New Zealand offers $3.8m in mine clearance

[geovalin]

The government of New Zealand has provided about $3.8 million in aid to support mine clearance projects in Cambodia. Ly Thuch, first vice president of Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, said that on Friday, New Zealand offered assistance for a six-year mine clearing project in the Kingdom.

 

Mr Thuch said the funds will be utilised for demining projects in landmine and UXOs-littered areas in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin provinces. “We would like to thank the New Zealand government and its people for providing the fund in assisting mine clearance in Cambodia,” Mr Thuch said, adding it has saved lives of people, reduction of the handicapped and clearing farmlands of landmines.

 

Mr Thuch said donor countries and partners, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea have actively assisted mine clearances in Cambodia. Battambang provincial police chief Major General Ouch Sokhon said that some areas in the province’s Samlot, Kors Kralor and Bavel districts are still strewn with landmines and UXOs.

 

read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50736524/new-zealand-offers-3-8m-in-mine-clearance/

[Cats4ever]

Big job; well worth doing. Good on you Kiwis.

[ross163103]

Good to hear this, I wish the US would do more about this problem THEY created. 

[gomangosteen]

New Zealand has a long history of supporting demining operations in Cambodia.

Quote

NZ Army 1991-2005 Cambodia

The NZ Defence Force demining specialists worked alongside the United Nations to help the UN establish the Mine Clearance Training Unit, which took over training and supervising Cambodian mine clearing operations on behalf of the UN, and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), which was responsible for mine clearing.

The New Zealand engineers were among the first mine clearing specialists to arrive in Cambodia, and they set about developing training programmes, and teaching the locals how to develop standard operating procedures so that mine clearing could be done cohesively and effectively.

 

Photo from the UN peacekeeping mission in the 1990s

Landmine clearance had been identified by the UN advance mission as urgently needed. New Zealand engineers took part in this, developing a landmine clearance programme that included a training component. The trainee mine clearer at work in this photograph is closely watched by a New Zealand army engineer and another trainee.

 

Successive governments have continued to provide financial support for demining and agricultural development projects in the region. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by gomangosteen

[gomangosteen]

From 2019

The Kiwis helping to clear landmines in Cambodia

Steven Lim (left) and Kiwi colleague Portia Thompson (right) visiting a local school for mine risk education. 

 

Dr Steven Lim spent 30 years teaching economics at the University of Waikato. Upon retirement, he decided to dedicate his time to improving people's lives in poorer countries. As part of this mission, he works with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, helping develop a national strategy to rid Cambodia of landmines by 2025.

 

Mine action focuses on the surveying of contaminated land, clearing landmines to release land to stakeholders, and promoting mine risk education among vulnerable communities. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre is possibly the world’s largest government demining organisation and is devoted to saving lives and supporting development in Cambodia.

 

 

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed along with reply.

 

[AKJeff]

13 hours ago, ross163103 said:

Good to hear this, I wish the US would do more about this problem THEY created. 

More needs to be done but the US has been helping for 20 years or more as well as many other countries.   As for how the problem was created.

 

"The Chinese made landmines in Cambodia were placed by the Cambodian factions (including the Lon Nol, Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes, as well as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea who, with international support retained the UN seat throughout much of the 1980s) which clashed during the Civil War in Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s. They were placed in the whole territory of the country. A common problem Cambodians faced with the anti-personnel mines is that often even the people who placed the mines do not remember them a couple of years later."

 

I quote from.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_mines_in_Cambodia

 

Lots of blame to go around.  A lot of these mines are near the Thailand border.   Maybe Cambodia wanted to keep expats out.

 

 

[AgMech Cowboy]

19 hours ago, ross163103 said:

Good to hear this, I wish the US would do more about this problem THEY created. 

@ross163103 see below:

5 hours ago, AKJeff said:

More needs to be done but the US has been helping for 20 years or more as well as many other countries.   As for how the problem was created.

 

"The Chinese made landmines in Cambodia were placed by the Cambodian factions (including the Lon Nol, Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes, as well as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea who, with international support retained the UN seat throughout much of the 1980s) which clashed during the Civil War in Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s. They were placed in the whole territory of the country. A common problem Cambodians faced with the anti-personnel mines is that often even the people who placed the mines do not remember them a couple of years later."

 

I quote from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_mines_in_Cambodia

 

Lots of blame to go around.  A lot of these mines are near the Thailand border.   Maybe Cambodia wanted to keep expats out.

AKJeff beat me to it with the land mine info.

The USA is to blame for most of the Unexploded Ordinance, UXO, but the Cambodians were/are their own worse enemies.

Edited June 23, 2020 by AgMech Cowboy

[drbeach]

And a little known fact is, some of these mines are actually on Thai territory. I visited the three country viewpoint (THailand, Laos and Cambodia) in Ubon Ratchathani province back in March. Nice little place inside a national park. Free entry too.

 

The first thing I noticed when I got to the parking lot was all the red tape, with a skull and bones and warnings in Thai, English and Khmer (though no Lao). These taped off sections were all on Thai territory. The parking lot was part of the military camp stationed at the border.

 

Why is no one funding mine removal on the Thai side? Even though the areas where mines can be found probably don't extend further than a few hundred meters, or perhaps at most, a km or two in places, inside Thai territory, but it's still both disturbing and puzzling that mines laid more than 40 years ago, are still present on the Thai side (unless I'm missing something and additional mines were laid along the border during the 2011 temple conflict).

 

Either way, Thailand clearly needs assistance too...the army guys at the viewpoint seem to have made only very minimal progress in removing them.

[gomangosteen]

^ most recent data I found

 

Quote

By the end of 2017, Thailand reported suspected mined areas covering 391km2, of which 84% was located in seven eastern and northeastern provinces bordering Cambodia. Most of the rest was in Chiang Mai, bordering Myanmar, and in Pitsanuloke, on the border with Lao PDR. This was a decrease on the 422.61km2 of suspected mined areas at the end of 2016.

 

North: Chiang Mai, Pitsanulok, Tak, Uttaradit

Northeast: Buriram, Surin, Sisaket, Ubon Ratchathani

East: Sa Kaeo, Chanthaburi, Trat

South: Chumpon, Yala

 

The greatest challenge to completion of Thailand’s Article 5 clearance obligations is the high proportion—around 90%—of remaining contamination located in border areas that are subject to demarcation disputes or are inaccessible due to insecurity.

 

Operators in 2017: 

TMAC’s four Humanitarian Mine Action Units (HMAUs)
Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)
Thai Civilian Deminer Association (TDA)

 

Quote

Thailand released a total of 30.98km2 in 2017, 10% more than the previous year. As in previous years, Thailand’s main focus remained on survey, seeking to define a realistic estimate of contamination and avoiding wasteful use of clearance assets

My pics - display from the Humanitarian Mines Action Unit in our town, Tha Mai, Chanthaburi.

As well as de-mining activities along the border the HMAU staff play an important role in educating children in the dangers presented by landmines and unexploded bombs.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by gomangosteen

[pineapple01]

21 hours ago, ross163103 said:

Good to hear this, I wish the US would do more about this problem THEY created. 

I think he means China Russia and France misguided Youth.!