Landmines

If Cambodia should be described with three terms, "Angkor" is a clear choice. One of the two remaining options would definitely be "landmines".
Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, due to the Vietnam war which extended into Cambodia, internal fighting, the Khmer Rouge takeover and, after the Vietnamese invasion, the ongoing guerilla war between government forces and the Khmer Rouge. I actually learned, that in Cambodia's east the problem are less mines than UXO - you remember what this is? If not, read one of the Laos posts again... but the consequences are very similar...

Many mines have one clear purpose: they are not designed to kill, but just to rip away legs or arms. The logic behind: dead soldiers or civilians won't cause high costs, they will be buried and sooner or later forgotten. A wounded person, with one or several limbs amputated, is a constant burden to enemy or society. Physically, because he/she can't work fully or not at all and has to be taken care of, mentally, because the continuous sight of amputees is supposed to demoralize the enemy...
Over the years since the wars, some 60000 people have been injured or killed by landmines in Cambodia (the population now is about 14,5 million). Especially in the bigger cities they can't be overseen, people with one leg or none at all, with no hands or arms... some of them begging, as they have no other choice to make a living. In Siem Reap they are "concentrated", because from there to the Thai border are the main mine fields and as a consequence the most casualties...

There are many national and international organisations trying to work on that "issue", either by clearing mine fields (will take about 100 years to make the country mine-free), by assisting land mine survivors, by producing prostethics...
If one is interested in more information, I recommend the following pages to get a closer insight into Cambodia's biggest "problem":
www.angkorad.org , the website of a grassroot-NGO set up by a mine survivor, which has much more to offer than statistics...
www.cambodialandminemuseum.com ,
or go to the websites of "Mines Advisory Group" or "Handicap International".