Cambodia

Last Updated: 02 November 2011

Mine Ban Policy

Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Mine Ban Treaty status

State Party

National implementation measures 

Law to Prohibit the Use of Anti-personnel Mines, 28 May 1999

Transparency reporting

2010

Key developments

Cambodia will host the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in November–December 2011; Cambodia undertook regional treaty universalization efforts

Policy

The Kingdom of Cambodia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 28 July 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 January 2000. Domestic implementation legislation—the Law to Prohibit the Use of Anti-personnel Mines—took effect on 28 May 1999.[1] In 2011, Cambodia submitted its 12th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, covering calendar year 2010.[2] 

Cambodia participated in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010. Cambodia delivered statements during the sessions on General Exchange of Views, Enhancing International Cooperation and Assistance, Clearing Mined Areas, Assisting the Victims, and Evaluation of the Implementation Support Unit. States Parties agreed with the proposal that His Excellency Prak Sokhonn, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister and Vice-Chair of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), be designated President of the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties (11MSP), and, that the meeting take place in Phnom Penh from 28 November–2 December 2011.

Cambodia also participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011, where it made statements on most topics. It said that the Cambodian Prime Minister had, in May 2011, called upon all Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations to join the convention, or at a minimum engage in the work of the 11MSP at a high level. Cambodia also stated that it would be visiting Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.[3] 

A joint Cambodian-ICRC-UNDP workshop on universalization was held in Phnom Penh in September 2011. Representatives from states not party China, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Vietnam participated in the meeting.  Minister Prak also visited Singapore on 4 October 2011.

Cambodia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It has not submitted an annual report under Article 13 of the protocol since December 2009 and is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, retention

The government has reported that it does not have any antipersonnel mine production facilities, and that it has not exported antipersonnel mines.[4]

The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) destroyed its declared stockpile of 71,991 antipersonnel mines between 1994 and 1998, and in February 1999, the RCAF Deputy Commander in Chief formally stated that the RCAF no longer had stockpiles of antipersonnel mines.[5]In 2000, Cambodia reported an additional stockpile of 2,035 antipersonnel mines held by the national police, which were subsequently destroyed.[6] Cambodia previously reported that while there have been no antipersonnel mine stockpiles in the country since 2001, “police and military units are still finding and collecting weapons, ammunitions and mines from various sources, locations and caches.”[7] Informal (“village”) demining and the scrap metal trade also accounted for some of the newly discovered stocks of mines. Cambodia stated in its Article 7 report submitted in 2011 that no further stockpiles have been discovered in the past two years.[8]

Discovered mines are supposed to be reported to the CMAA, and handed over to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) for destruction.[9] A Cambodian official has previously stated that newly discovered stocks are destroyed immediately.[10]

Previous Article 7 reports document a total of 133,478 stockpiled antipersonnel mines that were found and destroyed from 2000 to 2008, including 13,665 in 2008 (9,698 by CMAC, 2,713 by HALO Trust, and 1,254 by Mines Advisory Group (MAG)). Cambodia stated that these mines were “reported by local communities.”[11] Cambodia disclosed in its Article 7 report for calendar year 2010 that separate totals for mines recovered and handed over to CMAC for destruction and mines destroyed in minefields by clearance operators were not available.[12]

As in previous years, in its Article 7 report covering 2010, Cambodia declared that it does not retain any antipersonnel mines for training or development purposes.[13] However, Cambodia has each year reported transfer of mines removed from mined areas to the CMAC training center and other operators for training purposes.[14] In June 2011, the Deputy Secretary General of the CMAA told the Monitor that all mines held by Cambodia are fuzeless, and that Cambodia retains no live mines for training.[15] In 2010, Cambodia reported the transfer for training purposes of 778 antipersonnel mines “from various sources and Demining Units/CMAC that were found in the Mined Areas,” but did not state that the mines had been neutralized.[16]  

