Caches of unused land mines continue to be found across Cambodia, despite the country’s declaration that it has no mine stockpiles, a recent report states.
“Thousands of stockpiled mines continue to be discovered and destroyed,” states the 2002 Land Mine Monitor report, prepared by the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Land Mines and released on Friday.
The report, which tracks Cambodia’s progress in getting rid of mines, was sent to embassies here to lobby their governments to sign the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, the campaign’s Ny Nhar said.
The report quotes reports from the Cambodian Mine Action Center stating that about 3,700 mines were collected “from various sources, locations and caches” in 2001 and later destroyed.
This is down from 2000, it notes, when more than 11,000 mines were reported found.
Heng Ratana, CMAC cabinet chief, said mines are usually found in underground stashes by villagers.
CMAC adviser Major Robert Peterson said many cached land mines were likely left over from the war in Vietnam. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he noted, “there was a lot of activity from the Vietnamese and Lao forces” where the Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through northeastern Cambodia.
“They would have stockpiled [weapons] all through there,” he said.
Peterson said caches are often not turned in to authorities. Instead, many villagers keep the mines, then injure themselves trying to extract the explosives for use in clearing land.
However, “There doesn’t seem to be any re-laying of mines,” he said.
Under the terms of the Ottawa treaty, to which Cambodia is a party, countries must announce when they no longer have official stockpiles of mines. Cambodia did so in 1999 in good faith, but “time to time, in a place like Cambodia, piles turn up,” UN mine expert Hemi Morete said.
“The Cambodian government knows what they’ve signed up to, and they’re trying to do the right thing,” Morete said.
