Ukraine should shun US cluster bombs, learn from Cambodia’s ‘painful experience’: PM Hun Sen
- Cluster munitions pose ‘the greatest danger’ to civilians for ‘up to a hundred years’ if used, the long-time Cambodian leader wrote on social media
- He cited his country’s experience of US cluster bombs dropped on it more than half a century ago, which have left tens of thousands maimed or killed
“It would be the greatest danger for Ukrainians for many years or up to a hundred years if cluster bombs are used in Russian-occupied areas in the territory of Ukraine,” Hun Sen tweeted on Sunday.
“It has been more than half a century. There have been no means to destroy them all yet,” Hun Sen said.
“As my pity for the Ukrainian people, I appeal to the US president as the supplier and the Ukrainian president as the recipient not to use cluster bombs in the war because the real victims will be Ukrainians.”
And following 30 years of civil war which ended in 1998, Cambodia is among the most heavily mined countries in the world.
The effects of the US bombing campaign and minefields left from conflict have long been felt, with around 20,000 Cambodians killed over the last four decades after stepping on landmines or unexploded ordnance.
Clearance work continues to this day, with the government vowing to clear all mines and unexploded ordnance by 2025.
In January, a group of Ukrainian deminers visited Cambodian minefields to learn from decades of bitter experience.