Contaminated by: landmines (massive contamination), cluster munition remnants (heavy contamination), and other unexploded ordnance. 

Article 5 deadline: 1 January 2020
(Not on track to meet deadline) 

Non-signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

The Kingdom of Cambodia has an estimated 860km² of antipersonnel mine-contaminated land, out of total mine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination estimated at 1,640km². In 2015, Cambodia released a total of 147km², an increase from 96.22km² in 2014, mainly as a result of a sharp increase in the amount of land released by non-technical survey (NTS). 70.38km² was released by NTS, 30.11km² was reduced by technical survey, and 46.47km² was cleared. Land release has accelerated sharply in the past five years but the release of substantial amounts of land through survey and cancelation, particularly in the last three years, suggests operators will be dealing increasingly with land that needs full clearance that may slow the pace of land release in years ahead.

Cambodia also has heavy contamination from cluster munition remnants but the extent is not known. As of May 2016, Cambodia estimated the amount of land contaminated by cluster munition remnants to be 334km². Cambodia reported the release of 0.77km² of cluster munition-contaminated area by clearance and the reduction of a further 3.34km² by technical survey in 2015.

Recommendations for action

• Cambodia should present as soon as possible a strategy detailing plans for completing its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 obligations.
• The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) should accelerate clearance of dense (category A1) antipersonnel mine contamination.
• Cambodia should ensure clearance is only conducted of land where there is firm evidence of contamination.
• The CMAA should adopt standards for survey and clearance appropriate for dealing with cluster munitions.
• The CMAA should set strategic goals for clearance of ERW, giving priority to cluster munition remnants in the most affected provinces.
• The CMAA should centralize data management to produce comprehensive and disaggregateddata on survey and clearance of mined areas, cluster munition remnants, and battle area contaminated with other ERW.
• The CMAA should present this data in an annual report summarizing progress towards strategic targets.
• The CMAA and mine action stakeholders should review land release planning, prioritization, and tasking to ensure assets are used to maximum effect. 

Cambodia is affected by mines and ERW, including cluster munition remnants, left by 30 years of conflict that ended in the 1990s.

Mine Contamination

Cambodia’s antipersonnel mine problem is concentrated in, but not limited to, 21 northwestern districts along the border with Thailand that account for the great majority of mine casualties. Contamination includes the remains of the 1,046km-long K5 mine belt that was installed along the border with Thailand in the mid-1980s in a bid to block insurgent infiltration, and ranks among the densest contamination in the world with, reportedly, up to 2,400 mines per linear kilometer.[1]

Cambodia conducted a baseline survey of the 139 most mine-affected districts, which was completed in 2013, and followed up by further survey in 2014 and 2015. By the end of 2015, the CMAA estimated it had 7,871 landmine polygons covering almost 860km² out of total contamination by landmines and ERW estimated at 1,640km² (see the table below). Of this total, 1,676 polygons amounting to 106km² was densely contaminated.[2]

Mine contamination based on Baseline Survey results for 139 districts[3]

Note: AP = antipersonnel; AV = antivehicle; N/R = not reported.

Cluster munition Contamination 

Cambodia has heavy contamination from cluster munition remnants but the extent is not known. Contamination resulted from intensive bombing by the United States (US) during the Vietnam War, concentrated in northeastern provinces along the borders with Lao PDR and Vietnam. The US air force dropped at least 26 million explosive submunitions, between 1.9 million and 5.8 million of which are estimated to have not exploded.[4]

On the basis of the Baseline Survey (BLS) of eight eastern provinces conducted between 2012 and 2015, the CMAA estimated the area affected by cluster munition remnants as of May 2016 at 334km², almost 70% of total ERW contamination amounting to more than 482km². It also revealed that 60% of the cluster munition problem is located in the provinces of Kratie and Stung Treng (see table below).[5]

ERW survey of eight eastern provinces[6]

Much of Cambodia’s cluster munition contamination lies in areas that are heavily forested and have been sparsely populated. Population growth and demand for land, however, have resulted in large numbers of people moving into these areas, generating increasing evidence of the scale of contamination and increasing the threat posed.[7] There have been a total of 209 submunition casualties since 1999, 43 killed and 166 injured.[8]

