Landmine Wrangling

We visit Cambodia to find Landmines with a group of brave people trying to make their home a safer place. Oh, and we got to set one off!

Cambodia is one of the most heavily land mined countries in the world.
Getting ready to go find some land mines
Lucky fingers
Map of explored territory. As it was mainly children laying them during the war, there is no general pattern to follow when finding them as no laying plans were recorded. The process is done with metal detectors, flak jackets, protective gear and once a mine is located, it is gently dug around with a knife and then blown up with additional TNT.
We have no idea why Ham is in charge of the equipment!
Andy learns the technique of digging up a landmine
A bloke called Aki Ra heads up a local team who devote their lives to reclaiming the Cambodian land taken over by mines.
Landmine sign
Aki Ra (2nd from left) was conscripted at 12 years old to lay land mines for the Khmer Rouge. After peace broke out in the late 1990s, Aki Ra wanted to turn this around and therefore taught himself how to clear mines himself (using nothing but a knife and a stick).
The team who find on average 4 landmines per day
We found one and exploded it by rigging it with explosives and standing 60m away.
We met some great people risking their lives to make their land safe in Cambodia

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