Check out this Seattle Times article on Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tun Channareth, a land-mind survivor and international crusader against the use of land mines. He's in Seattle to receive an honorary degree from Seattle University: 'Suffering never stops,' says land-mine survivor.When he was 22-years-old, Channareth lost his legs when he stepped on a mine near the border between Cambodia and Thailand. Since then, he's worked tirelessly to educate the world about the destructive nature of land mines, and the millions of undetonated mines that still remain in Cambodia alone. In 1997, he accepted a Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
"Some people understand my English," he told a group of Seattle University students a few days ago. "Some people understand my body."This is definitely a man who has turned personal tragedy into devotion to an important cause. Here's a video interview with Tun Channareth: Cambodia: The World Through Tun Channereth's Eyes. For more information on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, go to the campaign's website here.
Channareth's speech, his body and his passion convey a simple message: that land mines, many of which were placed in wars and conflicts decades ago, continue to kill and maim thousands of men, women and children around the globe each year.
"The suffering never stops," said Channareth, who said one of every 230 people in his country is an amputee, the bulk of their injuries caused by land mines left over from decades of civil war and incursions by foreign military.
Even today, he said, it's estimated that as many as 5 million land mines and other undetonated explosives remain in Cambodia alone — a country slightly smaller than the state of Washington — many still capable of killing a child at play, or a worker in a farm or field. And even if a field is cleared of mines once, the danger can return as plastic-encased explosive devices move around in annual floods.
