PHNOM PENH, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is seeking roughly 90 million U.S. dollars to clear all types of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) in the kingdom by 2025, a senior official said on Thursday.
Ly Thuch, first vice president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, said from 1992 to date, the country had cleared 2,410 square km of landmine/ERW contaminated land, destroying over 1.1 million anti-personal mines, more than 26,000 anti-tank mines and almost 3 million ERWs.
However, the Southeast Asian country still needs to clear the remaining 716 square km of land contaminated by mines.
"I'd like to appeal to our compatriots to make donations to the 'Samdech Techo Project for Mine Action' in order to get rid of landmines and ERWs in our country by 2025," he said in a press conference here. "To achieve this goal, we need a budget of at least 90 million U.S. dollars."
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen established the "Samdech Techo Project for Mine Action" fundraising drive on Monday. So far, the campaign has raised more than 15 million U.S. dollars for local donors, Thuch said.
Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by mines and ERWs. An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions have been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.
According to Yale University, between 1965 and 1973, the United States dropped some 230,516 bombs on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.
Thuch said since 1979, mines and ERWs have killed and injured nearly 65,000 people in the country.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Cambodia said in a statement on Saturday that throughout Cambodia, almost 1 million people are still at risk by living and working in contaminated areas where mines and ERWs continue to kill, injure, and traumatize communities.
The UN agency added that war-left landmines and ERWs have severely impeded the country's recovery and development and constrained livelihoods in rural communities. ■