Japan to assist Cambodia to become a landmine-free nation

Japan to assist Cambodia to become a landmine-free nation

Japan’s assistance to Cambodia in the decade’s long battle to clear vast areas of landmines in the country would perhaps be close to taking yet another step forward, going by the words of Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hayashi Yoshimasa.

According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Cambodia, a conversation to that effect took place last week between Hayashi and Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cambodia, Prak Sokhonn. The Japanese minister expressed his country’s interest in providing further assistance to Cambodia for the clearance of landmines.

Bill Morse who founded Landmine Relief Fund (LMRF) which raises funds for the landmine clearing team Cambodia Self Help Demining (CSHD) acknowledged the past contributions of the Japanese government: “Japan has been funding demining work in Cambodia for quite some time.”

Talking to the Khmer Times, Bill explained how all the minefields in Cambodia have been identified and that the organisations CSHD, Halo, Mag, APOPO (notable for use of rats), CMAC and NPA that are active in clearing the land of these mines are all funded by donors of national and international organisations, governments, private companies and foundations.

“I started a charity called the Landmine Relief Fund in 2003 that raised funds for CSHD which is funded by the US Department of State, groups from Switzerland and Canada,” said Bill.

Patrick Haigis, Program Officer for Halo Cambodia, which has been active demining in Cambodia since 1991, also says that the majority of his organisation funding “comes from foreign governments and agencies. In Cambodia, we are currently funded by the USA, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and Ireland. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our donors.”

Beyond the essential funding, such as the one Japan is considering, the work to be done to make Cambodia mine-free is very clear according to Bill: “How do we clear landmines? We put more people in the field. And how do we do that? By getting more funding. It’s not rocket science.”

This is why, for him “if the Japanese government does indeed increase its funding, it’s only going to help clear up the problem sooner rather than later, so it’s very encouraging to hear this news”.

This latest consideration of funding from the Japanese government can be credited to the work of CMAC, Cambodia Mine Action Centre, according to its Director-General Heng Ratana.

“CMAC has submitted a few proposals to the government of Japan for mine clearance in Battambang and Pursat provinces and we conveyed our request to the government of Japan to support this effort,” he told us.

“CMAC has received some of the biggest financial and technical support from the people and government of Japan,” he said, and on its website, the organisation declares that CMAC “so far, has received grant aid and technical assistance worth over 70 million USD and approximately 50 million USD as an in-kind contribution from the government of Japan”.

Expressing satisfaction for the Japanese Minister’s declaration, Ratana said: “It’s good to note that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has taken this step towards the projects approval because without their support there would be a big gap considering that we expect to have about 520 deminers under this programme to clear mines in Battambong and Pursat provinces. We plan to start the project by April 1st of this year so they need to approve the funding soon.”

The size and nature of the challenge of demining Cambodia and the dangers that accompany require lots of technical groundwork as Bill Morse explained. “We don’t have any technology that can detect landmines by flying over the ground and finding them. It’s a very tedious task but it takes a lot of very brave people to put on body armour and go out in the Cambodian heat with a mine detector scythe or a weed whacker and find these things and blow them up,” he said.

On January 10 last week, three deminers of CSHD were left dead after an explosion of an anti-tank ordinance during their operations.

Reflecting on this tragedy, Bill said: “These guys could have done anything they wanted and they decided they wanted to make their country safe. We’re grateful for their sacrifice and we just have to carry on and honour their memories.”

Decades of civil war between the various government forces and the Khmer Rouge left vast areas of the country scattered with landmines which have caused the deaths of 19,806 people, and some 40,000 injured, between 1979 and 2021 and continue to blight predominantly areas in the northwest stretching along the Thai border better known as the K5, prompting the various demining organisations to set the goal of demining the whole country by 2025.

CMAC has estimated around 4 to 6 million landmines in Cambodia, whereas some estimate the number might scale up to 10 million. Khmer Times