Cambodia has the unhappy distinction of having more landmines and explosive remnants of war buried in its soil than almost any country in the world. Nearly three decades of war left Cambodia contaminated by unexploded explosive ordnance; it is estimated that there are six million landmines buried in the country, with no reliable record of where they are. In most cases, the soldiers who planted the mines did not record their locations.
Cambodia now has the one of the highest rates of physical disability in the world. Census data are sketchy, but it is generally agreed that more than 40,000 Cambodians have suffered amputations as a result of mine injuries since 1979—an average of nearly 40 victims a week for 20 years.
The Ottawa Process
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction, otherwise known as the Ottawa Convention or Mine Ban Treaty, was the result of Canadian leadership and cooperation with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The so-called Ottawa process leading up to it was unprecedented and unconventional and involved a strategic partnership between non-governmental organizations, international groups, United Nations and governments.
The goals of the convention were to develop a document by which states could declare their intentions to ban anti-personnel mines and to create an agenda outlining steps for reaching such a ban. Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s Foreign Minister, challenged the world to return to Canada a year later to sign an international treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines.
Effects of the Ottawa Convention
The treaty was signed in 1997 and came into force on 1 March 1999. Some 80% of countries have pledged not to produce, use or stockpile landmines, and global trade in mines has almost stopped, but there are landmines present in 70 countries. They kill several thousand people annually; data collection on mine incidents is largely inadequate so exact figures are not available.
More than 40 million landmines have been destroyed and tens of thousands of square kilometres of contaminated land have been demined. Among the affected countries, some still require significant demining work, others are behind schedule, some do not have a clear idea of how badly contaminated their countryside is, and others have yet to develop coherent demining plans.
Demining progress is monitored by the ICBL. Demining is conducted by various groups, both NGO and commercial. They include MAG, the Mines Advisory Group, which was the co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with Jody Williams, founding coordinator of the ICBL. A second NGO is HALO Trust, a registered trust in Britain; it reported in January 2011 that it had destroyed more than 1.3 million landmines in its 22-year history. A commercial group involved in demining is the BACTEC Group, an enterprise specializing in battle area clearance.
The Ottawa Convention in Cambodia
Cambodia signed the Ottawa Convention on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 28 July 1999. According to Article 5 of the agreement, all landmines were to have been removed by 1 January 2010. Cambodia has reported locating and destroying 133,478 stockpiled anti-personnel mines between 2000 and 2008. In August 2009, Cambodia submitted a request for a 10-year extension to its Article 5 deadline.
In 2008 and 2009, Thai soldiers were wounded when they stepped on mines while patrolling the disputed territory between Thailand and Cambodia. The Royal Thai Army accused Cambodian troops of laying fresh landmines along the disputed areas close to regular patrol routes used by Thai soldiers. The Cambodian government asserted that the munitions had been laid during previous armed conflicts and that the Thai soldiers had entered Cambodian territory known to contain mines. In February 2010, a Thai civilian pled guilty to laying landmines in Cambodian territory and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Clearly, demining the country is not merely a matter of locating and removing the landmines left by decades of conflict.
Learn more: International Campaign to Ban Landmines