmines. It is therefore no surprise that the majority of landmine accidents happen in the west of the country.

This area was controlled by the Khmer Rouge for many years and was the scene of extended periods of conflict involving the Khmer Rouge, Vietnamese and Government forces and more. The infamous K5 minebelt laid by the Vietnamese in the mid- to late-80s, covering a staggering 700 by 500 kilometres, also cuts through this area. This region has been a priority for clearance, and MAG has cleared and released a lot of highly contaminated land in the district since 1999.

Thanks to funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), MAG recently completed clearance of a vital road, opening up a large area for trade. Bulldozers and excavators are now hard at work building the road in Beanteay Timuoy village, Tuol Pongro commune.

A MAG Mine Action Team spent five months working on the project and cleared 54,046m². They found five anti-tank and 35 anti-personnel mines and also found and destroyed 10 items of unexploded ordnance.

In the commune MAG has also conducted Risk Education sessions with communities and set up an incident report network. Throughout the process they organised meetings with all partners including the community, development partners such as CFEDA (Cambodian Family Economic Development Association), to ensure that the resulting development plan was devised and implemented in an inclusive manner.

I talked to one of the many stakeholders involved in the project:

Touch Samol, 56, Chief of Bamteay Timuoy village

“This whole area was a Khmer Rouge stronghold for many years. It was an important area for them. An agreement was made in between the Khmer Rouge and the Government in 1996, and then we moved from war to development. Since then, people have been trying to build their livelihoods, setting up farms and building roads. But they were always at risk.

“The danger increased from year to year as people tried to improve their lives. They were at high risk of accidents because of the landmines. In this village there are 1,673 people, 354 families and there are 53 landmine survivors [this means that one in 32 people have been injured by mines in this village] – but many have also died: I can remember 11 who lost their lives. There was no alternative so people took risks. They were very scared but what choice did they have?

“This road we are currently rebuilding now was a very important route for food and weapons, which is why it was so highly contaminated. Khmer Rouge laid mines to protect it and the Government laid mines to block it.

“Now people are happy. Thanks to the clearance they are restoring the land and can now travel freely. The road will be vital for transporting goods from far away to the market. So you see that is important for a lot of people.

“Clearing the mines is the first development activity and is vitally important for improving our livelihoods. We can do many things to help ourselves – but we cannot clear landmines. I would like to offer my thanks to MAG and their donors.”

MAG has achieved so much throughout Cambodia and this area in particular, clearing seven out of 10 identified minefields as part of the development plan for this commune.

by Sean Sutton, International Communications Manager

» continued from part one

Still in Sam Loth District, I headed down the former minefield a little way and popped in to meet the Haeng family. It was late in the day and the sun was low. It was starting to cool and the kids were out playing on bags of corn harvested over the previous few days. A buffalo machine pulled up on the road nearby. The older boys in the family and neighbours began filling the cart with the heavy sacks.

“We have about four tons,” said Pov Heang. “This is our second harvest.”

Ten minutes later the cart puttered off and I sat down with Pov and Ngo, her 70-year-old mother-in-law.

“When we came here we were at great risk. When we tried to clear the land we found many mines. We found so many, so we couldn’t grow any crops. We were poor and so scared for the children that they couldn’t remain here. They had to stay away with my mother-in-law.

“My husband and I would work as labourers some seasons and make 15,000 riel ($5) a day, which was not enough. After MAG cleared the mines, World Vision [a development NGO] came. They helped in many ways, with seeds, agriculture training and water catchment pipes and tanks.”

This project was part of a MAG/World Vision development plan. The partners worked closely to develop plans with the community, as well as with local and national authorities. This is an integral part of MAG’s Community Liaison process.

The family now grow coconuts, mango, beans and corn. Their main cash crop is corn and Pov told me the family gets 600 riel per kilo, totalling approximately 4 million riel ($1,000) for each harvest - they grow two harvests a year.

“We still do labour work when we are not working on our own farm, but things are very different. Five children go to school, one is still too young and we can rent a tractor and plough. We have good food, our children are healthy - not sick all the time like before. After paying for everything, including our debts, we can save more than $240 a year. Soon we will be able to build a new house.”

MAG Mine Action Teams spent three months clearing 3,9991m². They found 30 landmines and 10 items of UXO (unexploded ordnance), in a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

» Read part one

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Transforming the ‘Devil’s Gardens’ #Cambodia @dfid_uk mag-blog.tumblr.com/post/371813312…

— MAG (@MAGsaveslives) December 5, 2012

by Sean Sutton, International Communications Manager

As nations gather in Geneva for the 12th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty I thought it would be appropriate to post this story as a timely reminder of the great achievements that have been made.

Sam Loth in the far west of Cambodia was, for many years, a Khmer Rouge stronghold and was heavily fought over. Fighting finally ended in 1998 and, overnight, thousands of people left camps for Internally Displaced People nearby and headed home. I remember travelling there myself a day later and being astonished at the level of landmine contamination. Families had tried to demine patches of land on the side of the road to build shelters and there were scores of accidents. Sam Loth became known as the ‘Devil’s Gardens’.

Since then Sam Loth District has understandably been a priority for MAG and many areas have been cleared. In doing so, hundreds of lives have been saved and many communities are now thriving. A few days ago I visited Phlou Meas village, which had been cleared by MAG last year thanks to funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Previously, people had been living on tiny patches of land unable to grow food and living in poverty with little hope for the future. The transformation today is stunning. Villagers are prospering and the community is buzzing with activity. Fields full of ripened corn are being harvested alongside banana plantations and fields of sugar cane. This would still be an overgrown wasteland if it wasn’t for the UK Government and the MAG teams and the people here would still be impoverished. It is a truly humbling sight.

