Cambodia fails to meet mine clearing target
Updated
Cambodia is seeking further international support to extend its land mine-clearing operations until 2020. Under to the Ottawa Convention, Cambodia was supposed to clear its land mines and unexploded ordnance by January 2010 -- 10 years after it signed the treaty.
Presenter: Sonja Heydeman
Speakers: Rupert Leighton, Country Program Manager for the Mines Advisory Group, Cambodia
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HEYDEMAN: With mines and other explosives remaining in more than two thousand square kilometres of land across Cambodia .. clearing will need to continue to 2020.
The Mines Advisory Group in Cambodia says ongoing international support from the British, US, Australian and Japanese governments is desperately needed to make its work possible.
Rupert Leighton .. Country Program Manager for the Mines Advisory Group, Cambodia says ongoing efforts are vital.
LEIGHTON: Cambodia's still one of the most mined countries in the world. It suffers a large problem. There is a fairly large capacity at the moment, both nationally and international organisations working clearing land mines and have been doing this since approximately 1992. And at the moment, it's clear that we are not going to be finished by next year, not by a long shot.
HEYDEMAN: Around 800,000 land mines have so far been found and about one-and-a-half million pieces of unexploded ordinance are strewn across 500 million square metres. It seems like almost an impossible task?
LEIGHTON: I mean the problem with the treaty is very specific. The Ottawa Treaty is very specific about what signatory countries have to do and I think there is a fairly wide recognition that Cambodia is not going to clear that last mine, because there are so many and the country, as I am sure you appreciate, is so big, that the law of diminishing returns dictates that finding that last mine will be hugely expensive, and pretty much a wild goose chase.
What our challenge over the next ten years to do is to make sure that we are clearing as many mines from the areas that have the greatest impact on the communities that live alongside this threat in the northwest, and do as much of the high priority task that we possibly can over the next ten years with which we will leave residual land mines that the sovereign state has to deal with over the longer term.
HEYDEMAN: What sort of international support are you seeking?
LEIGHTON: Well, our current challenge at the moment is just to maintain the ongoing support. There has been a lot of investment in addressing the huge problem in Cambodia for a number of years. As I say, we've been clearing since 1992.
Unfortunately, it's becoming less and less sexy and less and less attractive for donors to maintain the support that the Cambodian Government and operators have had in Cambodia, because of donor fatigue. It does seem to donors that they have been pouring money into a big empty hole since 1992. I mean that despite the fact that together as a factor and under the guidance and steering of the Cambodian Government, we've cleared a huge amount of land and rendered countless communities safe from ordnance, but we still have a long way to go. There is still a lot of issues that still need to be dealt with and the challenge really is to maintain interest and make sure that people realise that just because it's been going on since 1992 doesn't mean the problem is solved.
HEYDEMAN: It is also I suppose a reminder to us all the reality of landmines and the fact that there would be hundreds-of-people still affected, whether killed or maimed each year as a result of them?
LEIGHTON: It's very important to remember that a land mine has often lain to stop an attack or used as a defensive position which might be within a week that you may be expecting any attack by a any military force. We're pulling up mines that have been in the ground for 20 years and still have the potential to blow your leg off. So the residual threat is huge and very long lasting and this is a problem that is not only suffered by Cambodia, but also Laos and Vietnam to a certain extent as well.
