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Presentation 4 March 2002, Bangkok
Excellencies, It is indeed my great pleasure to have the opportunity today to deliver a brief remark to excellencies, distinguished guests, and participants opening remark, my Director of Operations will deliver a presentation detailing demining operations and clearance toolboxes used by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre in our efforts to save lives and support the development of Cambodia. The Scope of Mine/UXO problem in Cambodia
According
to initial estimates by international experts, around 3,000
square kilometres of land is contaminated by landmines
and UXO, and approximately 4 to 6 million mines were laid in
Cambodia by all fighting factions throughout the wars and
internal conflicts up to 1998. However, the fact obtained
from a current impact survey, the National Survey Level 1,
which has been conducted by CMAC and Geo-Spatial and
financially supported by the Canadian Government, shows that
the mine/UXO contamination problem is even worse than
initially estimated. The survey, which has completed 86% of Cambodian villages, has revealed the following results: 5,420 villages identified as contaminated, or 45.5% of the total villages surveyed so far. 9,268 EOD tasks have been identified. As the result shows, mines and UXO in Cambodia constitute a serious problem and long-term threat, which does not only affect the daily lives of the Cambodian people, but also has a severe negative impact on the socio-economic development in the country. Because of this problem, mine action, [which includes survey, mjne awareness, clearance and training in mine clearance], is considered one of the highest priorities by the Royal Government of Cambodia. Priorities and Selection of Minefields According
to the household socio-economic surveys by the Ministry of
Planning (1999), approximately 3.7 million or 89.5 percent
of the poor people live in rural areas. Therefore, CMAC's
mine action activities are vital in line with the Royal
Government's priority of poverty reduction, eradication and
uplifting the living standard of
the people, by doing so nurturing the democracy and human
rights in Cambodia. In this sense, mine action has become
one of the highest priorities for supporting national
development and it will eventually have a very positive
impact on the strengthening and developing the human rights
and democracy efforts in Cambodia.
Given limited resources land enormous demand, the following
clearance priorities are clearly set out in the Royal
Decree in order to respond to clearance
requirements requested by a large number of communities: Humanitarian
purpose for high casualty areas. Economic purpose for the
expansion of rehabilitation, national reconstruction or
project, However,
in practical terms, the minefield priority selection can Emergency Phase: 1992,1998 Demining
priorities were given to high casualty rate areas
for
casualty reduction. Development Phase: from 1998 to Present The
selection of minefields is based on the requests from high
casualty rate communities and assessment on socio-economic To
select minefields for clearance in the development phase,
upon receiving the requests from affected communities,
CMAC's Socio- Economic Clearance Productivity The
year 2001 has been an active and productive year for CMAC
Operations. Following the crisis in 2000, CMAC redeployed
its operational teams over the year 2001 to reach a capacity
of 46 demining platoons, 16 EOD teams, 19 Mine Marking
Teams, 12 Community Mine Marking Teams, 4 brush
cutters, 2 flails and 4 Mine Detection
Dog teams. In 2001 several projects were carried out
successfully, such as integration trial of brush cutters
with manual and mine detection dogs and now this mechanical
equipment became a very useful demining toolbox. In
terms of clearance productivity in 2001, CMAC platoons
reached an average of 17,802 m2 per month, which represents
an increase of 55.70 % compared to the year 2000. If we
compare to the clearance target set out in IWP 2001, the
total productivity increased 37 percent against the target.
Flexibility, efficient use of demining toolboxes, relocation
of site accommodation close to demining sites,
implementation of decentralization concept, SOPs and
monitoring systems constitute the key factors
for the increased productivity. CMAC is tirelessly committed to saving lives and supporting the development of Cambodia. Through our operations, thousands of lives have been saved, and hectares of land have been demined for humanitarian purposes such as settlement, agriculture, and infrastructure construction and rehabilitation. We continue to be committed to increasing our productivity through new clearance and area reduction strategies, clearance techniques, integrated operations, efficient use of demining toolboxes, and strengthening the morales of the deminers and corporate management.
Before closing, I would like to express my appreciation for
granting me and my team the opportunity to participate in this
useful workshop. Through this
workshop, we will be able to share our experience with other
demining organizations and also learn from you in order to
strengthen mine action activities in Cambodia. I believe we
will learn more than we can share in this workshop. Thank you
very much. Note :
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