Phnom Penh, Jan 18 (IANS) A war-left anti-tank mine had exploded, killing a truck driver in Battambang province’s Sampov Lun district, a mine clearance chief said on Saturday.
Heng Ratana, Director-General of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), said the explosion happened on Friday afternoon when the truck, carrying cassava, ran over an anti-tank mine in Kon Phnom Khang Tboung village.
This was the second anti-tank mine explosion incident within this week. The first blast occurred on Thursday, killing two Cambodian demining experts in northwestern Oddar Meanchey province.
The accident took place in Trapeang Prey village in the northwestern Oddar Meanchey province’s Trapeang Prasat district on Thursday as the two male deminers were attempting to remove an anti-tank mine from a farmer’s rice field.
Cambodia is one of countries worst affected by landmines. An estimated four to six million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.
According to Yale University, between 1965 and 1973, the US had dropped 230,516 bombs on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.
A Cambodia’s official report showed that from 1979 to 2024, landmine and Explosive Remnant of War (ERW) explosions had claimed 19,834 lives and either injured or amputated 45,252 others.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a public speech last November that although Cambodia achieved a full peace in 1998, the shadow of landmines continued to loom large and posed a dire threat to human lives and post-war recovery.
He said Cambodia has so far cleared over 3,000 square kilometres of landmines, destroying over one million anti-personnel mines and three million ERWs.
“We have declared 15 of 25 capital cities and provinces as mine free,” Manet said. “Nevertheless, our journey is far from over. We still have over 1,600 square kilometres of contaminated lands and they are affecting lives of approximately 1 million people.”
–IANS
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