Landmines in Cambodia: Past, Present, and Future By Wade C. Rober ...

Union. Both Vietnamese and Soviet sources are either not able to or unwilling to provide any estimation of the magnitude of armament provided to the Khmer Rouge forces. Regardless, supporting documentation, in conjunction with the fact that landmines originating from both Vietnam and the former Soviet Union are still discovered in Cambodia’s soil, prove the existence and use of landmines originating from these sources.

The NIS in Phnom Penh estimates one in every 380 deaths during the Khmer Rouge domination period occurred consequent to landmine encounters.²⁶ An approximate estimation of lives lost during this period can therefore assist in determining the magnitude of landmine-related deaths. It should be remembered, however, that landmines were most often used in psychological warfare. It is likely that these landmines served their purpose and are no longer in the ground. Accordingly, the magnitude of landmine-specific casualties can be used to better grasp an historical perspective regarding the use of landmines, the fear Cambodians have of landmines, and the ways in which a genocidal regime used landmines as an instrument. Residual landmines placed by the Khmer Rouge are probably not, however, a problem that survived far beyond the reign of the regime.

Landmine-specific deaths during the Khmer Rouge domination period comprised a finite percentage of the total number of people dying. The majority of Cambodian deaths throughout the Khmer Rouge domination period were a direct result of overwork, starvation, and disease. Those intentionally exterminated were often taken to detention centers, where torture was followed by the filling of mass graves. Several accounts indicate the Khmer Rouge intentionally avoided the use of armament in the extermination of those deemed “enemies to the cause.” The most common methods of extermination used throughout the Khmer Rouge period included drowning, burning, live burial, hanging, disembowelment, organ piercing, castration, beatings, waterboarding, scalping, flagellation, oxygen deprivation, dunking, starvation, force-feeding, picquet, suffocation, boiling, electric shock, garroting, mancuerda, rape, body crushing, sleep deprivation, strappado, knife cutting, strangulation, limb crushing, and poisoning. Intentional care was taken to avoid “wasting a bullet” on killing someone.²⁷ In fact, although guns served as instruments of intimidation,