Program Management

The CMAA, set up in September 2000, regulates and coordinates all activities relating to survey and clearance of ERW, including cluster munition remnants.[9] The CMAA’s responsibilities include regulation and accreditation of all operators, preparing strategic plans, managing data, conducting quality control, and coordinating risk education and victim assistance.[10] 

Prime Minister Hun Sen is the CMAA President, and in April 2016 he appointed a senior official, Serei Kosal, as first Vice President, replacing a senior government minister, Prak Sokhonn, who became foreign minister. In May 2016, he also replaced the CMAA’s Secretary General, Prum Sophakmonkol, with another senior minister, Ly Thuch.[11]

The UNDP has supported the CMAA through a “Clearing for Results” (CFR) program since 2006, awarding contracts through a process of competitive bidding. The first two phases from 2006 to the end of 2015 resulted in release of 167.5km² at a cost of US$37.5 million.[12] By May 2016, donors had committed to provide $11 million for four years, of which $7 million was committed by Australia.[13] For 2016, the CMAA issued three contracts worth a total of $1.5 million. This included two contracts worth $1.1 million awarded to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) to clear 6.97km² in Battambang and Bantheay Meanchey provinces and one contract worth $0.39 million awarded to the National Centre for Peacekeeping Forces Management, Mines, and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance (NPMEC) to clear 2km² in Pailin.[14]

Strategic planning

The CMAA’s management reshuffle came as Cambodia was due to draw up a new strategic plan that operators hoped would help to invigorate donor support. A draft national strategic plan produced by a consultant in 2014 observed that Cambodia’s mine action has moved from an emergency phase to a development phase and proposed that “much of the remaining contamination will be dealt with” within the present Article 5 deadline extension request. The plan remained under consideration by the CMAA in 2015 but was not adopted.[15]

A “Concept Paper” on resource mobilization released by the CMAA in early 2016 stated that Cambodia had to deal with contamination totaling 1,638km², of which some 930km² was mined area and 707km² was battle area. It further stated that Cambodia would be able to release 1,545km², or 94% of the total by 2025 through technical survey and clearance at a cost of $338.5 million but warned that mine action targets were “seriously threatened” by a lack of funding. The paper projected annual clearance targets (see the table below) but gave no details.[16]

Concept paper targets

The CMAA paper also identified additional financial requirements totaling $2.4 million, including $600,000 for risk education, $500,000 to support data management, and $500,000 “to develop a formalized knowledge exchange programme with other countries.” 

The CMAA held a series of technical working group meetings with operators and other mine action sector stakeholders in 2015 and 2016 to prepare a new strategic plan with the intention of completing an initial draft by mid-2016 and a final document ahead of the Meeting of States Parties at the end of 2016. This would provide the basis of a request to extend its Article 5 deadline, which falls in 2020. Work on drafting a plan was running behind schedule in 2016.[17] 

Planning, prioritization, and the effectiveness of the present system of tasking operators meanwhile, remained an issue of particular debate. Under existing policy, the CMAA identifies priority communes for clearance on the basis of casualty data and provincial-level Mine Action Planning Units (MAPUs)—responsible for preparing annual clearance task lists, working in consultation with local authorities to identify community priorities, and with operators, taking account of donor funding and objectives. Task lists are reviewed and approved by Provincial Mine Action Committees (PMACs) and the CMAA. Reviews of the system in 2015 identified weaknesses, notably in reconciling local-level priorities with wider strategic goals.[18] 

A review of prioritization in western provinces targeted under the second phase of CFR noted that CMAA top-down guidance did not adequately focus mine action resources on the most impacted communities or development needs. It found that decisions on task selection did not systematically follow official selection criteria, lacked transparency, and appeared to be influenced by ease of access for operators rather than the impact of mined areas on communities. It also noted that the accident data used by the CMAA as criteria for assessing prioritization was too “reactive” and did not sufficiently capture the risks for some new villages set up in areas close to dense (category A1) antipersonnel mine contamination.[19]

A review by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), citing official data, reported that almost half the land released by full clearance or reduced by technical survey in 2015 contained no mines (26%) or very few (one to three) devices (23%). It also found that dense antipersonnel mine contamination accounted for 7% of land released by full clearance in 2015 and 3.5% of land cleared in 2010−2015. Land contaminated by nuisance or scattered mines accounted for almost half the area released in 2010−2015.[20]

