Cambodia landmine clearance pushed back 10 years

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia, one of the world's most heavily landmined countries, will not be clear of the devices until at least 2020, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday, adding another decade to demining efforts.
Although the government expects to increase its mine-clearance budget, Hun Sen said projections made in 2000 that the country would be clear 10 years later were "over-optimistic".
"At the time, we said we'd be clear by 2010, but now Cambodia will take about 10 years more", he told an annual meeting on demining efforts, without explaining why.

Hundreds of people are killed or maimed every year by the millions of mines and other unexploded ordnance still littering the countryside after decades of conflict.

Several foreign demining groups have worked with the government's own ordnance agency since 1992 to clear the minefields. But the work is extremely slow, and roughly 2,900 square kilometres (1,119 square miles) of land remains covered with mines.

Earlier in the year Hun Sen said landmines were one of the biggest obstacles to the country's development, and on Tuesday urged the United States to sign the Ottawa Treaty, an international landmine ban.

The United States is responsible for a large proportion of unexploded bombs and other ordnance still being found in much of the countryside after its massive bombing campaigns in Cambodia during the early 1970s.

"It's true that the US has not signed lots of treaties, including the landmine ban... we appeal to the US to work on issues related to the safety of the world", Hun Sen said.