In our five days in Cambodia, the other three members of the Lutheran World Relief delegation and I had already seen more people without arms or legs than we'd ever seen. The country's rice bowl is one of its most heavily mined areas. It served as the front line for the radical Marxist Khmer Rouge guerillas in the 1970s. I knew that when I returned to my home in the United States, I wouldn't feel this incredible fear for my safety. But for those who live in Cambodia and nearly 60 other countries, this fear is part of daily life.
Mines create a climate of fear and despair, preventing cultivation of rice on fertile land.
Hartke is the director in Cambodia for Church World Service, the relief and development arm of the National Council of Churches. This land, part of a demining project since last June, will provide farmland for 25 to 30 farm families when cleared. Those farmers have been approved for land settlement. They're so anxious to become self-sufficient that they often build temporary shelters on cleared land directly adjacent to their future farm. But we can't help families resettle and farm, we can't provide seeds and livestock until the mines are removed.