Thursday, 22 May 2008

Mine Clearing Rate Will Decline in 2008

Posted on 21 May 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 561

“A Senior Official of the Cambodian Mine Action Center [CMAC] said that in 2008 the mine clearing rate will decline because this year mine clearing officials are required to learn additional skills.

“CMAC general director Mr. Khem Sophoan said, ‘During this time, the mine clearing rate of landmines in 2008 will decline, because now some of our mine clearing staff have been withdrawn to learn more skills. Nowadays, there are 205 mine clearing staff of the CMAC who are being trained, and after they have finished their training course, we will send 205 more staff members until we have 600 of our staff trained according to the goal set.’

“Mr. Khem Sophoan continued that the training takes three months.

“In 2007, CMAC cleared 27 million square meters of landmines. In 2008, the landmine clearance will decline, because CMAC staff are busy with training.

According to the CMAC report, in the period of four months in 2008, the CMAC cleared 9,184,303 square meters of landmines and 1,115,580 square meters of fields with unexploded ordnance. The CMAC has also put up 1,690,454 mine danger signs, reduced landmine danger zone size by 24,432 hectares, and found a new areas of 18,583 hectares with landmines, 9,981 anti-personnel mines, 189 anti-tank mines, 36,295 unexploded ordnances, 49 hand-made mines, and 3,111 kilogram of bullets.”

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1646, 21.5.2008

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