PHNOM PENH, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two mine detection dogs were airlifted to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from Cambodia on Monday, a mine clearance chief said.
Heng Ratana, director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), said it was a pride for Cambodia that has turned from a country that imported mine-sniffing dogs to a country that exported the mine-detection puppies.
"CMAC used to source explosive detection dogs from Bosnia for clearance operations in Cambodia, but now, the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), which has collaborated with CMAC since 1992, has subscribed two Cambodia-born mine-detection dogs for Bosnia," he said in a post on social media with the photos of the dogs and their handlers checking in at the Techo International Airport.
Cambodia first began using dogs for sniffing out unexploded mines and ordnance in the 1990s and imported them from several different countries.
The Southeast Asian country started to breed and train its own mine-detection dogs domestically in 2002. ■