HALO Trust pointed to the need to avoid clearing land about to reach reclamation status (after three years’ cultivation without mine detonation incidents). (See the Survey (mines) section below.) It also argued for more clearance of land with highly functional mine types (such as PMN, PPM-2, and 72 Alpha antivehicle mines) than areas with mine types known by local communities to be particularly prone to degrading (Type 69, PMD 60, and POM).[21] 

Operators

Mine clearance is undertaken mainly by the national operator, CMAC, and two international mine action NGOs, HALO Trust and Mines Advisory Group (MAG). CMAC’s Demining Unit 6, based in Siem Reap, came under the management of international NGO APOPO in 2014. A national NGO, Cambodian Self-help Demining (CSHD), has been active since 2011. At the start of 2014, three commercial companies active on a small scale were BACTEC, D&Y, and Viking.[22] Three other commercial companies, CMEC Cooperation, Hi-Tech Recond (Cambodia), and MUCC received provisional accreditation. NPMEC had thirteen demining and four explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams accredited with the CMAA in 2016, two more EOD teams than at the start of 2015.[23] 

Survey and clearance of cluster munition remnants in eastern Cambodia are undertaken mainly by CMAC, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), and MAG. NPMEC have conducted clearance in cluster munition-affected areas but they have not reported the extent and results of their operations.[24]

Land Release (mines)

Cambodia appears to have released close to 147km² of mined area in 2015,[25] but reporting continues to be hampered by the absence of comprehensive, disaggregated data. The 2015 result represented a more than a 50% increase over the previous year, achieved mainly by a sharp rise in land canceled by NTS (see the able below). Land release, however, continued to be focused on land with sparse contamination. Land with dense contamination (categories A1 and A2-1) released in 2015 totaled 1.98km², only a slight increase over the 1.65km² released the year before.[26] 

Mined land released by survey in 2014 and 2015[27]

Cambodia’s Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2015 said it “cleared” a total of 185.34km², but included all forms of land release, including mine and battle area clearance; land released through NTS and technical survey; and areas cleared by the NPMEC that were not identified as contaminated in the BLS.[28]

Survey in 2015 (mines) 

CMAC, HALO, and MAG conducted a non-technical “reclamation” survey between March and October 2015 following up the BLS to determine the amount of land identified as BLS polygons that had been reclaimed by local inhabitants. The survey resulted in cancelation of 70.38km², of which 49.6km² was canceled by HALO, 12.1km² by CMAC, and 8.6km² by MAG.[29] In addition, CMAC reported that it released 30.11km² through technical survey.[30]

Clearance in 2015 (mines)

Mined land released through clearance is estimated to have totaled 46.5km² in 2015, 14% lower than the previous year, although the total is approximate because of data weaknesses. The number of antipersonnel mines that operators destroyed in 2015 fell to 12,179, compared with 20,479 in 2014.[31] 

The downturn in total area cleared resulted from a fall of more than one-third in the amount of mined area cleared by CMAC, the biggest operator but, with more than 1,700 staff, struggling to maintain capacity in the face of financial constraints. Germany ended financial support for CMAC’s Siem Reap-based Demining Unit 6 and contracts under the Clearing for Results program were smaller than the previous year. CMAC also cleared 12.5km² of battle area in 2015, less than half the amount of battle area clearance (BAC) conducted in the previous year and expressed concerns that it would have to lay off staff in 2016 unless it was able to attract additional funds.[32]

HALO Trust employed about 1,000 staff, the same capacity in 2015 as the previous year, and cleared 12.25km², marginally more than in 2014. About half the area was land suspected of antivehicle mine contamination and cleared with large loop detectors. HALO was able to continue working on parts of the K5 mine belt, where access has been restricted because of border tensions with Thailand. Increasing development along the border, accelerated by construction of a road running parallel to the border and plans for opening dozens of border crossing points, has increased population settlement reinforcing the case for clearance of dense border minefields. HALO expected to expand work on K5 after a directive issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen in March 2016 confirming border clearance as beneficial to people living in the area.[33]

MAG expanded capacity significantly adding seven mine action teams in the course of 2015, reporting a 61% rise in the amount of land cleared although, as with other operators, the number of mines it destroyed also dropped sharply. MAG worked with manual teams, dogs, and mechanical assets, expecting further improvements in productivity in 2016 as its new teams become more experienced and with the help of HSTAMID detectors.[34]

Mine clearance in 2015[35]

Note: AP = antipersonnel; AV = antivehicle 

CMAC reported clearance of a total of 7,723 antipersonnel 187 antivehicle mines in the course of mine and battle area clearance, but did not disaggregate the items destroyed in each activity.[37] Therefore a total of 12,179 antipersonnel mines was destroyed in 2015.

