Heng Ratana, Director General of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), on Friday, wrote on his Facebook page stating that the US Department of State had provided him a set of data detailing information about the US illegal bombing in Cambodia from October 4, 1965 to August 15, 1973.
According to the data, the US Air Force bombarded 115,275 areas in Cambodia totaling to 2,803,868,152 kilograms of bomb. The bombardment killed about 500,000 Cambodian people.
Mr. Ratana also said that besides the Vietnam War, during the pro-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime or the "Killing Field" from 1975 to 1979, around two million Cambodians were killed by execution, forced labor, and starvation. Moreover, the civil war from 1979 to 1998 has left around four to six million mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) all over the place in Cambodia. In addition, the last civil war also made around 700,000 Cambodian people lost legs and arms.
However, mines and UXO from the last civil war, were not merely made in USA, they were also made in Russia, Vietnam, China, Germany, Belgium etc.
Regarding this issue, in a press conference last week at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Ambassador William A. Heidt told reporters that the US Government acknowledges what they had done and is committed to help the Kingdom of Cambodia to clear landmine and UXO.
"Do you know that we have provided over $160 million to clear the country of unexploded ordnance? Half of that money has gone to clearing ordnance dropped by U.S. planes in the eastern part of the country. But the other half has gone to clearing Chinese, Soviet, and Vietnamese mines in the west – minefields that are ten times more deadly," said Ambassador Heidt in the press conference.
According to Mr. Ratana, so far, 1,500 square kilometers of land in Cambodia were cleared from mines and UXO by CMAC, and 700,000 mines and UXO were destroyed.
"It was a great success for our nation and Cambodian people, especially for our next generation," wrote Mr. Ratana.
Mr. Ratana also wrote that war can take from 10 to 20 years, but it will take a very long time to clear mines and UXO left by that war. Even it could take up to 70 or 100 years, who knows?. For example, in Germany, more than 70 years after World War II, German people still encounter danger from mines and UXO.
As a result, to Mr. Ratana, war is not an option to strengthen democracy.
In the same way, former US president Barack Obama, in his Nobel Prize Lecture in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 2009, said that in any case, war always causes human tragedy, and we must never glorify war.
"So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another – that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy," said Mr. Obama.
To Mr. Obama, peace does not only concern human rights, a sustainable development also plays a very crucial role to maintain peace in a country.
"A just peace includes not only civil and political rights – it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want," added the former president.
However, Mr. Obama added that development and security have to coexist with each other. Hence, to ensure a sustainable development, we have to defend that development.
"It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine and shelter they need to survive. It does not exist where children can't aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within."
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