Land mines in Cambodia

[3] The Chinese-made land mines in Cambodia were placed by the Cambodian factions (including the Lon Nol, Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes, as well as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea who, with international support retained the UN seat throughout much of the 1980s) which clashed during the Civil War in Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Dangrek genocide in June 1979 was in great part due to civilian victims crossing over land mines placed along the border by Thai, Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge contingents.

The CMAC (Cambodia Mine Action Center) has cleared many of these areas and put up signs stating their work in previous minefields.

For a family with a very low income, to have a member lose a limb and no access to good health care, and no governmental aid makes the dangers of land mines a much heavier burden on the Cambodian community.

[4][dead link‍] APOPO, a Belgian non-governmental organization which uses rats to detect land mines also joined the demining efforts in 2014.

In 2003, CMAA estimated that the combined cost for demining operations, including technical assistance and in kind contributions for Cambodia were about $40 million per year.

[4][dead link‍] On the same year, landmine-detection dogs were deployed by the CMAC, with technical and financial assistance from the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).

These highly trained animals however are being infected with parasites including fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes which often lead to the dogs' death or early retirement, a problem both the government and private groups and trying to solve.