Heng Ratana, General Director of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), told reporters last week that if development partners could provide $406 million to CMAC, all landmines in Cambodia should be cleared before 2025.
"CMAC plans to totally clear all landmines and destroy all kind of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Cambodia in 2025. For that, CMAC needs around $406 million, or around $40 million a year. With this amount of money, CMAC could even finish their job earlier, because CMAC has already enough human resource or experts. What CMAC needs is only a convenient budget," said Mr. Ratana.
All mines and UXOs were left by the long lasting civil war for more than three decades during which the US, Vietnam, China, former Soviet Union etc, have been providing their mines and UXOs to different fighter groups.
As for William A. Heidt, US Ambassador to Cambodia, he said that the US government is taking full responsibility regarding mines and UXOs left during the Vietnam War. However, the new US government did not prepare any budget yet concerning landmine clearance in Cambodia. As a result, the ambassador could not say anything yet about the budget.
After all, the ambassador added that besides many dangers and risk of life, Cambodia could be proud of being the leading country in the field of landmine and UXO clearance. Many countries around the world now are looking to learn from Cambodia's experiences.
According to CMAC, at the present time, more than four million mines and UXOs were destroyed, and more than 1,5000 square kilometers of landmines were cleared. For this achievement, from 1993 to 2016, the US government has contributed $120 million to landmine clearance in Cambodia.
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