National Geographic: The Healing Fields
Land mines once crippled a war-ravaged Cambodia. Today the nation is a model for how to recover from this scourge.
Phototograph by Lynn Johnson
Delicately brushing away the soil with his fingers, Aki Ra uncovers a dark green land mine buried two inches beneath the overgrown dirt road. The size of a large soup can, the mine was planted by the Khmer Rouge about 15 years ago on this ox track in northwestern Cambodia—the most densely mined region of one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.