A Gender Perspective on Landmine Management in Kampuchea

Landmine contamination in Kampuchea became a dominant narrative at the end of the Cold War. Since then an industry has been built on landmines by a global network of civil society organizations and international donors. What fieldwork in the K5 mine belt of northwestern Kampuchea revealed is autonomous landmine management under which minefields are being converted into communities in the almost total absence of the State and international funding and resources. This gender analysis of landmine management will help us understand post-conflict environments where 'agency' and 'victims' cannot be conflated, where women engage in all aspects of the agricultural cycle including clearing landmines, where men are disproportionately the victims of landmine accidents, and no children met with a landmine accident.