New Zealand offers $3.8m in mine clearance

New Zealand offers $3.8m in mine clearance

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.

“It is good that New Zealand assists Cambodia in clearing landmines. In the past and now, our citizens have died, suffered injuries and become disabled because they plowed the fields for crop cultivation and hit landmines,” Maj Gen Sokhon said, adding that some areas in the province have yet to be demined.

According to a CMAA’s  six-month report, eight people were killed and 27 others were injured by landmines and UXOs in Cambodia.

During the four-month period, landmine operators across the country also cleared 36,180,704 square metres of landmines, in which 4893 anti-personnel mines, 120 anti-tank mines, and 14,195 explosive remnants of war were found and destroyed.

Credited: Khmer Times