Use

Previous allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by Cambodian forces on the Cambodian-Thai border, made by Thailand in 2008 and 2009, have not been resolved.[17] In May 2011, in response to a request by the Monitor for an update regarding the Fact Finding Mission Report into the allegations which Cambodia informed the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in November 2008 that it would make public, a government official stated:

Cambodia has been waiting for the responses from Thailand to five core questions, without which the result of the investigation conducted by the Fact Finding Commission of Cambodia cannot be substantiated and evidently concluded. Thailand has not responded to…neither answered nor substantiated the allegation it first made. The allegation made by Thailand regarding Cambodia’s use of new landmines can be summarized as baseless at best.[18]

 



[1] The law bans the production, use, possession, transfer, trade, sale, import, and export of antipersonnel mines. It provides for criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment for offenses committed by civilians or members of the police and the armed forces. It also provides for the destruction of mine stockpiles.

[2] The report is undated, but was submitted to the UN in early 2011. Previous reports were submitted in May 2010 (for calendar year 2009) April 2009 (for calendar year 2008), in 2008 (for calendar year 2007), on 27 April 2007, 11 May 2006, 22 April 2005, 30 April 2004, 15 April 2003, 19 April 2002, 30 June 2001, and 26 June 2000.

[3] Statement of Cambodia, Stating Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 June 2011. Notes by the ICBL.

[4] See Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 reports, Forms D and E. In the 1970s, Cambodia manufactured one type of antipersonnel mine, the KN-10 Claymore-type mine, and various armed groups made improvised mines in the past.

[6]  Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form B, 26 June 2000.

[7]  Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form F.

[8] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2010), Form G3.

[9] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2010), Form F.

[11] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2008), Form G1. Mines destroyed in previous years included: 8,739 in 2000; 7,357 in 2001; 13,509 in 2002; 9,207 in 2003; 15,446 in 2004; 16,878 in 2005; 23,409 in 2006; and 20,268 in 2007.

[12] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2010), Form G3.

[13] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form D1a.

[14] Cambodia reported in 2009 that 701 mines were transferred for development and training. See Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form D2. Cambodia has reported a total of 4,670 mines transferred for training purposes from 1998–2009. All of the mines that are transferred each year are apparently consumed (destroyed) during training activities.

[15] Interview with Sophakmonkol Prum, Deputy Secretary General, CMAA, in Geneva, 24 June 2011.

[16] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2010), Form D2. A total of 497 mines were transferred by CMAC, and 281 mines were transferred by HALO “from Siem Reap HQ and Kdeb Thamar training facilities; some have been sent to the Golden West (Kampong Chnang) and some used as test pieces for certain detector types; also significant numbers were destroyed during various EOD courses.” This makes 778, not 845 as was written in the report.

[17] In October 2008, two Thai soldiers stepped on antipersonnel mines while on patrol in disputed territory between Thailand and Cambodia, near the World Heritage Site of Preah Vihear. Thai authorities maintained that the area was previously clear of mines and that the mines had been newly placed by Cambodian forces. Cambodia denied the charges and stated that the Thai soldiers had entered Cambodian territory in an area known to contain antipersonnel mines and were injured by mines laid during previous armed conflicts. In April 2009, another Thai soldier was reportedly wounded by an antipersonnel mine at the same location during further armed conflict between the two countries.  In September 2009, Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army, Gen. Anupong Paochinda, stated that Cambodian troops were laying fresh mines along the disputed areas and close to routes where Thai soldiers make regular patrols. See Landmine Monitor Report 2009, pp. 243–244, 719–720; and also ICBL-CMC, “Country Profile: Cambodia: Mine Ban Policy,” 6 August 2010, www.the-monitor.org.

[18] Email from Vanndy Hem, Assistant to the Prime Minister, Deputy Head of Secretariat, 11MSP Organizing Committee, 24 June 2011. A copy of the letter from the Royal Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 21 November 2008 and a follow up letter of 16 March 2009 was attached to the email.