The Landmine Issue

The legacy of the landmine lives on in Cambodia. Between 2 and 3 million mines remain scattered across the Cambodian countryside. Between 1979 and 2005 there were 66.611 recorded landmines casualties in Cambodia.

The landmine problem traverses geographical boundaries. Worldwide, thousands of civilians are injured or killed annually. The global campaign to eradicate landmines achieved an unprecedented coup with the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines which was signed by Cambodia but sadly not by nations such as the United States. Thirteen years on, landmines remain a pervasive problem. Cambodian organisations such as the CNVLD play a key role within the international community by using their grassroots experience to advocate against this most insidious and cynical of weapons.

The living legacies of landmines, the amputees, are an asset – not a hindrance – to Cambodia. Although disability traditionally bought social stigma, it is now the athletes with a disability who are at the vanguard of Cambodia’s sporting development. Their athletic achievements have been lauded in the national Khmer media.

The CNVLD also has a high international profile owing to the success of its program. The effectiveness of its approach has it earned it ‘Best Practice’ status by the Swiss Academy of Development (SAD) and a UNESCO International Fair Play Award. In 2008 and 2009 it was also recognised by the Nike-Changemakers competitions as short-listed global finalists.

The CNVLD’s innovative approach to sport and development has attracted the attention of the international media, including CNN, ESPN, the Washington Post and the New York Times. Good publicity leads to widespread popularity – the CNVLD’s players have been dubbed ‘The Harlem Globetrotters of the Ban Landmines movement’ and this goodwill and visibility have been used to implement real change.

Sport can be seen as a symbolic blueprint of social values and cultural norms. It can generate behavioural changes and encourage values that are crucial to the processes of individual and collective socialization. On an individual level sport not only improves physical well-being, but also influences personal competencies such as self-confidence and leadership skills. At a collective level, sport can build social capital such as creating of tolerance and trust between or within communities and thereby strengthen group identities.

Sport has a massive potential for sustainable development, peace-building activities, and social and cultural integration in developing and transitional nations. The CNVLD provides a perfect illustration of a ‘best practice’ model using sport within development. In countries like Cambodia where conflict has left a tangible mark, the rehabilitative and reconciliatory capacity of sport is highly apparent. Sporting programs like the CNVLD are an effective way of furthering the physical, psychological, social and economic rehabilitation of landmine survivors, former soldiers and other victims of war.

A United Nations resolution declared 2005 to the International Year of Sports and Physical Education. It called for governments and international sports bodies to assist developing countries in building sports capacity owing to sport’s ability to foster values essential to social cohesion and intercultural dialogue. Sport, particularly the formation of athletic infrastructures such as the CNVLD, has been recognised for making a huge contribution to economic and social development.

Following the success of the Cambodian National Team’s Silver medal in the 1999 Bangkok FESPIC Games, history was made in Sydney 2000 when the first ever Cambodian national team to participate in the Paralympics managed to defeat the host nation Australia. Sport’s ability to facilitate intercultural dialogue was beautifully illustrated when the Cambodian team quickly became the media stars of the entire Paralympic games. The CNVLD subsequently set their objective to become the top-ranked disabled volleyball team in the world.

The Cambodian squad has gone on to compete in the 2001 World Organisation of Volleyball Disabled (WOVD) World Cup in Slovakia, FESPIC in Korea in 2002, WOVD World Cups in Greece (2003) and Canada (2005). In 2007, Cambodia hosted the World Cup. The country’s first international sporting event in decades, it was a resoundingly popular competition that attracted thousands of spectators. Following the success of the 2007 event, Cambodia hosted the World Cup again in 2009 smashing all local records for attendance and TV viewing of a locally hosted sports event.

The Cambodian National Team is now ranked No.1 in the Asia-Pacific region and No.4 in the World.