Anti-Tank mine explodes, killing 6 in Cambodia

About six farmers were killed on the spot and another one seriously injured after a home-made tractor ran onto an old anti-tank mine in northwestern Preah Vihear province, police chief confirmed Thursday. The accident occurred in a forest in Chom-ksan district when the tractor hit the old mine on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. local time and triggered the explosion, the police chief of Preah Vihear province, said. “All the victims are men. they returned from their rice fields by a tractor together. “The injured man is still in critical condition–less hope to survive.” He said the area is a former battlefield and landmines have not been cleared from the forest yet. It was the second remarkable accident within two weeks. The first one occurred on July 31 when a buffalo-cart hit an old anti- tank mine in northwestern Oddor Meanchey province, killing a father and his two children on the spot. Cambodia is one of the world’s worst countries suffered from landmines. An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998. According to the figures of the Cambodian Mince Action Center, from 1979 to June this year, about 19,670 people had been killed by landmines and 44,598 others were injured. Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mince Action Center, said that the country had cleared and destroyed about 3.1 million landmines and unexploded ordnances as of June this year. The country needs about 50 million U.S. dollars a year until 2020 to entirely get rid of all types of anti-personnel mines.