I met Yoeurn Bunthoeurn and his family by their new home. Across the yard next to the road there was an older and much smaller wooden house that was not in a good state. “That was our house until a few months ago,” he said. “All we had was the house and this tiny bit of land here. We could not grow anything – when we tried we found mines.”

Bunthoeurn’s elderly mother interjected: “Just there.“ She pointed to a group of small plants three metres away: “Someone stood on a mine just there and died.”

Bunthoeurn continued: “Before, everywhere was mined and we would hear explosions all the time. It is very different now. Before, we felt afraid of getting injured, If I was injured, my body would not be complete, I would not be able to work, I would not be able to achieve anything. Now MAG has cleared all the mines. It is so different. I grow many things and I raise pigs. My livelihood is has improved so much.

“After MAG cleared, other people came here and helped us develop. I know the British people have helped us. There are remaining places and we must continue to clear Cambodia. The British people have helped develop Cambodia. Thank you.”

» Read part two

by Jamie Franklin

Earlier this year I made my first visits to MAG’s programmes in the Middle East and North Africa, and indeed my first ever visits to Northern Iraq, Southern Lebanon and Libya.

The first country visited was northern Iraq, or Iraqi Kurdistan. The first thing that strikes you on arriving in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, is just how different it is from the news stories you hear of Iraq. Even though I knew the difference existed before traveling, it was something else to actually see and experience it. I certainly never imagined that we would be walking around Ainkawa (the area of Erbil where MAG’s office is)  and visiting the ancient citadel, bazaars and minaret park without a single security concern.

The people are friendly, welcoming, polite and generous; always eager to speak to you about their country, history and surroundings. Each meeting or visit was accompanied by the traditional sweet tea (think sugar with tea, rather than the usual way around!) and each meal was a feast of hot flat bread, meat skewers or kebab, salad, Kurdish rice, numerous sauces (apricot, beans, tomatoes), and sliced raw onions; so much so in fact that we managed on a small breakfast and lunch as there simply wasn’t room for dinner…

But the most striking thing is the level of impact that MAG and landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance has had for the people here. Visiting now we would have overlooked some of the impact ourselves had our colleagues from the Iraq program not been there to brief us. A main road busy with traffic that MAG cleared as part of the emergency response in 2003; towns with access to water after an area for the construction of a reservoir was cleared; fields now safe for agricultural development; and a bridge we are driving over that was built by the Kurdish Regional Government three years after MAG had removed landmines, now links communities on the south side of the river. This provides easy access to medical services, reducing travel times by several hours in summer and enabling access in winter that wasn’t possible before. Other signs of development are more easily spotted, such as the building of a University on cleared land close to Chamchamal; and construction of new housing on cleared land, enabling families displaced by Saddam’s forces to return and reclaim their ancestral lands.

Despite the achievements and progress to-date a significant amount of landmine and cluster-munition contamination remains. The job is far from over and landmine and UXO clearance is needed now as much as ever in order to support the continuing return of displaced people to their land and the reclamation and revitalisation of once productive land. Iraqi Kurdistan still has a long road to travel to reach a state where landmines and UXO have no impact on its people and needs the continuing commitment and support of the donor nations in order to complete this journey

Photo (c) Sean Sutton/MAG

by Síle Sammon

My name is Síle Sammon and I have been working with MAG since September 2011 as a Media and Communications Intern. After starting with MAG Cambodia I am now based in Vientiane with MAG Laos. (In the picture below, that’s me on the left!).

I really didn’t know what to expect when I first started with the organisation. All I knew was that MAG cleared mines and UXO (unexploded ordnance)- I didn’t realise the other  aspects that MAG also carry out such as community liaison and working with development partners.

With MAG Cambodia my main task was working on MAG’s visibility materials for 11MSP (Eleventh Meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention) which was being held in Phnom Penh as well as helping MAG’s photographer Sean Sutton interview beneficiaries while he took pictures of the most recent work being carried out by MAG in Cambodia and hosting media visits to MAG’s operations.

The week spent with Sean visiting Chisang, a village in Battambang that MAG has been involved in since 1997 and various other sites was amazing and my first chance to witness mine clearance operations firsthand. I spent time with various types of clearance teams (deminers, dogs and machines), as well as amputees and beneficiaries of MAG’s work seeing firsthand the work that MAG is carrying out and how this in turn impacts on the people living in the area. (see earlier entry “Voices from Chisang”)

In the build up to the 11MSP I visited Chisang regularly and met with various members of the community. One of the people that I remember fondly was a man in his 60s who had lost his leg after stepping on a landmine near his village. This has not slowed him down as he informed me he has been married five times already. Every time I went back I could see the happier and more optimistic people became as more of the minefield was being cleared. Coming from a country that isn’t plagued by landmines or UXO I realise how much I have taken for granted being able to live in a safe and secure area where I am not constantly fearful of either myself or a loved one being hurt by an explosive. For people in Cambodia and many other parts of the world this is a fear that is being lived through every day on an ongoing basis. 

From Chisang to the 11MSP in Phnom Penh was going from one end of the spectrum to the other. This event was attended by more than 1,000 individuals representing governments, national and international demining organisations, NGOs and other members of the humanitarian mine action community. Nick Roseveare, who had just become CEO of MAG, was in attendance along with other senior MAG management. Over the course of the week various events were held by different organisations with MAG hosting a photo exhibition at their new office on the Thursday evening which was a huge success.

As well as the 11 MSP I was able to organise other events for MAG such as a month long exhibition in the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh for Mine Action Week. One particularly enjoyable task was partnering with a local training bakery to make Mine Action cupcakes which proved very popular and all sold out. I was sad when my time with MAG Cambodia came to an end as I really enjoyed the program there.