Tun Channareth, the 42-year-old Cambodian amputee ambassador of the International Campaign to Ban Land mines (ICBL), who goes by the name Reth, has been confined to a wheelchair since a land mine claimed both of his legs. He came to Taiwan last week hoping to win official approval for a ban on land mines. He was sorely disappointed.
Back in the 1970s, he was a teenager in a country torn by a civil war that had claimed his father's life. After leaving home to seek help from relatives on the Thai border, hunger forced him to join a group of guerillas. He stepped on a mine during a mission in which his brigade had been ordered to break through a minefield.
"My comrades stopped me from shooting myself. I had to beg them to cut off my legs -- which had been completely destroyed -- with an axe," Reth recalled. "My legs weren't hurting ... It was my heart that was deeply wounded when I saw my amputated legs." Somehow, he girded himself for the responsibility of supporting his wife and five children. He looked for jobs with NGOs. Eighty rejected him before a priest finally gave him a job assembling wheelchairs.
Millions of people, mostly civilians, have been killed or handicapped by mines. This stark fact and his terrible injury convinced Reth to get involved in the worldwide campaign to ban land mines "on behalf of all mine victims." In 1997 he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the ICBL.
Reth came to Taiwan last week hoping that the government would sign the UN Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of AntiPersonnel Mines and on their Destruction, known in short as the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. "Although Taiwan is not eligible to accede to the treaty, it can still sign it to support the international effort," Reth said.
Last week, Reth went to Kinmen, an outlying island controlled by Taiwan but close to the Chinese coast. It was heavily mined during the 1950s as a defensive measure. He met President Chen Shui-bian (
LAND MINE ISSUE
According to the ICBL, the full insidiousness of antipersonnel land mines lies in the indiscriminate destruction they cause. They cannot distinguish between the foot of a soldier and that of a child, according to the organization, and mines continue to maim or kill long after the fighting is over. They also lead to environmental and economic degradation and render agricultural land unusable, the ICBL says.
In addition there are currently more than 350 different types of antipersonnel mines that continue to maim and kill in the 88 countries that are still affected by unexploded ordinance -- even though mines are no longer being laid.
This is why demining is as crucial as banning the planting of mines. Reth has brought the growing international campaign to Taiwan. There are currently 140 parties to the mine ban treaty, 117 of which have ratified it.
Demining began in 1998 in Kinmen in response to local residents' requests and in order to facilitate the development of tourism. The Ministry of National Defense said 3,690 land mines in an area of 86,382m2 have been cleared. But in spite of the ministry's promise to further demine, Reth's mission to Taiwan has been a frustrating one.
The defense ministry refused to reveal to Reth, who sought to understand the situation in Taiwan, the number of mines and the areas covered by them. "How can we disclose confidential information about our national defense?" its representatives in Kinmen asked. The ministry also clearly said that, "For national security reasons, certain mined areas should be preserved."
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