Working in the fields isn’t typically
considered a dangerous job. But with plantations still littered with unexploded
ordnance, some Cambodians are looking for companies to step up.
Frustration
grips Von Tha’s face as she fumbles with a hand that no longer works. Ron Run
says that seeing his wife’s physical and mental struggle has, for him, been one
of the hardest parts of the family’s ordeal. Two months since the explosion at
a cassava plantation in Kratie, and the group of five are still feeling its
effects. It’s a case that underscores the danger for workers at contaminated
sites.
In
Cambodia, companies and landowners can choose whether or not to clear areas
used for commercial purposes such as agriculture, mining or ecotourism. With
improved access to previously difficult to reach areas comes increased economic
interest in utilising the land. Accidents on land used for enterprise
illustrate the importance of ensuring known-risk areas are cleared of explosive
remnants of war (ERW) before workers can enter the site and start tilling the
soil.
Run
explains that he, his wife Von Tha, brother-in-law Kith Ol and two nephews Ann
Yong and Et En, arrived to work at the farm in Kratie’s Snoul District a few
days before the March 17 accident. The family stood around a fire, cooking
dinner after a long day in the fields, when flames suddenly engulfed the group.
The explosion was caused when the heat detonated an explosive remnant. All five
people needed medical treatment. Tha and her brother Ol were standing the
closest and were critically injured. Run and his two nephews, Yong and En, were
standing further back, but were still badly burnt and their skin was shredded
by shrapnel.
Jan
Erik Støa, Norwegian People’s Aid Program Manager Mine Action Cambodia, says
that regulations should be implemented to protect people from working on
hazardous sites.
“There’s
no legal obligation for the landowners to do anything,” he says. “What happens
is that people start working and if there is an accident, there is no one to
take responsibility. This is best addressed if you havea national law, like a
law to use a helmet or to have registration on your vehicle.”
Placing
regulations on clearance activities in known contaminated areas was recommended
by Støa, who says that when land is being used for commercial purposes, it
should be mandatory to conduct clearance using an approved operator. Then, if
there is an accident, the land owner or developer responsible for the clearance
would have to compensate victims of ERW in the work place. At the moment,
there’s no protection for workers or a policy for ensuring that they are paid
damages.
In
addition to coping with serious personal loss and physical trauma, accident
victims are put in debt at precisely the time they have no income. This is
especially problematic for people who are living at subsistence level, like Run
and his family. Run commented that the couple would make a combined total of
$7.50 each day at the plantation. The cost of one hospital bed per night was
almost as much as their daily combined income. Tha’s medical bill was around
$500. Gratefully, he says that two charities stepped in to cover these
expenses. Run borrowed an additional $375 from a friend, for food and living
costs while they were unable to work and said he will do his best to repay this
debt.
“It’s
hard for me. I worry about my wife. Before the accident Tha could move
normally. Now she cries a lot about things she can no longer do. She still
cannot move her hand and this is very upsetting for her,” Run reflects. “Making
life harder is the fact we owe money. Everything is difficult at the moment.”
By
Run’s estimations, the farm where the accident took place in Snoul covers
around 30 hectares,with 20 people working there. Bombing data of Snoul shows a
saturation of ordnance and cluster bomb strikes. WhenRun and his family members
arrived, they were unaware the site was contaminated. Since their accident,
another worker has reported finding a cluster bomb at the site. “They still
work because they are far from home and need the money. They can’t be choosy.
These workers have no connection to an organization so when they find one [an
ERW] they just leave it there and tell their friends,” Run says.
The
survivor agreed that companies should be required to professionally clear any
explosive remnants from land being used for commercial purposes. He added that
if he wasn’t approached with a job offer after the accident, he would have
returned to work at the plantation where he was injured.While the survivor was
under the impression the plantation had been cleared since the accident, a call
to demining operators working in the region showed this wasn’t the case.
Whether it has been cleared or not, driven by the desperation that is linked
with lack of options, workers are willing to risk their lives by knowingly
working on contaminated land.
So when
it comes to workplace safety, where should the responsibility lie?
H.E.
Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, says that
companies may try to demine themselves but will not thoroughly demine, only
dealing with explosive remnants at surface level, or contract a third party to
undertake clearance work.
“Owing
to the economic cost, companies less worried about being professional are more
likely to use cheap ways of demining or use their own excavators until one day
there is an accident,” he says. “There’s no enforcement due to limited
resources and inadequate legal grounds to hold landowners to account.” He
stresses that safety regulations should be required for companies and that
strong enforcement needs to be effectively and actively pursued by all relevant
sectors before the land can be extensively used.
One
example of the way land is cleared to create farming areas is hiring someone
with an excavator. Mung Long does this kind of work. Most of his contracts have
been along the road from Kampong Cham to Kratie where he regularly unearths
cluster bombs and other explosive remnants. “When I find them, I put them in a
pile and put more earth on them. In the 10 years that I’ve been doing this,
I’ve found a lot of things and I always report the findings to the village
chief.”
Land
pressure for enterprise in Cambodia is causing people to push into areas that
have never been surveyed or cleared.East of the Mekong the explosive legacy is
largely left over from the Vietnam War. From 1965 to 1973, the United States
dropped 2,756,941 tons of bombs over central and eastern regions in an attempt
to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, more than was unleashed by the Allies in all of
World War II. Another significant element of Cambodia’s explosive legacy is
landmines. These are mainly concentrated in Western Cambodia, but landmines also
litter other regions; a result of decades of civil wars that presents a
hazardous situation for today’s workers.
In
Vietnam, laws exist that require land to be declared safe before being
utilized. These regulations mean that anyone who wants to build or use land for
agricultural purposes must get a certificate from the provincial authority to
say that the land is free from ERW. Støa said that Cambodia could have a
similar system. “This should be initiated by the Cambodian Mine Action and
Victim Assistance Authority which is the national authority and it should be
supervised and followed up by police.”
He
points out that instead of requiring a clearance certificate for every plot of
land, as in Vietnam, the results of the Baseline Survey (due for completion in
December) could be used to flag suspected hazardous areas. Hesuggests that any
commercial activity within known dangerous areas could then be assessed. “You
could easily implement a system by January 2013 that regulates the development
of land for any purpose by requiring people to contact CMAA. If the land is
known to be dangerous, then clearance action should be obliged and if it’s
outside of hazardous areas then people could go ahead with their activities.”
H.E.
Prum Monkol, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim
Assistance Authority (CMAA), agrees with the need for better protection of
workers. He believes that CMAA should start this process by drafting
regulations. “If a law was passed, then an inclusion to Cambodian Mine Action
Standards could be written stating that no land shall be released for
commercial purposes until such time that a legal certificate of clearance is
obtained by the developer after clearance has taken place.”
But
while approving of the need to create regulations, he says he’s concerned about
the people who could be negatively impacted by tighter controls on clearance.
“One thing to be considered is that private landowners might not have the funds
to pay for commercial clearance,” he says. “Thus creating a situation where
landowners can’t use their own land. I am referring to the poorer people here
and not rich landowners.”
It’s
important to consider the implications of such laws on poorer farmers.
Landowners earning just enough to live on running a small farm could be
bankrupted by adding clearance to their list of costs. Any laws would have to
be crafted to ensure less wealthy individuals can still be engaged in
small-scale agricultural investments. While the potential impact on poorer
farmers must be measured, if a system such as the one described above was
introduced, then there would be protection in place for people like Run and the
rest of his family. Laws on commercial clearance would effectively give victims
the right to seek compensation. If the developer or landowner, by law, was
supposed to certify clearance of ERW and then there was an accident, a new
level of accountability would be created.
With
limited work prospects, Run has been considering going back to work at the
cassava plantation where the accident took place. Earlier this month, he was
approached with a job offer. Cambodian Harvest Dried Fruit based in Phnom Penh
employs landmine and ERW accident survivors and aims to empower these
individuals to be able to support themselves. He’s staying in Phnom Penh, while
Tha recently returned to their village in Prey Vieng after her second
skin-grafting operation in the country’s capital. Tha is still unable to work.
She waits with a mixture of frustration and hope to be well enough to do
everything she was once capable of.
Gemima
Harvey
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