PM Discusses Mines at CMAC Celebration

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Cam­bodian Mine Action Center, Prime Minister Hun Sen Sunday said he looks forward to the day the country won’t need CMAC.

“Though land mines have not been cleared in big numbers from all the lands, through education, people are more aware of those places,” Hun Sen said, speaking at CMAC’s Battambang province headquarters.

Since 1993, CMAC has cleared a large area of land, removing 129,657 mines, the premier said in his speech, which was broadcast across the nation’s radio system. Demining efforts in the 1990s brought the number of nationwide victims down to 64 in 2001.

Though pleased with the support CMAC has received from international donors, Hun Sen said CMAC nonetheless was on the brink of folding several times. He asked donor countries, especially Japan—Cambodia’s largest single donor—to continue funding CMAC’s efforts.

But Cambodians have not just become skilled at demining, they are working hard to ensure mines will no longer be a threat to fellow citizens, Hun Sen said.

“We have sent anti-personnel land mines from the warehouses of the armed forces and police to CMAC for destruction,” he said.

In the future, Cambodia will not need to resort to weapons, Hun Sen said. “Maybe next time we get to ‘war,’ we’ll just hold talks. Or may­be we’ll bite, like Mike Tyson biting [former heavyweight boxing champion Evander] Holyfield, because the bite will not cause death,” he said.

 

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