landmines

I was thinking to write something about how annoying (dangerous?) it was trying to cycle around Phnom Phen when people drive on the wrong side of the roads, dont use lights when its dark, ignore traffic lights etc... but then I was watching a programme on the national geographic channel about temples in Cambodia and I thought I would write about that instead. The programme was showing how de-mining teams were removing the land mines from around some of Cambodia’s ancient temples, it was very interesting to see how the teams go about this process. Cambodia was one of the most mined countries in the world a few years ago... now I am not so sure, but you can see the impact of land mines every day in the large numbers of people missing legs or arms... for example the other day I was cycling along and I saw a man riding a bicycle – he only had one leg... it was pretty amazing how he was managing to balance! Anyway I thought I would write about one of the stories they told on the programme.
Three brothers went into the forest to collect wood for the fire. They knew it was dangerous to go off the marked paths, but they had to get wood for their mother to cook the rice, and wood from the accessible areas had all been collected. All of a sudden there was a loud bang – one of the boys had stood on a land mine. His brothers rushed to help him... however in doing so they pulled a tripwire to a ‘pineapple’ mine... I think this was several mines all linked together. They both died... the 1st boy lived, but lost a foot... war is something evil.