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.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"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."
But advocates of complete mine clearance say land mines serve no purpose because an enemy army can dispatch a team to destroy minefields prior to an incursion.
"But, mines can serve to terrify communists trying to sneak onto the island ?" insisted a colonel, who nevertheless admitted that land mines were no longer very useful. He revealed that Taiwan no longer produced or imported mines, "but had stockpiles in case of war."
Reth said, however, that "China, with its ambition to become a superpower in Asia, will eventually intrude onto the island anyway, whether in the form of military aggression or by other means such as its overwhelming economic impact."
Kinmen's bureaucrats also frustrated Reth's campaign. While there, Reth invited Yen Ta-jen (顏達仁), Kinmen's deputy county commissioner, to sign a statement urging the government to adhere to the treaty. He didn't know that Yen did not support his campaign. While asking for the interpreter's assistance in communicating with Reth, the commissioner said, "I cannot understand this barbarian language."
Yen used all means possible to avoid signing the document on behalf of the Kinmen County Government, saying he should not sign it because he is not the county commissioner -- the commissioner is under arrest for corruption -- although legally, he is now in charge.
Not content with using legally invalid arguments, Yen attempted to shift the responsibility to Tsai Shi-min, the head of the county's social affairs bureau, who stood beside him. Yen said that he would prefer to have Tsai endorse the document rather than sign it himself. A signature from the less senior official would carry less weight and could later be easily dismissed.
Tsai said that he would "feel insecure signing it," because he was not sure whether doing so would get him into trouble. With the seesaw battle between the two leading nowhere, a friend of Yen suggested that he bring an end to the matter by "pretending to sign in front of the camera to satisfy Reth," to which Yen happily responded that "foreigners are just not as smart as we Chinese people." In the end, the Kinmen bureaucrats kept the statement for further consideration.
Reth is also appealing to the government for proper compensation for Taiwan's mine victims.
"The explosion 40 years ago ended the happiness of my youth and all my life prospects," said Tsai Kuo-fa (蔡國法) removing his dark glasses to show how his eyeballs were blasted out by a mine while he was digging sweet-potatoes in a field belonging to his family. Now in his sixties, Tsai added, "I had to rely on my relatives for financial support ... We were never offered any vocational training, and nobody from the defense ministry ever paid a visit to show their concern either." He currently lives in a charity house.
"We are poor because of our handicaps which make it hard to find jobs," said Li Shi-sheng (
They complained about the government's slowness in providing compensation. Tsai applied twice. His case was first rejected two years ago and he has been waiting for six months for a response to his most recent application. "Those in the army on Kinmen responsible for granting the required compensation documents always shift the responsibility by saying that they are new to the job and know nothing about my case. So I have to send my files many times," Tsai explained. They say that the government is not committed to compensating them for their suffering.
"Although we have never received an education, we have to prepare piles of documents and visit government agencies to apply for compensation on our own. ... The government never thinks of our inconvenience," Li said.
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