Seven rubber plantation workers were injured yesterday in Banteay Meanchey’s Svay Chek district when the truck they were in struck an anti-tank mine and exploded, district police officers said.
“This is the first time workers at this rubber plantation have been in such an accident caused by anti-tank mines,” said Phin Sopheak, deputy Svay Chek district police chief.
Local company Ngor Heng Company Rubber owns the plantation, which is in Slakram commune, said Mr Sopheak.
“Three of the workers were seriously injured, two fell unconscious and one was critically injured with broken bones in his right leg and right hand,” said Slakram commune police chief Thet Loeuy, adding that a seventh worker had received minor shrapnel wounds.
“When their truck hit the anti-tank mine, there was a strong explosion about 8 to 10 meters into the air,” Mr Loeuy said, adding that there was serious damage to the truck.
The critically injured worker and the two who had been knocked unconscious were sent to the Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Mongkul Borei district, he said.
“In my Slakram commune, every so often, an anti-tank mine will be accidentally exploded by our farmers plowing their fields or if they are driving tractors that hit the mines,” Mr Loeuy said. “Slakram commune is too close to the Cambodian-Thai border, only about 5 km away, and was a former battlefield in the civil war in 1980.”
“CMAC [Cambodian Mine Action Center] only demines on the main roads,” said Ouk Keo Rotanak, spokesman for Banteay Meanchey province. “The problem here was the rubber plantation is very young and the rainy season had made the ground very soft.”
