Pledging to “concentrate my whole heart and my whole soul to the demining of the country,” Ieng Mouly said Wednesday that he will be appointed to a third term as chairman of the Cambodian Mine Action Center.
“It is not official, but privately, from the mouth of Second Prime Minister [Hun Sen]; I am told he will recommend me,” Ieng Mouly said.
Ieng Mouly was first appointed to CMAC in 1993, as director and chairman. Since 1995 he has served as chairman of the semi-autonomous group.
“Now I have more time to focus on demining. I will work more for mobilization of resources both from abroad and within,” said the founder of the Buddhist Liberal Party. His party failed to win any Assembly seats in the recent election.
Ieng Mouly said Cambodian ratification of the International Treaty to Ban Landmines leads his list of goals. He also will lobby the National Assembly for a law to ban land mines. A draft of the law was approved by the Council of Ministers last year, but was not voted on in the Assembly.
“If we want to preserve our dignity, we have to show the world that what we say, we do,” Ieng Mouly said.
CMAC hopes to end land mine casualties, the third-most common cause of death in Cambodia, in four years. When it was founded in 1992, 600 people were injured or killed by land mines each month. After six years of demining and education, there are 150 injuries a month, he said.
Ieng Mouly said he wants to upgrade the demining technology, but added, “The best technology we have” is CMAC’s 3,000 deminers in the field.
