Cambodia tops table for mine clearance

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Cambodia, one of the most mined countries in the world, had cleared more land of ordnance than any other country in the world by the end of last year, a new report has found.

According to the annual Landmine and Cluster Munition report for 2016, Cambodia is one of only 11 countries or areas with contamination exceeding 100 kilometers (38.6 miles) squared.

Because of this, its contamination levels are referred to as “massive”.

In spite of this, governmental and international demining NGO teams worked to clear more land than any other country by the end of 2015.

Some 45.6 square kilometers were made safe and 8,841 anti-personnel mines were destroyed, the report said.

“As in 2014, the largest total clearance of mined areas in 2015 was achieved in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Croatia, which together accounted for more than 70% of recorded clearance,” the report said.

Croatia cleared 40.6 square kilometers and Afghanistan cleared 35.4 square kilometers.

A 2006 article by Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan titled Bombs Over Cambodia said an estimated 2.7-million tons of ordnance was dropped over Cambodia between 1965 and 1975.

However, the pair revised that number down to about 500,000 tons of ordnance in 2010 after conducting further research.

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre estimates that 2,000 square kilometers of land is contaminated with a combination of explosive weapons dropped during U.S. aerial bombardments of the country and mines laid in the late 1970s and 1980s, particularly in what is known as the K5 mine belt that borders Thailand and Laos.

Denise Coghlan of the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that Cambodia has done “some very fine things to lead the way” in mine clearance.

“Things seem to have gone a bit slow at this stage; it’s taking a long to complete,” she said.

However, her campaign has been pushing for the country to be able to announce itself completely clear by 2025, “and we really think Cambodia can do it,” she said.

According to the latest monthly report from the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, six casualties were recorded in September.

Of the six, one died and the remaining five required amputation from their injuries.

The report said that globally casualties have hit a 10-year high, but that this has also come at a time when funding for demining projects has fallen.

In a statement, the report said it had recorded “6,461 mine/ERW [Explosive Remnant of War] casualties, marking a 75 percent increase from the number of casualties recorded for 2014 and the highest recorded total since 2006 [6,573].”

This was attributed to ongoing conflicts in Libya, Ukraine, Yemen and Syria.