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• Land mines, laid by the Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin/Hun Sen regime, the Vietnamese, the KPNLF, and the Sihanoukists litter the countryside.
• Now, Cambodia has the highest rate of physical disability of any country in the world.
• The civilian population were deliberately targeted with mines and booby traps showing blatant disregard for the long-term consequences.
• The Chinese, the Soviets, the Americans, Vietnamese and a host of smaller nations... supplied the weapons.
• In 1995 it is believed that more than 1,300 square miles of the country were infested with mines.
• The lowest estimates of the number of mines is in the hundreds of thousands; other estimates suggest that there may be several million.
• It is generally accepted that more than 40,000 Cambodians have suffered amputations as a result of mine injuries since 1979. That represents an average of almost 50 victims a week, for sixteen years.
• The Khmer Rouge, continued to lay new mines until 1997.

MEDIA RELEASE - 18 June 2003 AA 03 032

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Hon. ALEXANDER DOWNER

Australia Funds Further Action on Landmines in Cambodia

Mr Downer said, "I am pleased to announce Australia will contribute a further $2 million for landmine clearance in Cambodia. The funds will be provided through a UNDP-administered donor trust fund to support Cambodia's only indigenous de-mining organisation, Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC). This brings total Australian funding for CMAC since 1994 to $24 million. Landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to have a major impact on the people of Cambodia, both in terms of casualties and in limiting access to essential services and infrastructure.

Casualty rates were recently measured at around two per day, compared with more than five times this in 1996, but there is still a lot of work ahead. Some 4500 square kilometres of land remains contaminated by landmines or unexploded ordnance, affecting 46 per cent of villages in Cambodia. Most vulnerable to landmines are Cambodia's poor because they tend to occupy marginal land that is more likely to be mine affected.

Australia's support for CMAC is contributing directly to reducing the vulnerability of Cambodia's rural poor. It is also helping to increase their productivity and incomes. Reducing vulnerability and increasing the productivity and incomes of the rural poor are key objectives of the new Australia-Cambodia Development Cooperation Strategy."