John Bingham wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:03 am

explorer wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 12:40 am They could send cows in first. Let the cows graze the area before humans go in.

When one explodes, let the villagers have the meat.

Cows are expensive and aren't heavy enough to set off an anti-tank mine that might be buried deep. And nobody wants to eat meat that's full of shrapnel and toxic propellants.

And how many times have you had a cow stand on your toes in the cowshed. Let me tell you,,,, when a 200 kg cow puts one quarter of it's weight through it's hoof onto
a few square inches of your foot ,,,, They are bloody heavy .

I spotted this on KI-Media



District police chief In Kay said the villagers had collectively hired Hok Rachhan, 18, Mao Kamsot, 22, and Tem Bunthim, 49, to detonate land mines at a plantation in Sen Sam village.

They have been in the business for more than 10 years as the locals know it, he said.

“The villagers trusted them, therefore, they were hired to do the work. The ground used to be a fighting area, containing a lot of unexploded ordnances [UXOs]. Some experts have come to demine the ground five times already,” he said.

Kay said the authorities have “educated the locals about the dangers of the UXOs and warned them not to clear the bombs by themselves”.

He said the trio were taking a break on the very spot where Rachhan detected an anti-tank mine underneath them.

Without realising how deep the UXO was buried, Rachhan dug the ground with a hoe, while Kamsot boiled water for tea and Bunthim walked away from the site to look for his snare.

As he kept digging, Rachhan’s hoe eventually hit and detonated the mine, killing him and Kamsot on the spot. Bunthim who was away escaped unscathed.

Aware of the accident, Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) director-general Heng Ratana said his team members plan to visit the explosion site and examine the case on Friday, regarding it as “one of the biggest issues”.

“The men were not demining experts, they never got any training. They only knew how to clear mines from observing other people, but they still risked their lives."

“They did not possess a licence nor did they have the expertise to carry out mine clearance, thus they did their work illegally,” he said.