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Keynote Address at the Ceremonial Delivery of Mine Clearance
Equipments from the Government of Japan and Stocktaking Conference on 10-Year
Achievement (2000 – 2010) of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC)
Phnom Penh, February 17, 2010
Your Excellency Mr. MASAFUMI KUROKI, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to
the Kingdom of Cambodia,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
All officials of CMAC
Today, it is my
privilege and pleasure to be here once again in the ceremonial delivery of mine
clearance equipments and stocktaking conference on CMAC’s 10-year achievement in
clearing mines and UXOs. This is my 5th presence in the ceremonial
delivery of mine clearance equipments from the Government of Japan. List of
equipments to be delivered include 488 mine detectors, 44 deep mine detectors,
spare parts, mine destruction vehicles and mobile maintenance warehouse which
are totally worth USD 5.5 million. These equipments are crucial in supporting
and boosting CMAC’s operation to effectively clear land for crop cultivation and
more robust socio-economic growth.
Taking this
opportunity, on behalf of the people and Royal Government of Cambodia, I would
like to convey our deepest gratitude, through H.E. MASAFUMI KUROKI,
Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom of Cambodia, to the people and Government of
Japan for these important equipments. I highly value this humanitarian act. The
delivery of these equipments also attests to the firm commitment of the people
and Government of Japan to help Cambodia overcome mines and UXOs that are
threatening people’s security, safety and livelihoods. Thanks to the “Win-Win”
policy, Cambodia has managed to end the chronic 2-decade civil war by completely
putting an end to political and organizational structure of the Khmer Rouge in
late 1998 and bringing back the most-needed unification and peace to the people.
However, mines remain a major threat to people living or travelling in or around
ex-battlefields. In this context, the Royal Government is left with a long list
of priorities, including the clearance of mines and UXOs that must be dealt with
urgently to pave the way for broad and cross-sectoral internal integration,
especially for human and infrastructure development effort.
Over the last 10
years, the Royal Government of Cambodia and development partners have cooperated
closely to deal with mines and UXOs and a significant achievement has been made.
However, mines and UXOs have not been completely cleared from villages and
farms, and are endangering lives of those living in ex-battlefields. Mines and
UXOs usually cause death or permanent disability. Moreover, mines and UXOs
threaten crop cultivation and infrastructure development. However, through our
concerted effort, accident rate caused by mines and UXOs declined significantly
over the past few years. According to the report of the Cambodia Red Cross, the
accident rate declined from around 800 in 2004-2005 to 200 in 2008-2009. The
figure indicates our proud achievement in the clearance of mines and UXOs. In
spite of this decline, the rate is relatively high compared to other peaceful
countries left with mines and UXOs. Moreover, the remaining casualty rate is the
indicator to show the threat to security, safety in using land for livelihood of
our people, especially those who are living in the former frontline.
In this regard,
the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) still considers the mine and unexploded
ordnances clearing process in the kingdom of Cambodia as one of its significant
priorities, which is to jointly tackle in order to renovate and develop the
country. The mine and unexploded ordnance sector has been included in the
Cambodia Millennium Development Goal (CMDG) since 2000 and during the 4th legislature of the National Assembly, this sector was still considered as
priority and is included into the Rectangular Strategy-Phase II of the Royal
Government. At the same time, I would like to stress that only Cambodia has its
CMDG of 9 points, in which the 9th point states about the mine and
unexploded ordnance sector.
This clearly
reflects the commitment made by the RGC in solving the mine and unexploded
issues, by realizing that, this issue is not only the social security and safety
matter but also the goals related to the development of our economy because
Cambodia is an agricultural country and in this circumstance the world is in
need of agricultural products. This is additional opportunity for Cambodia to
promote the maximum and effective use of land together with ensuring security,
improving safety for the people in doing farming in order to fulfill the
domestic and export need.
During the last
10 years, the Royal Government has been tremendously successful in all sectors,
especially the socio-economic development. All these successes result from the
joint effort made by all institutions in public and private sectors, civil
society and all development partners combined with the right leadership of the
RGC, in which there was an active participation of the Cambodia Mine Action
Center (CMAC).
Taking this
opportunity, I would like to appreciate the management and all officials and
staff of CMAC, who have put greatest effort in fulfilling their duties with
development partners, achieving proud results. CMAC has been closely
cooperating with various development partners, especially fully participating
with the RGC in the mine and unexploded ordnances clearing process, clearing the
land of 27, 000 hectares, and found and destroyed the land mine and unexploded
ordnances of nearly 2 million landmines. These achievements have significantly
contributed to the allocation of land to people for cultivation and farming in
order to support their respective living. This action also actively contributes
to the RGC in rebuilding rural infrastructures.
The RGC through
the Mine Authority and all Operators including the CMAC, RCAF, and International
Mine Clearance Organizations such as Halo Trust, MAG and JMAS, truly have tried
to demine tirelessly for more than 10 years. Along with this, we do have
recognized that the mine and unexploded ordnances issue is still a threat to the
lives of our people and is the obstacle for development process of the whole
nation. In this regard, we have to continue to liberate the land from landmines
in order to make sure that our people can actually use that land at the utmost
for cultivation and farming without fear. At the same time, we have to boost
the mine clearance in a number of other prioritized areas such as the historical
temples areas and other important tourism sites in order to accelerate our
socio-economic development. We will never forget that achievements we have
achieved today cannot be separated from the efforts made by our demining forces,
in which there are some, who have sacrificed their lives bravely and others have
been injured and disabled during the operation of mine and unexploded ordnance
process. Taking this opportunity, on behalf of the Royal Government and people
of Cambodia and on my own behalf, I would like to share my condolence and
hardship for all demining forces who have been injured, disabled and dead. The
people of Cambodia would like to appreciate and always remember the gratitude
and heroic model of all and their families.
