Latest news with #CambodianSelfHelpDemining
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Program clearing deadly U.S. mines left reeling after Trump USAID funding suspension
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — The detonation rattled the surrounding forest. Kitted out in neon-orange, U.S.-funded personal protective equipment, Chhun Bora, who has more than three decades of demining experience, let the dust settle before checking what was left of the landmine. After giving the all clear, Chhun, the operations manager at the nonprofit group Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD), removed his helmet. He pointed to the red, white and blue sticker of the American flag and said, 'Maybe we need to change soon.' In the 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War left Southeast Asia riddled with remnants of war, foreign aid from the U.S. has steadily funded the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance. That lifesaving work is now in jeopardy after the Trump administration ordered a 90-day suspension of all foreign aid, pushing nations in the region to turn to U.S. rivals such as China to fill the funding Thursday, a U.S. judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate foreign aid funding but did not challenge the executive order itself. 'If we want to be the country we often claim to be, a shining example for the rest of the world, this is not the example we want to set,' said Charles Ray, a former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia. 'Are we in fact the country we say we are? Are we in fact the good guys?' Over lunch on a sunbaked landmine field here in the northwestern province of Siem Reap, Bill Morse, who was a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam War, spoke about co-founding the Landmine Relief Fund and his more than 20 years of fundraising for the Cambodian demining group. 'When the war ended, we didn't give a damn about anybody else. We ignored it and we walked away. I sure hope we don't do it again,' Morse said. 'I am over here because my mother told me as a little kid to clean up after myself.' Historically, America has done that. In 2022, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor ranked the U.S. as the top donor to 'mine action' in Vietnam and Laos, second only to Japan in Cambodia. Both Cambodia and Laos were drawn into the Vietnam War, setting the stage for civil conflicts in both countries that left the region heavily contaminated with landmines and other weapons. Aerial bombs and cluster munitions make up a large portion of the unexploded ordnance in both countries. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. is estimated to have dropped 500,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia and more than 2 million tons on Laos. Since the end of the war in 1975, Vietnam has recorded more than 100,00 casualties from unexploded remnants, including nearly 40,000 people killed. In Laos, there have been an estimated 22,000 victims of unexploded bombs, almost half of whom died. In Cambodia, landmines and unexploded ordnance killed nearly 20,000 people and injured more than 45,000 others from 1979 to 2024. Last month, two deminers with the government-run Cambodian Mine Action Centre were killed by an anti-tank mine near the Thai-Cambodia border. American aid for mine action in Cambodia has mostly come through the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, which declined to comment about the funding freeze. The U.S. embassies in Cambodia and Laos referred requests for comment to the State Department's Bureau of Global Public Affairs. 'We are reviewing all foreign assistance funds to ensure they are aligned with American interests. National security is and will remain a top priority,' said a State Department spokesperson, who added that the 90-day review period was 'put in place for us to align our ongoing work' with the Trump administration's America First agenda. There was 'total shock' in Cambodia when the U.S. announced the funding freeze and the administration moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Nhean Phoung Maly, the founder and director of the women's empowerment group Rachna Satrei. In Siem Reap alone, the hobbling of USAID has affected nearly a dozen nongovernmental organizations that provide HIV treatment, tuberculosis screening and early education, said Nhean, who coordinates a network of more than 300 organizations in the province. Many officials in Cambodia are reluctant to criticize the U.S. aid freeze for fear that it will be the nail in the coffin for future aid. Nhean is not one of them. 'Killing funding,' she said, is like 'killing people indirectly.' The American aid vacuum can't be filled by any one nation, said Yoshinara Asada, an adviser with the Japan International Cooperation Agency who works within the Cambodian Mine Action Center. 'We need a joint effort to tackle this issue,' said Asada, who added that 'sudden 180-degree policy changes can bring considerable confusion and damage reputations.' The aid suspension could create an opening for rival governments in the region to step into America's soft power shoes. 'When we start making foreign aid a political cudgel, we end up pushing people, who could be on our side, or at least be sympathetic to our aims, into the arms of our adversaries,' Ray said. 'It is a no-win situation for us when we start playing games with aid to people.' In early February, less than two weeks after the U.S. aid suspension went into effect, China pledged $4.4 million to humanitarian demining in Cambodia. 'The job is not yet finished. That's why the contributions from friendly countries, like the United States, is crucial,' Ly Thuch, a senior government minister and vice president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, said in an interview in Phnom Penh, the capital. He added, 'Cambodia is blessed in having a number of friendly countries supporting us.' On Friday, government demining teams scoured farmland around Wat village in Siem Reap, where an anti-personnel mine and an unexploded mortar round had been detected. A pair of K-9 units worked in unison to patrol the known edges of the landmine field, once a battleground between the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government, sniffing for explosives. 