Australia signs off demining funding; $1 million for border UXOs, education
Australia signs off demining funding; $1 million for border UXOs, education
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Australia has provided AUD $1.5 million (approximately $1 million) in funding for UXO clearance in Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear provinces, the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting during last year’s border clashes.
The contribution will support phase V of the Clearing for Results programme, which is coordinated by the UNDP.
Australian ambassador Derel Yip and UNDP resident representative Enrico Gaveglia signed the funding agreement today, June 8, according to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA).
Ly Thuch, CMAA first vice-chairman, addressed the signing ceremony.
“Last year, conflict along our border forced more than 640,000 people from their homes. Families left with what they could carry. They left behind their farms, their schools and the graves of their parents. When the danger passed, they began to return,” he said.
“But the land they came back to was not the land they had left. Some of it is no longer safe to walk, to farm, or to build on. This is where today’s contribution begins,” he added.
According to Thuch, the $1 million contribution will clear 4.4 square kilometres of contaminated land and bring safety to more than 9,700 people. It will also be spent on teaching 18,000 men, women, and children how to recognise danger and keep themselves safe.
“And it will help 400 families who lost almost everything begin again,” he said.
“Behind each of those numbers is a face. A farmer who can return to his field. A child who can walk to school without fear. A mother who can rebuild a home on ground she is finally able to trust,” she added.
According to Thuch, Australia has stood with Cambodia since the early 1990s, supplying AUD $45.31 million in funding since the Clearing for Results project.
Ambassador Yip also addressed the ceremony.
“Australia has had a long and proud history in demining in Cambodia. From support provided during the peace process to our sustained partnerships on mine action over the decades that followed, Australia is pleased to have been a longstanding and dependable supporter of Cambodia’s efforts to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war,” he said.
Our efforts will continue to focus on work in the physical rehabilitation sector, which supports many Cambodians, including landmine survivors,” he added.
Similarly, UNDP has worked with CMAA for nearly twenty years. Since 2006, the Clearing for Results projects have returned 427 square kilometres of land to the people of Cambodia.
“UNDP highly values Australia’s longstanding partnership and commitment to Cambodia’s mine action sector. Building on nearly two decades of collaboration with CMAA and drawing on UNDP’s global expertise and experience in mine action and recovery, UNDP remains committed to supporting Cambodia’s mine action efforts and ensuring that cleared land translates into greater safety, livelihoods and development opportunities for communities,” noted Gaveglia.
Since 1992, around $1 billion has been invested in clearing landmines and explosive remnants of war, assisting survivors and protecting communities across the Kingdom. About 70 per cent of the support has come from the international community.
This partnership has released more than 3,500 square kilometres of land and transform the lives of millions of Cambodians, according to the CMAA.
Phase V of the Clearing for Results project is financially supported by several nations and will run until 2030. Cambodia has committed to be impact-free by that year — a country where no community lives under the threat of explosive contamination.
-Phnom Penh Post-
