CAMBODIA: Landmine clearance will take another decade
Updated
Cambodia says its countryside will not be cleared of landmines until 2020. Prime Minister Hun Sen says it will take at least another ten years of demining to make the countryside safe.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: James Turton, mines action officer for the humanitarian agency, AustCare
TURTON: Co-ordination, in terms of owner co-ordination and interest in the co-ordination internationally and also domestically is a challenge but at the same in Cambodia it has, it has been very good, yes. I mean comparatively to other countries who have similar problems, co-ordination in Cambodia has been good.
LAM: The work of course is extremely slow as I understand it. Have many local Cambodians been trained for the job?
TURTON: Well it's actually quite interesting because local Cambodians have been trained for the job. A number of agencies train locals to de-mine. At AustCare we work with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre which, as part of their de-mining strategy, they have what you call a community based de-mining team. So we work with the Cambodian mine action centre, we go into villages, and we train locals to de-mine so then you have locals that have de-mined the land in their own communities. And the money is circled back into the community.
LAM: Prime Minister Hun Sen says landmines are one of the biggest obstacles to Cambodia's development and the situation does seem to be fairly dismal from all reports. But are there any good news stories at all?
TURTON: When you go into communities and you de-mine there has been a fairly large number of communities where the mines have been pulled out of the ground and communities have been able to go back to their land, and start living on their land and start making productive use of the land, continue to farm their land and have access to water and not having to cross minefields to access education and medical care and things like that. So you know, there have been a number of communities particularly in the north of Cambodia that represent a success story.
LAM: You were in Cambodia last April, I understand. From your assessment of the situation, what do you think needs to be done to further facilitate the de-mining, to make the whole system work better?
TURTON: This is one positive factor that comes out of Hun Sen's announcement that the clearance deadlines are now going to be 2020, because it will allow for everyone to kind of sit back and go, "Okay we've got another ten years to another 13 years now to meet clearance deadlines" so we can improve co-ordination, we can look at different ways of how we're going to go about de-mining the land and working with the communities and working together to address the problem. So I think it, it gives us a time to step back and re-strategise.
LAM: And while it may give us a bit of a breather, what about local communities? What's being done to stop villagers from being hurt, from being maimed by these landmines?
TURTON: Well I mean, I can give you an example for what AustCare does. We take an integrated approach to mine action. So for instance, its not just about de-mining, we work with communities to de-mine but also we integrate that into broader development activities. For instance, we improve access to services, we teach locals farming skills because with many communities it's been that long since they've been able to make productive use of their land without being endangered by mines. So we teach them farming skills, we improve access to water and essentially we're improving their self-reliance so that they can then go about living without the burden of mine contamination.
LAM: But do you also teach them defensive tactics, if you like, to avoid being hurt by landmines - the danger signs to watch out for?
TURTON: Indeed you know an enormous part of mine action is mine risk education so we work with women, men and children to basically raise their attention to the dangers of mines, the different ordinance that they find in the country, we encourage them not to go and de-mine themselves which often happens. So yeah, essentially that's a large, a large part of what we do in terms of mitigating the risk of mines, by educating the locals about the danger.
