Hidden land mine explodes, killing 13 Cambodian villagers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodian villagers returning home after
harvesting rice drove over a hidden land mine which exploded, killing
13 people, including four teenagers, officials said Wednesday.

Two other villagers were injured in the blast Sunday in a former Khmer
Rouge guerrilla stronghold in the northeastern province of Oddar
Meanchey, provincial deputy governor Pech Sokhen said.

The victims had been returning from harvesting rice when their vehicle
veered off the road and ran over the mine, apparently planted during
the Cambodian civil war, the deputy governor said.

Vann Kosal, chief of the province's Trapeang Prasat district where the
incident took place, said the young people had gone to the fields to
help their parents with the harvest because schools are closed Sunday.

"But it turned out to be a very tragic day," he said, adding that the
blast was so powerful that officials could only identify 11 bodies for
burial. Two had been mutilated beyond recognition.

An estimated 4 million to 6 million land mines and other unexploded
ordnance from more than three decades of armed conflict maim or kill
many Cambodians each year.

Oddar Meanchey province is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest
of the capital, Phnom Penh.


11/16/05 00:28 EST


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