Former King Makes Plea for Countries to Join Mine Ban

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07 November 2007

Former king Norodom Sihanouk issued an open letter Monday, calling on countries who have not adopted landmine bans to do so, to "completely eradicate this terrible scourge from our world."

"Many countries and their respective peoples have suffered much because of these weapons," the aging Sihanouk wrote in an open statement.

Lt. Gen. Khem Sophoan, director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Committee, said Cambodia was among 100 countries that had signed the Ottawa Treaty on landmines.

"Countries that have not joined the treaty are mostly superpowers involved in producing landmines," he said.

About 292 Cambodians have been killed by landmines this year, down from 450 in the same period of 2006.

Hun Sen's call for the observation of the Ottawa landmine Convention falls on China's deaf ears

Why Land Mines Won't Go Away

Strategy Page

April 9, 2007: The 1999 Ottawa Convention was supposed to have reduced land mine casualties among civilians. It hasn't worked, because the largest manufacturers of land mines, Russia and China, refused to sign. Chinese land mines are still available on the international arms black market. China is believed to have a stockpile of over a hundred million land mines (mostly anti-personnel). The old ones are often sold before they become worthless. But even these mines, which go for $5-10 each, are too expensive for many of the criminal organizations that buy them. In Colombia, leftist rebels are losing their four decade war to establish a socialist dictatorship. So they have been using more land mines against soldiers and police, as well as civilian populations they want to control. This was how land mines were widely used in Afghanistan and Cambodia. In Colombia, the rebels find it cheaper to build their own landmines. Labor is cheap, as are the components. Thus land mines, competitive with the factory built ones from China, can be built for less than three dollars each. You can find all the technical data you need on the Internet.

Anti-vehicle mines are increasingly popular, and are particularly popular in poor countries where there are still a lot of dirt roads, traveled by busses and trucks carrying dozens of passengers each. While these mines are usually intended for military vehicles, mines can't tell the difference. As a result, in this year or next, Colombia will have the largest number of annual mine casualties in the world.

Hun Sen Calls on Four Neighbors to Ban Mines

Children play near a newly built Buddhist shrine along the Thai border in 2005.

Sakada Chun
VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
12/03/2007

Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed Monday for four fellow Southeast Asian countries to sign the international Mine Ban Treaty.

At the opening of a regional conference on landmines, Hun Sen called on Burma, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam to add their names to the list of those that completely ban the use of anti-personnel mines.

Cambodia, which signed the treaty in 1997, has between 4 million and 6 million landmines left over from 30 years of conflict, according to the demining agency CMAC. As many as 60,000 people in the country are disabled from contact with unexploded mines or ordnance.

At the three-day conference in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen asked the countries, all of whom belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to set an example for other Asian countries and the world.

“Cambodian Red Cross reports show that landmines and unexploded ordinance caused 60,000 casualties and counting,” the prime minister said. “While 70 percent of the victims are without limbs, 30 percent of these incidents resulted in death.”

An estimated 539,129 tons of ordnance were dropped on central and eastern Cambodia between 1968 and 1973. After three decades of war, Cambodia is still one of the most heavily mined nations in the world.

Canadian Ambassador Monica Pottie welcomed the Cambodian leader’s appeal but said agreement “depends very much on these countries themselves.”

The Ottawa Treaty has been signed by 155 of the world’s 195 countries since 1997. The US is not a signatory.

Landmines hinder Cambodia's development, PM tells Ottawa conference

Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan (R) looks on as a Cambodian girl makes a presentation with a landmine sign during the movie star's 2005 visit to a landmine zone in the city of Pailin. Landmines remain one of the biggest obstacles to Cambodia's development, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday at the start of a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the international Ottawa Treaty mine ban treaty.(AFP/File/Khem Sovannara)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Landmines remain one of the biggest obstacles to Cambodia's development, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday at the start of a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the international mine ban treaty.

Hundreds continue to be killed or maimed each year in Cambodia, where millions of mines or pieces of unexploded ordnance remain scattered across former battlefields.

"Landmines are still one of the biggest issues for us and they are threatening Cambodian security and development," Hun Sen said, adding the government would continue to destroy its stocks of mines.

Landmines were a key weapon in Cambodia's decades-long civil war which ended in 1998, and were often laid indiscriminately in large swathes of forest or field.

"We don't need any more weaponry. We need to clear these from our country," the premier said.

Delegates from Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East are also attending the three-day Ottawa Treaty conference, which will focus on how landmines affect development.

"Landmines are a development issue, and cultivating partnerships in mine action is vital in order to overcome the challenges mine-affected countries face," said Canada's ambassador to Cambodia Donica Pottie.

Several foreign demining groups have worked with the government's own ordnance agency since 1992 to clear Cambodia's minefields.

But the work is extremely slow, and roughly 2,900 square kilometres (1,119 square miles) of mine-infested land remains.

Cambodian demining officials say they hope to have Cambodia largely cleared of mines by 2020, but add donor disinterest is threatening their efforts.

Last year, the government's Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) lost a fifth of its foreign funding, which has been decreasing steadily since 2004, CMAC director general Khem Sophoan told AFP earlier.

Six of the Association of South East Asian Nation's (ASEAN's) 10 members, including Cambodia, are among the 153 countries worldwide to have signed the Ottawa treaty.