Photographers bear witness to Cambodia's landmine legacy

Photographers bear witness to Cambodia's landmine legacy As part of international efforts to increase awareness around the impact of landmines, organisations working on the issue in Cambodia are turning to art, particularly photography, to illustrate the devastating legacy of unexploded ordnance that remain in the Kingdom even decades after the official end of armed conflict. Funded by foreign aid agencies of Belgium, Spain, Austria and Australia, Handicap International has worked to train teachers in supporting amputees and provided healthcare support in the rural provinces where mine injuries are most common. Handicap International also took the opportunity last week to commend the work of Spain's Agency for International Development Cooperation and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre. " . The organisations are two of many that conduct mine and ordnance clearing operations in Cambodia's provinces. "I hope people can leave the exhibition with hope and the belief that together we will be able to really make a difference. "It is important to illustrate what the problem and impact is, as well as showing what has already been achieved. Many of his photographs show MAG workers clearing landmines. Attending Fatal Footprint's closing at Meta House last week was John Rodsted, a photojournalist and part of a team that earned a 1997 Nobel peace prize for their work promoting an anti-landmine treaty. Rodsted didn't pull his punches when discussing the continuing impact of unexploded ordnance on Cambodian society. In an economy dominated by agriculture, and a rush to seize up the country's free land, the threat of dormant munitions left over from the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge still looms large, he said. "Think about how much it costs to bomb a country," Rodsted beseeched his audience. In 2010, the groups helped clear 5,500 mines from Kratie, Srav Vieng and Kampong Cham provinces in Cambodia's east, rendering 2. As for the upcoming exhibit at the InterCon, Sean Sutton says that despite its emotive and somewhat depressing topic, the exhibition isn't intended to stir feelings of doom and gloom. Multiply that figure by 200,000. Now think about how much money is available to clean up the mess. "In Cambodia, there is still the legacy of mines, still the legacy of unexploded ordnance from a war that ended 37 years ago and yet continues today. Sutton, who has photographed conflict and its wider impact in a number of other countries across the globe, said he tried to capture issueslike these through his photographs, which he was asked to display as part of MAG's work raising international awareness on the issue. MAG may not be the only organisation using photography to call attention to the issue of landmines in Cambodia. The shots reveal the scars, fears and in some cases, sheer determination of people living around and about impact zones, such as those in one village Sutton witnessed and photographed trying to make new rice fields in a known minefield. "People do that because they have no choice: use the minefield at risk of death or loss of limbs or go hungry," said the photographer. Any community growth and development is stunted by unearthed minefields, he said. Last week marked the closing of Fatal Footprint, a unique outdoor photo exhibition mounted on Sothearos Boulevard to commemorate Handicap International's 30th anniversary of operation in the country. The pictures depicted ordinary people in Cambodia and Laos going about their daily business: tilling a field, eating dinner or lying in bed. Photographers bear witness to Cambodia's landmine legacy Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 04/04/2012