柬埔寨一高中扩建花圃 竟挖出千枚未爆弹
英国卫报报导，柬埔寨东北部桔井省（Kratie）一所高中扩建花圃时，意外发现2000多枚内战遗留弹药，包括手榴弹及榴弹发射器，目前已紧急关闭校园，进行挖掘清查作业。
柬埔寨排雷行动中心（Cambodian Mine Action Centre）总干事拉塔那（Heng Ratana）13日表示，该校位于内战时期军事基地，“学生非常幸运，这些弹药很容易爆炸，挖掘时一不小心就可能全面引爆。”
柬埔寨内战自1975年结束至今逾50年，目前仍是世上最多未爆弹和地雷的国家之一。据统计，自1979年来，柬埔寨各处散落地雷已造成6.4万人死亡、2.5万人截肢；过去4年，近2万人因误踩引爆地雷而丧命。
时至今日，柬埔寨仍致力排雷，当局更矢言2025年前全面清除地雷和未爆弹。
Cambodia school closed after thousands of civil war-era explosives found on site
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/14/cambodia-school-closed-after-thousands-of-civil-
More than 1,000 grenades found on land being cleared to expand garden of school in Kratie province, mine clearing organisation says
Deminers discovered more than 2,000 explosives, including more than 1,000 M79 grenades, inside the grounds of a high school in Kratie province over three days, said Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre on Sunday.
He told AFP the explosive remnants were found after the school cleared land to expand a garden. “The school has been closed temporarily,” Heng Ratana said.
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Decades after the brutal conflict and a US bombing campaign starting in the 1960s, the country remains among the most heavily bombed and mined in the world.
Images showed some of the masses of dug-up explosives, rusted over and stacked in rows. “It is a huge stroke of luck for the students. These explosive devices are easy to explode if someone dug into the ground and hit them,” he said.
A deminer standing next to some of the ordnance uncovered at the school in north-east Kratie province. Photograph: Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CM/AFP/Getty Images
The site was a military station during the war, he added, and an operation to clear the grounds would probably uncover more.
Cambodia’s civil war lasted until 1975, with the US and what was then North and South Vietnam backing various sides.
The effects of the US bombing campaign and minefields left behind have long been felt in tragic ways, with roughly 20,000 Cambodians killed over the last four decades after stepping on landmines or bombs.
Clearance work continues to this day, with the government vowing to clear all mines and unexploded ordnance by 2025.
