I saw this mentioned at WarrenKinsella.com: The website StopLandmines.org has posted the video of an ad that was considered too graphic for Aussie TV.

If you click through to it, keep in mind that is shown in it is still not as bloody as the real thing.

And now, a personal story:

In 1996, I worked briefly in Cambodia as foreign editor of The Cambodia Daily (my back blew up, had to come home; the short version of a long story).

As a result of the Vietnam War and its own internal upheaval, Cambodia ended up being one of the most heavily mined countries on earth. There are also thousands of tonnes of unexploded ordnance (UXO - bombs, artillery shells, etc.) along its western border with Vietnam, courtesy of U.S.bombing raids to control Vietcong infiltration to South Vietnam.

Cambodia is desperately poor. It's tough making a living when you're able-bodied. Try doing so with one leg blown off.

Everywhere one went in Phnom Penh, you'd see living one-legged men with dead eyes.

Rehabilitating mine victims is a booming business for NGOs.

By from 1993 to 2003, 106 square kilometres of mines and UXO had been cleared.

The contaminated area is estimated to be 4,500 sq. km. Another 40 to 45 years and the job's done.

It's not unreasonable to assume that before the mines are cleared, another 20,000 to 25,000 victims will be added to the 60,000 Cambodians already killed or wounded by mines.

About one-third of those are children.

Remember, that's one country. And because the problem takes rice paddies and other agricultural land out of production, mines also devastate local economies.

How unfortunate that the only way to put an understandable face on that suffering for people in the West is to stage a landmine explosion on a girls' soccer pitch.

PS: Kinsella first saw the video at Jordon Cooper's blog.