Erin Fredrichs

projects: landmines

I traveled to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand to document the beauty of the countries and their people and teh horrors left behind by war.

In central Vietnam, almost once a week, someone is killed or injured by an unexploded ordance or landmine. In Cambodia, more than 2 million landmines were placed indiscriminately during newaly two decades of civil war. On the Thai/Burma border, ethnic Burmese refugees flood into Thailand, hundreds of them are landmine amputees.

The wars are long over, yet the killing of innocent civilians continues. As a photojournalist, I had the opportunity to witness the atrocities of war remnants and create a record of them. Without documentation, no one would know of the crisis that still rages through Southeast Asia.

Unexploded bombs at a scrap metal junkyard near Dong Ha, Vietnam. Unexploded bombs left over from US carpet-bombing during the Vietnam War are frequently discovered close to populated areas. Roughly 3 million landmines and between 350,000 and 800,000 tons of bombs dropped during the Vietnam War remain strewn across the small country. Scrap metal yards offer monetary compensation for any bit of metal regardless of condition.
   
A triangular shaped bomb exploded while Le Van Phuc was scavenging for scrap metal near his home. Shrapnel perforated his internal organs and he suffers from partial paralysis of his left side.
  
Scrap metal yards in Vietnam are overflowing with old US and Vietnamese military paraphernalia, including artillery shells, mortar rounds, rockets and tanks. When an unexploded bomb is discovered, people are encouraged to not tourch it and contact local authroritites for its removal. The government does not offer a reward for reporting the findings. In a country suffereing from extremem poverty, the risk of moving the bomb outweighs the benefit of calling someone else to retrieve it.
     
  
Physiotherapist Wolf Brolley checks the flexibility in Le Van Phuc's injured hand.
  
Thousands of landmines, mortar shells, grenades and other anti-personal devices collected throughout Cambodia are on display at the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap. Aki Ra, the museum's founder, defused the bombs in the collection. He trains the Cambodian army in the art of defusing bombs and continues to clear mines throughout the Cambodian countryside. His primary tool for detecting bombs is a stick.
  
Thirty-nine-year-old Preng Braug stepped on a landmine in1994while fighting with guerilla forces for civil defense as the Khmer Rouge were losing power in Cambodia. He lost his left leg below the knee and wears an old prosthesis with a wooden foot. Unbuttoning his shirt to cool off during the sweltering monson heat, he reveals scars from the shrapnel that imbedded into his abdomen when he stepped on the landmine.
     
  
Boreak Klang longs to be a Muay Thai boxer, despite the loss of his arm. He is one of 17 orphaned boys who live at the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap. The boys serve as a human reminder that landmines are a horrific reality for Cambodians living outside Phnom Penh.
  
Sisters play in a pond near a community center in the Bavel district of Cambodia. On the previous day, in a field less than 100 meters away, a woman detonated a landmine and injured her hand. Although signs printed in both Khmer and English warn of the dangers of unmarked landmines throughout the countryside, families continue to relocate to areas where danger is imminent.
  
Ko Aung is measured for his new prosthesis at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. His stump shrunk, making his original prosthesis too small. Aung wore nine pairs of thick socks over his stump in order to keep his first artifical limb from falling off. Muscular degeneration around the stump is a common problem among refugees. Without physical therapy, they often have a new limb made within a year of their first. The clinic employees Karen refugee landmine survivors to make prosthesis for other refugees in Thailand. The men also make prosthesis for Karen amputees still living in Burma who are unable to safely cross into Thailand.
     
  
Karen refugee Yaw Hag Moo, once a guerilla solider fighting against the Burmese military, lost both hands and was blinded by shrapnel when he tried to plant a landmine outside of his village in Burma. He now lives with 14 other former guerilla warriors at the Care Villa inside the Mae Lot refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand.
  
Preng Braug doesn't have the time or money to travel to Battambang, Cambodia for a replacement prosthesis leg. His old wooden foot allows him to be mobil, if not comfortable.