Land Release (Cluster Munition Remants)

Cambodia released 0.77km² of cluster munition-contaminated area by clearance and reduced a further 3.34km² by technical survey in 2015. In addition, CMAC reported clearing 22.86 km² of battle area, but did not indicate whether this included any cluster munition-contaminated areas.

Survey in 2015 (cluster munition remnants)

Cambodia is still in the process of scaling up its survey and clearance of cluster munition remnants. CMAC’s survey of ERW identified substantial areas of submunition contamination but was conducted using the mine survey methodology of the BLS and was not best suited to capturing cluster munition strikes. Operators report the survey produced some large polygons that have few cluster remnants, and different survey methods and roving tasks have identified confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) outside the ERW survey polygons. Moreover, the influx of new settlers to the province continues to generate additional information on the location of cluster munition remnants.[38]

NPA focused operations on survey using the methodology tailored to cluster munitions that it developed in Lao PDR. In 2015, it surveyed 4.8km² in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri and identified 20 CHAs covering a total of 1.5km². NPA planned to complete survey of Rattanakiri by the end of 2016 but new information emerging on contamination and its low capacity may prolong operations. In addition to survey, NPA also cleared 0.2km² of area, destroying 220 submunitions.[39]

Technical survey in 2015[40]

Clearance in 2015 (cluster munition remnants)

CMAA data shows levels of cluster munition contamination have dropped in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces where CMAC has conducted clearance under a project funded by the US, partnering with NPA.[41] CMAC reported clearing 22.86km² of battle area in 2015 but its data does not identify if any of this represented cluster munition contamination, nor does it disaggregate submunitions from other items destroyed. 

The other operator tackling cluster munition remnants in 2015 was MAG, which had one team working in 2014 and added capacity in the course of 2015 to finish the year with three clearance teams, two EOD teams, and 60 personnel in Rattanakiri. As in Lao PDR and Vietnam, MAG worked in cooperation with NPA, clearing polygons prioritized by MAPUs.[42] 

Clearance of cluster munition-contaminated areas in 2015[43]

MAG also continued field evaluation for the US Department of Defense of an advanced detector, known as Scorpion, which allows for sub-surface metal signals to be mapped and identified as clutter or possible UXO/cluster munition contamination. MAG reported that initial results suggested the system is significantly more productive than a traditional large-loop detector and able to operate in a range of environments similar to Cambodia.[44] 

MAG and NPA also undertook increasing numbers of spot/roving tasks, partly reflecting growing understanding and confidence in their work on the part of local communities (see table below). Both operators reported that many items were found outside the baseline survey polygons.[45]

Spot/roving clearance and EOD in 2015[46]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the 10-year extension granted by States Parties in 2009), Cambodia is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2020. It is not on track to meet this deadline.

Cambodia stated at the end of 2015 that it expected to release about 868km² over the ensuing five years, leaving around 775km² to be released later. The implied rate of clearance projected in the first five years appeared optimistic, exceeding rates achieved to date (see the table below).[47]

Release of mined areas in 2011–2015 (km²)[48]

In 2016, the CMAA was developing a strategy that focused on achieving clearance of most (94%) of both mined and battle area by 2025, and believed that by 2019 Cambodia would need an extension of less than 10 years. The CMAA cautioned that progress is threatened by funding shortfalls,[50] but operators and reviews of Cambodia’s mine action program also drew attention to factors that may impact performance and prospects for achieving its strategic goals.

Land release has accelerated sharply in the past five years but the release of substantial amounts of land through survey and cancelation, particularly in the last three years, suggests operators will be dealing increasingly with land that needs full clearance that may slow the pace of land release in years ahead.[51] Community and development priorities may require clearance of land with low levels of contamination, but clearance of densely contaminated land has averaged less than 2km² a year for the last five years compared with the 10km² a year that would be needed to complete clearance of these minefields by 2025. GICHD commented that without more focus on tackling these areas “Cambodia will have to address high density antipersonnel contaminated areas while international operators may have left the country and external funding may have expired.”[52]

The Monitor gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review supported and published by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which conducted mine action research in 2016 and shared it with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.