'People were dying, that's why I got involved'

Sister Denise talking to villagers about cluster munitions. Photo courtesy JRS Cambodia

by Venessa Lee
Today Online
Mar 04, 2012

For 23 years, Sister Denise Coghlan has lived in Cambodia helping the victims of a devastating legacy of war, and campaigning for a ban on landmines.

Years of conflict have left Cambodia one of the most heavily mined countries in the world - an estimated 40,000 people have lost their limbs to landmines and other weapons like cluster munitions that still lurk in the ground.

Just this past week, the nun tells us, 11 children were injured by such "remnants of war" in a village near the border.

Today, she heads the Cambodian Campaign to Ban Landmines. It was a path that she first set out on in the late 1980s, when the Brisbane native left Australia for the refugee camps on the Thai side of the border with Cambodia.

Working as part of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) - which later became part of the Nobel-prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) - she met the maimed victims of landmines in these camps, where many Cambodians sought refuge from the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

Sister Denise was among the earliest voices calling for a ban on landmines and cluster munitions. In an interview celebrating the ICBL's 20th anniversary, which falls this year, she said: "The situation was dire. People were suffering, people were dying. That was why I got involved. I believe that if we act together, we can do much more."

In 1997, the ICBL and its coordinator Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize. As part of the group (she still serves on its board today), Sister Denise shared in the prize.

This year, she marks her 50th anniversary in the Sisters of Mercy religious order. Her faith has been central to her work in serving the poor and marginalised. Her current job as director of JRS Cambodia includes assisting refugees, migrant workers and those displaced by increasingly frequent forced land evictions.

This is even as Sister Denise - who refuses to divulge her age - continues to campaign for the implementation of global treaties against landmines and cluster munitions, which includes the clearance of mines from affected communities.

While Cambodia has the world's highest per capita number of amputees, these survivors, whose maimings are highly visible, are often marginalised by society.

Recently, Sister Denise met a landmine survivor who herself had travelled to Laos - another mine-affected country - to raise awareness. The woman was happy that other villagers now sought her opinions on the landmine issue.

It's an encouraging sign for Sister Denise, who has dedicated her life to ensuring that landmine survivors are heard and helped. "One of the important things is to be included," she said.