Interview with Denise Coghlan; Jesuit Refugee Service, Cambodia
Conducted by Adele Howard, Fraynework Multimedia.
My
name is Denise Coghlan, I'm a Sister of Mercy from Brisbane, and for
the last 12 years I've been working with Cambodian people, partly
in a refugee camp, and for the last 10 years inside Cambodia.
This morning I'm leaving for Geneva, because we're going to a session
of the intersessional meetings on the landmines treaty. This time
it's focussing on mine clearance, and while I'm doing that I'll show
you one little picture I brought with me of one of the students who
studied at Banteay Prieb centre, 
and
learned welding and then joined a d-mining team. He went of this year
to d-mine in kosava. Before he left we had a little celebration with
the children of the dancing village. These children were from the
refugee camps and they're now doing traditional dancing. So the little
birds of peace from Cambodia in front of the beautiful green rice
fields were sending messages of peace with Malsurret to Bosnia. That's
one of the items at the meeting in Geneva - mine clearance. The other
that I'm particularly interested in is the one on victim assistance,
or survivor assistance.
(You can click on the Cambodian photos to see the full version)
And
so Tunchanu Ret, you can also see his picture here, he's the father
of six, a double amputee, rides everywhere in a wheelchair, or on
the back of a motorbike driven by another man with one leg. Here he
is at home with his six beautiful children, and the littlest one,
Saylar, has the Nobel Peace Prize that Ret received on behalf of the
International Campaign to Ban Land Mines in Oslo in December 1997.
So Ret and I have been campaigning against mines for a long time,
and back in Vienna in 1995, 
Tunchanu
Ret you see him here, and Son Kusal, the little girl who now leads
the Kids Against War campaign, and Soc Eng, our non-formal education
coordinator in Sissapon, addressed the United Nations calling for
a ban. Many of the people there at the conference said that these
were the people who acted as the moral conscience of the conference.
So then we go back again, looking for ways that governments can co-operatively
comply with the treaty and do something to make the lives of people
who've suffered from mines and war better.
Adele: We here in Australia are somewhat removed from the situation,
can you tell us what it's like to live and work amongst the reality
of victims of landmines?
To see the poverty in the villages, whether the people are disabled
by mines, or just living in a war zone is terrible. But you can say
it's terrible and do nothing, or you can have a rage that goads you
into action. I suppose my overriding feeling from the whole is the
resilience and courage of the people who have been affected by the
mines, and the way that they get out and help one another. But to
do that, they need some resources, and they need some encouragement,
and the rebuilding of an ethical approach to life. That's putting
it not so well... To see once again that it is possible to trust.
That metacarinar, the traditional value of Cambodian society which
means Mercy and Compassion, is possible. To do that, people need some
of the resources and some of the training, and some of the friendship
that enables them to accompany others with compassion.
Adele:
Is the land mines issue still serious?
Extremely serious. With the banning of the treaty, and Cambodia's
signing of the treaty there have been no more mines laid that we know
about. But the mines that are in the ground still need to be cleared,
and the villages need to be restored again. They need roads, they
need water, they need food, they need opportunities for jobs, they
need houses for the people, they need access to schooling for their
children, they need health centres. All of these things are part of
a new life that needs to be rebuilt for mine affected communities.
Continued on Page 2
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