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Landmines In Cambodia

By Carl Nyberg

I volunteered for a temporary duty assignment as a United Nations military observer in Cambodia in 1993 when I was a propulsion officer aboard the USS Independence (CV-62). The United States was responsible for much suffering in Cambodia, and I was eager to do my part to improve the situation there.

I knew about the problem of landmines from reading Asiaweek, the English language magazine of East Asia. When I received orders to go to Cambodia, I went to the ship's combat information center to learn what the intelligence guys knew. They told me that a Dutch deminer had just lost his foot. That's a high price to pay for helping global neighbors.

I knew landmines were a problem, but it did not affect me until I was in Cambodia. I did not grasp the scope and impact of the landmine problem until I saw its effects for myself.

I was appalled at the suffering caused by landmines. Amputees seemed ubiquitous. Most were reduced to begging. Outside the bank a half dozen amputees would approach every customer.

The landmines seemed to be used in a very haphazard way. It wasn't the grand battlefield strategy the Pentagon philosophizes; it seemed a capricious vindictiveness.

While in Cambodia, I read an article about a woman that worked with male amputees. She taught them various skills. One of the most difficult undertakings for these men was the act of redefining themselves. In Cambodia the men define themselves by their bodies - it's an agrarian country. These men had parts of their bodies removed. Landmines destroyed their images of themselves. Some were able to create a new identity. Many couldn't.

During the second half of my time with the United Nations, I worked in Thailand. Lieutenant Steve Corley, a USN submariner, was in a vehicle that drove over an antitank mine. Steve survived. The driver, an officer from Cameroon, lost both legs and bled to death in remote Cambodia.

Even before I left Cambodia for good I began doing research about landmines. I took a vacation in Singapore and read everything I could find on landmines in the National University of Singapore library. A few points disturbed me. For one hundred years the world has been banning weapons that are indiscriminate or cause unnecessary suffering. What weapon is more indiscriminate than a landmine? If dumdum bullets cause unnecessary suffering because they amputate limbs, what's the logic for continuing to use landmines?

The use of sea mines has been restricted for almost one hundred years. Sea mines cannot be used to target merchant shipping. Free-floating mines must self-disable after one hour. No comparable restrictions exist for landmines. "Weapons That May Cause Unnecessary Suffering Or Have Indiscriminate Effects", a Red Cross International Committee report (1973), limited itself to technically analyzing weapons and the injuries they produce. It made no recommendations, but clearly stated that landmines were by nature indiscriminate.

I'm glad for the progress that has been made towards banning landmines since my time in Cambodia. However, as landmine survivors are quick to point out, banning landmines is only the first step. Humankind must care for the people, communities and societies that have been affected by landmines, and this includes the daunting task of clearing over 100 million landmines.

Carl Nyberg is a graduate of the US Naval Academy (1989). He served in Bangladesh, the Philippines & Cambodia. He is currently Midwest Coordinator for the anti-landmines campaign and a new member of VVAW.