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 Angelo Lawrence (National Community Liaison Manager)

Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and later Independence Day in July 2011, hundreds of thousands of returnees have arrived in South Sudan, coming back to their homeland and the homeland of their ancestors, to begin a new life. First they came in extremely large numbers, on buses, boats and planes. They had little or no knowledge of the dangers posed by these deadly items and were at high risk of accidents. MAG Community Liaison (CL) teams were there to greet them and to provide them with potentially life-saving Mine Risk Education. MAG Community Liaison Officers worked at way stations, Internally Displaced Persons camps and returnee camps, teaching them about the dangers from landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) South Sudan, and how to stay safe.

Now, the number of returnees has decreased considerably. People are still returning, but their movement is more diluted, spontaneous and sporadic. Whenever possible, MAG CL teams visit the way stations, but they can no longer stay there for long periods of time; they have lots of other work to do all over South Sudan. Teams are currently working from Yei to Yambio, from Maridi to Malakal, and from Bor to Bentiu.

So the problem was: how could these new returnees still learn about the dangers of mines and UXO, when MAG CL teams are spread all the country and can no longer spend long periods of time waiting at the way stations?

As a solution, MAG designed Safe Return Booklets. These very visual publications have photos to illustrate different landmines and UXO that can be found in South Sudan. They provide advice on what to do if an individual comes across these items during their daily activities. They also provide guidance on safe behaviour to limit the risks posed by these dangerous items. Information is available in both English and Arabic, the main languages spoken by many of the returnees.

In September, a MAG handed sixty Safe Return booklets over to UNHCR in Juba. They will be used by staff to provide safety briefings and information to newly arrived returnees when MAG teams are unavailable.

“These items will be used by UNHCR at Way Stations and other locations where returnees and refugees are located in order to promote safer behavior. Thank you to MAG for this useful resource,” said Hester Clark, a Protection Officer at UNHCR who received the items from MAG.

MAG has been working in South Sudan since 2004, carrying out mine action activities and providing crucial mine risk education to returnees, refugees and other at-risk groups.

by Sean Sutton, International Communications Manager, MAG

I have just arrived in Cambodia, a country I have been coming to frequently for 20 years. It has been a privilege to witness history and change here over this time and it is always a pleasure to return.

The trauma of the early nineties, and the legacy from the seventies, has well and truly gone. People have largely moved on from the days of the Khmer Rouge, but many are still faced with poverty and many are subsistence farmers relying on the land for their next meal.

With one of the highest numbers of landmine casualty rates in the world - there are more than 25,000 landmine amputees in Cambodia - it is clear there is still a lot of work for MAG to do here.

My visit here coincides with MAG Cambodia’s 20^th anniversary and to help mark this I am opening an exhibition of my photographs in the Foreign Correspondents Club that will run throughout December.

MAG Cambodia has achieved a great amount over the last two decades. This week I am focusing on people whose lives have been affected, and in most cases completely transformed, by MAG’s work, which is only made possible thanks to international donor support*.

Today I visited Kangkert Wat Chrap Krahm village, one of hundreds of villages where MAG has cleared land that is desperately needed by the community. I met 46-year-old Sao Sokhorn with some of her children by their makeshift tailor shop. Behind it they are constructing a new, large shop.

“We came here in 2000 to escape poverty and build a new life,” she told me. “But we found that a lot of the land we had bought was mined, so it was much harder than we expected. We could build a house but we couldn’t grow food here.

“We farmed land a long way from here, so we managed. One daughter, Chreb, got a job as a tailor and seamstress’s apprentice, another as a hairdresser. But later it was hard for them to work, so we set up this simple shop here.

“MAG came and cleared land for the people of the village. They finished work last year, and now my husband and I have been able to grow a good crop of corn worth more than $1,100. Once it was safe, a non-governmental organisation called World Vision was also able to come and help us with agriculture, and we received training, advice and assistance.”

Partnerships with other NGOs is a key part of how MAG’s activities link with broader development objectives. By taking this approach, we help to improve the outcomes of these activities, as land is made safe.

Sao Sokhorn continued: “We are now able to build a proper shop where my daughters will work. The shop will cost about $600 to build. We have great plans and are very happy. This will be a one-stop shop for people who need to go to special events like weddings and religious ceremonies, and there is nothing like it in the area.

“They will be able to buy a fitted outfit and have their hair and nails done at the same time. An outfit will cost about $60, depending on style.

“So now, thanks to the help from MAG, I know we won’t be poor any more and my children and grandchildren have a chance of a bright future. I am happy and I thank you all.”

* Without funding from the following donors, MAG’s work in Cambodia could not be carried out: ACE; Actiefonds Minjnen Ruimen; Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Life with Dignity; Finn Church Aid and the Government of Finland; Manx Landmine Action;  Medico International; NVESD HD R and D Program; Quaker Peace & Social Witness; The Hurvis Foundation; The Rainbow World Fund; The Rowan Charitable Trust; UKaid (UK Department for International Development); US Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Pic of the Day: Born on a former minefield, Sri Lanka, 2012. on Flickr.

