• “Kapeia 5” – defense of five border north western provinces between Cambodia and Thailand, runs from the Gulf of Thailand to Laos
• Approximately 450 miles long
• Contains more than 2 million land mines

This mine belt was built over a period of eighteen months, by more than 100,000 conscripted Cambodian laborers and has an estimated 2 million landmines.  It runs from the Gulf of Thailand all the way along the Thai border to Laos and served to defend Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge after being chased to this region by the Vietnamese.  K-5 stands for Kapeia 5 or “defense of five (border) provinces”.  Thousands of families have been displaced by this mine field, denied safe passage, valuable agricultural land and the basic human right of living freely.  The poorest of the poor live in this area anyway because the surrounding forest provides income and the river that runs through it gives them a necessary water source.  This effort, at the current level of spending by governments and private donors like Freedom Fields USA, will take only five years.  The work supported by Freedom Fields is conducted by locally trained Cambodian de-miners under the supervision of HALO Trust, a British registered charity, working to clear landmines in this and several other countries around the world.

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