PM Hun Sen unveils demining initiative at Queen Noor's visit
PM Hun Sen unveils demining initiative at Queen Noor's visit
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday met with anti-landmine campaigner Queen Noor of Jordan, unveiling a radical plan to transform thousands of hardened soldiers into deminers.
"The prime minister told Queen Noor that the government is planning to send demobilized soldiers to help in demining operations," said cabinet spokesman Eang Sophalette after the meeting.
Cambodia, one of the world's most heavily mined countries, is planning to slash the size of its cumbersome armed forces following the end of its long-running civil war.
The massive demobilization plan has yet to get underway, but the government has been seeking advice from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on finding a role for tens of thousands of jobless troops.
Queen Noor, who arrived in landmine-ridden Cambodia on Sunday as a flag-bearer for the international campaign to ban landmines, praised the Cambodian government for its May signing of the Ottawa anti-landmine treaty before setting off for a center providing artificial limbs for mine victims.
"We can see the smiles and feel the hope that people have because of the care they are receiving that enables them to lead productive lives and face the future with a great deal of confidence," she told reporters.
However the U.S.-born Queen Noor, touring southeast Asia with the co-Nobel Peace prize winning Landmine Survivors Network, was quick to brush aside comparisons with the late Princess Diana.
"I don't see it that way," she said. "I see myself as one of many of the world's people committed to the eradication of anti- personnel mines. There are many people in the world working to that end."
The queen is also scheduled to meet with King Norodom Sihanouk, before heading for the historic ancient Khmer city of Angkor Wat where the surrounding jungles remain littered with mines.
Every month close to 100 people are killed or maimed from the millions of unexploded ordnance and landmines left over in Cambodia from the 30 year civil war.
Cambodia's parliament in May voted to sign the Ottawa treaty, which prohibits the production, use, stockpiling and transfer of the devices. However military sources say vast stockpiles of mines have yet to be destroyed.