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                                                     December 8, 1997

PRESS RELEASE

STATEMENT BY H.E. Mr. UNG HUOT
FIRST PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
OF THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TREATY-SIGNING CONFERENCE FOR THE GLOBAL BAN ON ANTI-PERSONNEL LANDMINES
OTTAWA, DECEMBER 3, 1997

Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure and an honor for me to be here today to participate in the Anti-Personnel Mine Convention Signing Ceremony. I take this opportunity to express on behalf of the Cambodian people, the Royal Government and myself, my profound thanks to His Excellency Mr. Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada and through him, to the Government of Canada for the invitation to attend today's ceremony extended to myself and my colleagues in the Delegation of the Royal Government of Cambodia.

Cambodia is prominent among those countries whose people have suffered a great deal from landmines. Those who survived landmines; men, women and children, make up part of the social landscape of today's Cambodia. The effects in terms of human resources and socio-economic opportunities lost are so overwhelming that we have to appeal for international help. After more than two decades of warfare, the estimated number of mines still active in rural areas of Cambodia is from 4 to 6 million, not to mention unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam War.

But how many more Cambodian farmers will be their victims before the convention we are about to sign produces some positive effect? Thank to the generous assistance provided by the international community, the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) has been able to work to reduce this immense problem through the use of some new technologies and improved methods of demining, but much remains to be done.

Cambodia enthusiastically welcomes the decision made at the Oslo Diplomatic Conference in September 1997 during which most participant states adopted the draft Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. In particular our thanks must go to the government of Austria for its first tentative draft.

I trust that when the Convention comes into effect, each state party will undertake, as soon as possible, to destroy or ensure the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines under its jurisdiction or control.

Cambodia knows at first hand the plague of landmines. Under the high leadership of our King, His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, The Royal Government of Cambodia is working with all our capacity to rid the country of landmines. We have a difficult challenge. Despite this, we must proceed together with the support of the international community. The problem of land mines can not be a political one. It is firstly a humanitarian tragedy and secondly a development impediment.

Last week the Cambodian legislation on the Landmine ban was approved by the Council of Ministers and the law will soon be passed by the National Assembly. There is clear political will in Cambodia to end the use of land mines. The Cambodian Mine Action Center represents the national and international expression of our country's commitment to the challenge. CMAC under the new law will accept additional authority to implement the provisions of the Ban. Cambodia has made a clear stand on the matter of land mines, both in a legislative and practical sense through the Royal decree that established CMAC and the law on the ban of land mines.

The law clearly prohibits the military use of the land mine. Some press reporting can be misleading. Recent suggestions of newly laid mines in fact seem to be only a few buried improvised explosive devices. We can take a little comfort in that the need to use such crude devices shows that the resistance forces no longer have access to manufactured land mines.

May I, nevertheless, emphasize the fact that for a country like Cambodia, being among the World's least developed countries, continued financial and technical assistance of the international community remains essential to our mine-clearance efforts if we are to rid ourselves of this silent and indiscriminate killer.

It is true that the signing of the Convention will not resolve the world wide humanitarian crisis resulting from the millions of mines already in the ground, but the launching of a process to garner global support for mine clearance, victim assistance and rehabilitation, which are all key parts of the Convention, is an essential step in ridding humanity of this scourge.

Therefore, as one of the victim countries of land mines, Cambodia supports all initiatives leading to the total banning of the production, use, stockpiling, export or transfer of land mines, and to their ultimate destruction.

Thank you for your kind attention.