De-mining efforts have been intensified in Thailand, but many say the country isn't doing enough to help victims

Surat Khongcharoen had no idea when he was planting M6-72 anti-tank mines around Tha Phraya district in Sa Kaeo (then Prachin Buri) province in 1978-79 that he would be coming back one day to de-mine the area. Several truckloads of mines were spread around border villages in Sa Kaeo to prevent the advance of the Khmer Rouge into eastern Thailand.

Sgt Maj Surat said he was not certain whether his team would be finished with the de-mining operation around Tha Phraya before his retirement in September 2011.

VICTIM: Below left, this man suffered grave injuries from a land mine.

At the time the mines were planted the area was still mostly forested or open fields, not farms and residential communities as it is now. The de-mining operation is a major undertaking and needs the co-operation of the villagers as well as NGOs. It also requires good, expensive equipment.

Today is the United Nations International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, intended to draw attention to the plight of survivors of mine accidents and promote the reduction in new casualties through operations like the one in Sa Kaeo.

Asked if he felt sorry that his actions all those years ago might have caused the maiming of many Thais, Sgt Maj Surat said he was a junior officer who was only following orders.

"We've warned villagers not to walk into zones marked with the skull-and-crossbones symbol, but sometimes they don't heed the warnings. Of course, we do feel sorry for those who have lost their legs and so forth," he said.

Sa Kaeo province bordering Cambodia has the largest group of mine survivors in the country, 256 from a total of 1,252 victims nationwide. Four districts in the province - Ta Phraya, Khok Sung, Aranyaprathet and Klong Hat - are the priority in Thailand's de-mining operations, said Lt Gen Tumrongsak Deemongkol, director of the Thailand Mine Action Centre (TMAC), a government organisation.

A NEEDED IMPROVEMENT: Many victims think the Cambodian-made prosthetic leg on the left is preferable to the Thai-made ones since there is a rubber cushion, below right.

Of about 186 million square metres (186 sq km) of mine-contaminated areas in Sa Kaeo province, 93 million sq m are still waiting to be de-mined. At least 500,000 sq m of this land must be declared mine-free by the end of this year, said Lt Gen Tumrongsak.

De-mining efforts have been intensified since Thailand joined the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, more commonly known as the Mine Ban Treaty, in December 1997.

Last year Thailand was granted another mine clearance deadline extension under the convention, to Nov 1, 2018.

"We would like to make our mine-free declarations province by province, instead of spreading our limited personnel and equipment around the country. The most dangerous and most population-dense areas will be targeted first," said Lt Gen Tumrongsak, who has been overseeing this unit for more than six years. He will hand over the job to Maj Gen Ongart Rattanawichai this month.

Three NGOs are joining the TMAC de-mining operation - the Peace Road Organisation (PRO), General Chatchai Choonhavan Foundation (GCCF) and Mekong Organisation for Mankind (MOM) - and have been designated to take over most of the work. However, the NGOs have yet to overcome financial and management shortcomings that prevent them from doing so.

LEGACY OF PAIN: Sergeant Major Surat Khongcharoen, below, showing one of the antitank mines he planted more than 30 years ago.

In compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty, Thailand completed the destruction of 342,695 of its stockpiled landmines from May 1999 through to April 2003. About 4,000 were left for training and education purposes.

Nationwide, 58,929 sq km had been considered to be possibly contaminated with mines. Using traditional manual methods, 5,501 mines were detected. A new procedure was introduced in 2007 that has helped reduce the estimated mine-contaminated area to only 551 sq km. Thanks to the new methodology, nearly 2,000 sq km has been declared safe.

But there is another very important side to this issue that relates to assistance to mine victims and their relatives and mine risk education. The umbrella NGO called Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines (TCBL) co-ordinates with TMAC to address these issues.

Thanks to the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons Act, which became law in 1994, landmine survivors could be entitled to receive services pertaining to welfare, development and rehabilitation as well as vocational counselling and advice. In concrete terms this means a monthly 500 baht subsidy and free prosthetic limbs at state hospitals.

But Wijit Phanjoh, a 54-year-old carpenter from Ta Phraya whose right leg was lost in a mine accident, has yet to receive any benefits from the Thai government. He was, however, given one free week of medical treatment, including a fitting for a prosthetic leg, at the hospital in Cambodia's Battambong province after he was injured by a Thai-planted mine four years ago while picking mushrooms at the foot of a mountain.

"People have been making jokes that I was hit by a Thai weapon but cured at a Cambodian hospital," said Mr Wijit, from Ban Khao Luk Chang. He is the latest land mine victim in Ta Phraya district and the only one who has yet to receive a disability card entitling him to the 500 baht subsidy.

Meanwhile, delays in fitting prosthetic limbs at Aranyaprathet Hospital, which is designated as the main centre to provide them, along with cumbersome procedures, have scared away many of those in need of such assistance.

Mr Wijit paid 200 baht for transportation to Battambong Hospital, only 50 baht more than he would have paid to go to the hospital in Aranyaprathet district. His prosthetic leg also has something different from the traditional Thai-made artificial legs - there's a rubber cushion to lessen or prevent pain while walking between the fibreglass leg and the muscles near his knee.

Ban Khao Luk Chang village headman Manoon Plongthong has joined villagers from his village and Ban Sa-Ngae in Tha Phraya district in calling for a prosthetic support centre in the district so disabled villagers do not have to travel so far and be made to wait so long to have limb replacements.

According to locals, the prosthetic legs provided by the Thai government usually last only one year, while the foot lasts only a few months, depending on how rough the terrain it is used on.

"April 4 is Land Mine Day, but we are still waiting for better service and our area still needs to be de-mined. It seems to us that the the Cambodians - with the support of donor dollars - are moving faster than the Thai authorities in de-mining the land along the border," said a villager from Ban Sa-Ngae, pointing across the road into Cambodia.

Aranyaprathet Hospital director Dr Veerachai Panumatrasmee conceded that there had been unnecessary complications in the process of providing prosthetic limbs and also shortages of the limbs, but said the situation was improving.

He was unsure whether another prosthetic support centre could be set up in Ta Phraya, saying it was a matter for Bangkok to decide. Hopefully before the next UN Land Mine Day we will see some positive developments in services to the survivors of land mine accidents in Thailand.


http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/35585/subterranean-menace-lurks-by-the-border