Abishan was born on land cleared by MAG in the village of Devapuram in Mannar district, north-west Sri Lanka.

Devapuram’s residents were forced to flee during the country’s conflict, as a result of escalating clashes between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka Army.

When they returned, they found their homes destroyed and their farmland contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance.

For more on MAG’s operations in Sri Lanka, please look at www.maginternational.org/srilanka.

by Sean Sutton

I’m Sean Sutton and I’m MAG’s Communications Manager and photographer. Currently, I’m working in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a month to document the impact of armed violence - especially the remnants of war - and the work MAG is carrying out here.

The first leg of my mission was to Bas Congo, a region south and west of the capital Kinshasa. A narrow strip pushes out to the coast where it is only 20 kilometres wide, sandwiched between Angola to the south and Angolan Cabinda to the north. The area close to the sea has vast oil reserves and is very important for both countries.

This is also where the mighty river Congo meets the sea. Ships travel up river to Matadi where there is a huge port. This stretch of river is very dramatic and the scenery is stunning. It is well documented in a number of books describing Stanley’s exploration to map the Congo for King Leopold in the 1800s.

MAG is working on a minefield that stretches across about a kilometre of relatively flat ground. The land was mined in 1974 to stop attacks by rebel forces in Cabinda, as it is the only area where tanks could cross as the other parts of the border is made up of steep gullies that are impassable in a vehicle.

The team of deminers is made up of serving soldiers serving with the FARDC, the national army. This is the case with some parts of the MAG DRC programme as we work towards developing a national capacity that can operate to international standards. The team are employed by MAG and supported by a Technical Field Manager, a medic and drivers.

The MAG tented base camp is just a few hundred metres from the minefield. The Technical Field Manage Daniel Dobbs doesn’t find it easy but is keen to get the work done. He has built a small gym for himself out of wood to keep fit and lives on imported Portuguese chorizo, which most likely comes from Angola.

The work is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and when clearance has been completed it will be handed to the local community. I met three women, Pitu, Kunji and Fyuti who were harvesting cassava leaves in their field right next to the minefield. Their village was only about 400 metres away across a gully.

When I asked them about MAG’s work there and how it will help them they were ecstatic. “We thank MAG. We thank MAG so much,” Kunji said. “We know what mines can do. They can cut of your hand or your foot. It is very dangerous here. This is a very good place for mushrooms and now we will be able to collect them.”

by Julie Claveau

On July 1, Burundi will celebrate 50 years of independence. And a few weeks later it will be MAG Burundi’s milestone of five years in country.

What started as a six-month project in 2007 rapidly expanded to a full programme with a wide-range of activities once MAG realised the sheer size of the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) problem. Burundi is one of the poorest and least developed countries located within one of the most unstable regions of the world. The post conflict situation not only resulted in the illicit proliferation of SALW, but also a weak management of legal state-owned weapons and ammunition stocks. And many studies recognise that the main source of illegal weapons in Africa is unsecure state stocks.

Having managed the programme for the last three and a half years, I have seen the evolution of our operations, from the Police to the Army, as well as supporting civilian disarmament and humanitarian mine action. We are trying to target every sector that can feed the illegal proliferation of SALW, and this way hope to contribute to a reduction in armed violence. And if we have been able to do this, it is thanks to the full support of the Burundian authorities. Few countries in the world allow NGOs and foreigners to enter their national weapons and ammunition stocks to survey them, collect items for destruction and rehabilitate them. Burundi should be congratulated for its tackling of the SALW issues. And I feel proud to have contributed to this.

If everything goes according to plan, MAG should be leaving Burundi at the end of 2013, once we have helped the Police and the Army to improve their stocks to a satisfying level, and build a capacity so that the work can continue once we are gone. A crucial activity that remains is the training of armourers and inspectors. As the programme marks five years in the country, I hope we can secure the funding that will ensure the sustainability of our actions.

by Marysia Zapasnik

To mark the International Day of the African Child MAG Community Liaison teams visited the Juba Orphanage for a fun afternoon together. Thirty-seven children live there aged two to 12. We gave them a child friendly Risk Education session which included songs, dances, games and lots of action and energy.

“We want to……..STAY SAFE!” sang the CL teams and children together.

We gave the children pictures to colour with safety messages about not touching dangerous items, looking after each other and playing only in safe places. We helped the children decorate their dormitory walls with these colourful pictures and asked each to tell us a safety message they could pass on to their friends.

“I will tell my friend Sekina to tell an adult if she sees something she does not know what it is,” explained 8 year old Kani.

Face painting, bubble blowing, and balloon volleyball we also part of the fun afternoon, as was a picnic with juice and biscuits, underneath the mango tree. The community liaison teams also had their faces painted. “We are also African children,” said CLM Angelo Lawrence. “It is a day for all of us to have fun together”.