WAR destroys countries, economies and lives, yet every day, somewhere in the world, serious conflict rages, writes Anna Melville-James.

The aggression is the first blow, the resulting damage to a country's infrastructure is the second, and can cause aftershock that long outlives the war itself.

After three-and-a-half years of war and 25 years of slow recovery, Cambodians know this better than most.

This small country, bordered by Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in south-east Asia has suffered the collapse of its systems, governments and the daily lives of its people since the Khmer Rouge revolution that overthrew the government in 1975.

The bloody and tyrannical reign of Khmer Rouge Dictator Pol-Pot ended in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge were driven out of Cambodia by the Vietnamese. The scars of war were a country ravaged, a population starved and an economy in tatters.

The other lasting legacy was the extensive minefields, which still claim and maim thousands of Cambodians every year.

"Landmines never die", says Rodney Mearns, Chairman of the Cambodian War Amputees Rehabilitation Society International (CWARS), based in Abingdon.

The shocking statistics betray their silent, deadly endless sleep - one1 in 250 people in Cambodia are affected by mine explosions, most amputees are in their late teens to mid-30s and for every person that survives, two die out in the fields.

Children rarely survive a landmine blast because the trauma to the body is so great.

Landmines only die when someone else does, or if they are cleared professionally, yet the scourge of these detonation devices is so widespread that even with all the resources available both nationally and internationally, complete clearance will take decades to effect. Meanwhile the people continue to die, or lose limbs in explosions, living out the tragedy to its fullest conclusion in a loss of ability to support themselves.

From a distance it is hard to imagine the extent to which this rips at the fabric of families, communities and the individuals who have to support themselves in an essentially rural economy based on subsistence farming.

Mr Mearns, a house master and English teacher at Abingdon School, has seen the devastation at first hand.

Journeying to Cambodia in the early nineties he spent time with a Canadian doctor working for the Cambodia Trust, also based in Oxford, fitting prosthetic limbs to casulaties.

"I had only been involved in the anti-landmine campaign for a few months and I was shocked by the degree of human suffering," he says.

"I certainly never expected to see the level of misery that I saw and so many people with broken spirits and broken bodies." Powered by a strong need to help alleviate the suffering, Mr Mearns set up the CWARS on his return to England, a training and education initiative that aims to help landmine victims turn their lives around in practical ways.

The organisation, registered as a charity last year, set up its pilot scheme in Pursat, in the Pursat province of Cambodia in 1995, roughly 150km from the capital Phnom Penh.

Working with local businesses and trainers in Pursat, the CWARS focuses on teaching low technology skills such as small part engines, tailoring, hairdressing and mattress making, all much needed services in rural areas.

Instruction in literacy and simple book keeping are also available, in addition to agricultural practices, such as exploiting peanut crops that grow sporadically amid the paddy fields of rice-dependent Pursat.

The courses are modelled on UN development programmes and integrated into the community as far as possible. "This is not a welfare basket, rather a way to get people back into work, eventually taking over the training programme themselves," says Mr Mearns.

The programme has proved very successful. Some of those trained have gone on to become trainers themselves and micro enterprises are beginning to bud which will eventually lead to increased self-sufficiency and possible apprenticeships for other amputees.

As Mr Mearns insists, the ultimate object of the exercise is to make it their own project. He insists it should be theirs, created with their needs as the focus and with integration as its driving force.

"We are always in consultation with the local people about the initiative and base the programmes on discussions about what they think is best for them and the community.

"Usually these involve day to day concerns such as food provision, clean water and hygiene and things that have a vocational emphasis. "The challenge is not to train in a top-down manner but to understand that treatment has to be socially and culturally appropriate and reflect their real needs."

Since the pilot, CWARS has helped over 350 amputees in Pursat turn their lives from despair to hope.

Up to 35 per cent of these have been women, reflecting the division of labour in the province that makes women the prime rice harvesters in fields infested with millions of deadly devices.

Now, CWRAS is setting up a second training centre in the province of Kompong Thom and due to good relations between the charity and Cambodian authorities it has the use of a former school building as its base.

In Kompong Thom alone there are roughly 3000 amputees out of a population of a quarter of a million people, although as Mr Mearns says, exact statistics are not a forte in the area. Cambodia may be a long way from Abingdon, but in Oxfordshire the hard work of fund-raising and co-ordination grinds on day by day.

This year CWRAS is very grateful to Kennington Overseas Aid for designating it as its major project for 2000, which will mean a welcome help with raising vital funds, through church sales, knit-ins and all manner of events.

Fundraising is back-breaking, invaluable work, says Mr Mearns, whose own pupils at Abingdon have also pitched in, raising over £7,000 for the charity.

Yet, these funds are the difference between a tragedy and a future for the Cambodian people.

With significant landmine problems in over 30 countries in the world, rehabilitation of stricken populations is the only war that is worth fighting now. Protocol banning landmine use was passed by the UN in 1997, yet their use in Bosnian and Chechnyan conflicts shows that bureaucracy may never defeat stupidity. While aid organisations and governments work to clear mines from affected areas, there will inevitably be more tragic casualties.

And even when all the mines around the world have been lifted their shattering effects will continue live on.

Mr Mearns and CWRAS are doing what they can enable the people of Cambodia to rebuild their lives, knowing that only a future can allow these people to escape their past.

"CWRAS is concentrating on the aftermath and consequences of landmine devastation.

"Empowerment is a fashionable aid word, but in truth it means being able to help them build a future for themselves. It's not about disability, but about "what ability have you got?"

Any donations can be sent to Lorna Watson, CWARS, PO Box 287, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 5QX or call 01235 536317.

Story date: Tuesday 21 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.