A Change of Guard

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Thursday 11 September 2008

CAMBODIA: Landmine challenge to development

Source: IRIN
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PHNOM PENH, 11 September 2008 (IRIN) - Landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Cambodia fell to an all-time low of 351 in 2007, further evidence of the downward trend since the 1990s. The post-conflict peak was 1996, when Cambodia suffered 4,320 landmine or ERW-related deaths and injuries, according to a government report. But challenges remain. An unknown number of villages - perhaps more than 40 percent nationwide - are vulnerable to landmines, the government said. It tried to estimate the extent of contaminated land in 2002 but later judged its measurements poorly defined. These problems, coupled with scarce land resources – partly due to widespread evictions and spiralling property prices – place additional importance on developing the newly available land after clearance, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP). "Cambodia remains one of the most mine/ERW contaminated countries in the world and will require sustained external funding into the medium term to overcome it," Steve Munroe, UNDP mine action programme manager, told IRIN. "By strengthening the mine-clearance process and making productive land available to the rural poor, UNDP's mine-clearance activities directly contribute to poverty reduction in Cambodia," he said. According to the Cambodia Millennium Development Goals, eliminating the negative development impact of landmines, including limited arable land, is just as important as cutting the numbers of victims. "In terms of the prioritisation of landmine clearance … they [mine action groups] must integrate their development and mine action programmes to address poverty," Heng Ratana, deputy director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) http://www.cmac.org.kh/publication_ar2005.asp, told IRIN. Following up on mine-clearance projects with community-based education projects and checking on the efficient use of land after clearance remain priorities for mine-action NGOs. Farming risks Villagers often take extreme risks farming but have no choice given their impoverished circumstances, says UNDP. However, Leang Sopheap, a farmer in the heavily mined northwest Battambang Province, is willing to take the risk. "I have to feed my family, and that's the most important thing," he told IRIN. "We can guess about landmines when we build farms, but we won't always be certain." Despite a significant drop in casualties over the past six years, landmines and ERW continue to affect countless communities by limiting access to land that could be put to productive use, according to UNDP. Focusing solely on the number of mines unearthed loses sight of the bigger development picture, says Herbert Feddon, senior project manager at BACTEC, in Cambodia, a commercial de-mining company. "Problem is, the donors want to see more and more landmines cleared per hectare, but that's quite difficult with the fatigue the de-miners experience in Cambodia," he said. Most objects found are random bits of metal debris, which, coupled with scorching heat, makes clearance particularly onerous, he explained. About 16 landmines were discovered per hectare of land in 2007, the government estimates. "There's also the difficulty in measuring the number of landmines in Cambodia," he added. Estimates range from two to 10 million but he says around five million could be in the ballpark. Bloody history Bombings against Cambodia during the second world war and the subsequent French-Indochina war in the 1950s scattered the countryside - particularly at the Vietnam border - with ERWs. From 1969 to 1973, the US dropped more than 500,000 MT of explosives during its carpet-bombing campaigns against the communists. The unexploded remnants of these bombs kill or injure more Cambodians annually than landmines, at 198 victims in 2007. In 1967, the North Vietnamese army began laying landmines in Cambodia to protect its supply routes; mining intensified in 1970, when General Lon Nol mined the countryside against the Khmer Rouge communists. Throughout the 1980s, the Thai military mined its border to defend against a possible spillover from the retreating Khmer Rouge, who had lost their hold on the capital. The Cambodian government and rebel forces also mined the country against each other throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The arrival of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) [see: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/untac.htm] in 1992, a peacekeeping mission, signalled the beginning of mine-action initiatives. Since then, Cambodia has signed the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines and has destroyed its stockpiles of ordnance.

3 comments:

My Community Networking said...

I agree that landmines are obstacles to developments and the much needed cultivated lands for rural poors.

It was heavy laid during the civil war in 70's, 80's and 90's and no one knew how much have been laid and where are they exactly

Khmerization said...

These lands, after being de-mined, must be given to the landless peasants and not to the powerful business and military leaders.

My Community Networking said...

Lands being de-mined under the funding by UNDP and international NGO were allotted to poor farmers.

Land issue in Cambodia is a hard subject to discussed and understood unless a person is there for a while.

For fact, some land has been sold many times by the original owner after being bought by a person.

How can you explain that.

Our poor farmers are short sighted, I must say. They are selling land for unnessary reasons when they think fit and when approached by middle men.

I still have some small block of land at my father tomb site in Pursat, bought from the farmers who think that it is useless for them, however, I still allow them to cultivate what they want and when they want.

All cultivated lands along the road site have been sold to business people, and now that they sold it they have to move to another area[s] which also a night mare for the authority to deal with.

You should understand that these days people moving freely from one place to another, what I so called volunteer migration and they hardly have a fixed address.

Dey Krahom is a good example. The area has been alloacted many times during the past, 99 families of the original people there [located near by Sothearos street] accpeted city hall arrangement and assistant [at the time Chea Sophara was Mayor] to Mong Rethty oil palm Plantation, then another reallocation thereafter to the outskirt of Phnom penh, but people came back to dey krahom citing harsh environment, lack of livelihood, could not make a living.

Now that the issue of dey krahom is subdued the Beoung Krok lake is appeared, and this will never be neded for years to come until people have a descent living standard if not 1/3 of what we have here in Australia.