In this regard,
in a name as a country that has suffered greatly from the landmines in the world
and in its capacity as a signatory of the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition
of Use, Stock-take, Produce, and the Trafficking of Land Mines against
Humankind, Cambodia is strictly firm and righteous in abiding by the content and
spirit of this international convention. The RGC has already created laws and
working legal procedures to implement the convention to be more transparent and
highly effective. At the same time, Cambodia has been participating with the
international community in sharing experiences and resources to make sure this
convention can be realized successfully. However, Cambodia so far has received
the accusation of using and planting new landmines along the border. Taking
this opportunity, I would like to reiterate that Cambodia has never planted or
planned to plant landmines at all. The landmines locations are the landmines
covered areas and old landmines farms left by the war. There is no doubt that
those who intruded into Cambodian territory that has not been demined, will
truly be dangerous, not just only the foreign soldiers who do not know the
location but also the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces who are stationing to protect
the border as well as the people living along the border, because some landmines
are still scattered and un-cleared yet.
In fact, we have
been implementing the Ottawa Convention for 10 years (2000-2009) already but the
scope of landmines in Cambodia is tremendous and we can have this work completed
in 10 years. In this connection, the RGC through the Mine Authorities have
requested for the 10 years extension (2010-2020) and it was approved and agreed
upon by the international and partners already. Taking this opportunity, I
would like to re-emphasize that in early December 2009, H.E. Prak Sokhon,
Vice-Chairman of the Mine Authority and Representative of the RGC, led the
delegation to participate in the international conference on the 10 Years
Implementation of Ottawa Convention in KATAGENA of Columbia. That conference
not just approved to support Cambodia’s request for the 10 years extension of
mine clearance in Cambodia but also adopted to allow Cambodia to be a host
country in organizing the 11th Annual Conference, which will be held
in November or early December 2011, which is primarily estimated that the
participants will be about 900 coming from more 150 countries and a number of
international organizations. Furthermore, Cambodia will become the Chair of the
Signatories of one year mandate in 2012 as well.
Along with that,
Cambodia is also proud in participating in the international campaign in which
the RGC has sent the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces specializing in mine and
unexploded ordnance clearance to be on mission for clearing and helping people
in Sudan within the framework of UN Peace Keeping Forces. At the same time, the
Royal Government also sent royal Cambodian armed forces to some countries as
Chad and Central Africa for the same kind of mission. In the spirit, CMAC also
share experience and know-how with some countries in the region and in some part
of the world such as Lao, Vietnam, Colombia, Sri Lanka; and other 15 African
countries had come to exchange experience and learned with CMAC. Obviously, in
2010 the Government of Japan through JICA has supported CMAC to receive 30 mine
clearers and mine officials from Colombia to train together with CMAC, and the
project will continue for the next few years.
All of tasks are
evidences that clearly reflect, generally speaking, the government’s effort, and
specifically speaking achievements accomplished by CMAG in clearance activities
of landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) for the last 17 years, by cooperating
closely with royal Cambodian armed forces and international mine organizations
such as Halo Trust, MAG, JMAS, As a result we have cleared 520 kilometer squared
of land, found and destroyed 2.7 millions of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).
According to assessment by mine authority and all demining operators, we know
that there remains 670 kilometer squared of land mine have to be
completely cleared. Moreover, some land areas suspicious of having landmine
needs to be clarified and to be readjusted clearly in order to ensure safety and
reduce fear of our people. Based on this foundation, I am of the view that
Cambodia needs more resource to successfully continue our clearance activities
of mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) for the next 10 years as scheduled.
Along with, I
would like to reiterate that the Royal Government will continue to accept all
development partners who provide support and assistance for mine clearance
activities in any form through the Royal Government, NGOs and private sectors in
order to destroy the so-call hidden murderers namely mine and unexploded
ordnance (UXO) at earliest possible to ensure happiness and safety to our
people.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to convey my compliment and
congratulation to CMAC for fulfilling role and duty successfully as national
executing agency in ensuring efficiency of operation by coordinating and achieve
good relationship with all development partners and gaining trust and good
partnership aiming at achieving activities objectives, especially we have
succeeded deepened reforms until achieving implementation with professional
standard.
Indeed, reform thus far has made remarkable result, however all
the management, officers and staff of CMAC should make further effort. There are
definitely many challenges, budget current and management mechanism of
multilateral and bilateral aid can change due to circumstance. In this sense,
CMAC should further bolster institutional capacity in order to compete in
national and international framework in context of market economy of clearance
of mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO).
Once again, I would like to thanks all development partners for
supporting demining activities in the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Ireland, German, New
Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, UNDP and UNICEF and
other international organizations such as NPA, HIB, CARE, JMAS, Action-Aid,
JICS and JICA...etc... I firmly believe that all development partners
will continue good cooperation and support in terms of spirit, material and
finance for clearance activities of mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in
Cambodia in order to make success and answer timely demand of our people.
At the end, I would like to with Japanese Ambassador, MASAFUMI
KUROKI, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, representatives of development
partners, officials and demining staff all over Cambodia as well as dear
compatriots 4 gems of Buddhist blessings: Longevity, Nobility, Happiness
and Strength.
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