'We have only worked on this landmine field for three days, and look at how many dangers we have found already,' Oum Socheath, a demining unit manager with the mine action center, said as he motioned to the dogs. If his group and others are unable to continue their work, local residents 'will have to play a lucky draw on minefields,' Socheath said. 'Now that the war in Cambodia has finished, people need to make a living,' Oum said. 'But if we don't clear out the mines, there will always be a risk.' While slowed by the aid freeze, demining continues in Cambodia. The same can't be said in Laos, where the U.S. provided almost 90% of international funding for unexploded ordnance clearance in 2022, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor. The freeze in funding is pushing Laos into 'uncharted territory,' said Danae Hendrickson, chief of mission advancement and communications at Legacies of War, a U.S.-based advocacy group for mine action in the region. 'I fear this pause in funding will undo decades of progress, not only in mine action, but also in U.S.-Laos relations, which have been difficult in the past few decades,' Hendrickson said. Since aid was frozen in late January, four unexploded ordnance accidents have been reported in Laos — leading to two deaths and five injuries across three provinces, according to local authorities. NBC News was unable to independently confirm that figure. 'I refuse to live in a world where we don't continually strive to help our neighbors, especially when we have been part of the problem,' Hendrickson said. 'This is our shared history. The U.S. has dropped these bombs and it is our duty, our moral obligation, to clean that up.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
14-02-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Cambodian mine-clearing program reels after Trump's USAID funding suspension
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — The detonation rattled the surrounding forest. Kitted out in neon-orange, U.S.-funded personal protective equipment, Chhun Bora, who has more than three decades of demining experience, let the dust settle before checking what was left of the landmine. After giving the all clear, Chhun, the operations manager at the nonprofit group Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD), removed his helmet. He pointed to the red, white and blue sticker of the American flag and said, 'Maybe we need to change soon.' In the 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War left Southeast Asia riddled with remnants of war, foreign aid from the U.S. has steadily funded the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance. That lifesaving work is now in jeopardy after the Trump administration ordered a 90-day suspension of all foreign aid, pushing nations in the region to turn to U.S. rivals such as China to fill the funding gap. For more on this story watch 'NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt' tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT. Late Thursday, a U.S. judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate foreign aid funding but did not challenge the executive order itself. 'If we want to be the country we often claim to be, a shining example for the rest of the world, this is not the example we want to set,' said Charles Ray, a former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia. 'Are we in fact the country we say we are? Are we in fact the good guys?' 'Killing people indirectly' Over lunch on a sunbaked landmine field here in the northwestern province of Siem Reap, Bill Morse, who was a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam War, spoke about co-founding the Landmine Relief Fund and his more than 20 years of fundraising for the Cambodian demining group. 'When the war ended, we didn't give a damn about anybody else. We ignored it and we walked away. I sure hope we don't do it again,' Morse said. 'I am over here because my mother told me as a little kid to clean up after myself.' Historically, America has done that. In 2022, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor ranked the U.S. as the top donor to 'mine action' in Vietnam and Laos, second only to Japan in Cambodia. Both Cambodia and Laos were drawn into the Vietnam War, setting the stage for civil conflicts in both countries that left the region heavily contaminated with landmines and other weapons. Aerial bombs and cluster munitions make up a large portion of the unexploded ordnance in both countries. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. is estimated to have dropped 500,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia and more than 2 million tons on Laos. Since the end of the war in 1975, Vietnam has recorded more than 100,00 casualties from unexploded remnants, including nearly 40,000 people killed. In Laos, there have been an estimated 22,000 victims of unexploded bombs, almost half of whom died. In Cambodia, landmines and unexploded ordnance killed nearly 20,000 people and injured more than 45,000 others from 1979 to 2024. Last month, two deminers with the government-run Cambodian Mine Action Centre were killed by an anti-tank mine near the Thai-Cambodia border. American aid for mine action in Cambodia has mostly come through the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, which declined to comment about the funding freeze. The U.S. embassies in Cambodia and Laos referred requests for comment to the State Department's Bureau of Global Public Affairs. 'We are reviewing all foreign assistance funds to ensure they are aligned with American interests. National security is and will remain a top priority,' said a State Department spokesperson, who added that the 90-day review period was 'put in place for us to align our ongoing work' with the Trump administration's America First agenda. There was 'total shock' in Cambodia when the U.S. announced the funding freeze and the administration moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Nhean Phoung Maly, the founder and director of the women's empowerment group Rachna Satrei. In Siem Reap alone, the hobbling of USAID has affected nearly a dozen nongovernmental organizations that provide HIV treatment, tuberculosis screening and early education, said Nhean, who coordinates a network of more than 300 organizations in the province. Many officials in Cambodia are reluctant to criticize the U.S. aid freeze for fear that it will be the nail in the coffin for future aid. Nhean is not one of them. 'Killing funding,' she said, is like 'killing people indirectly.' An unfinished job The American aid vacuum can't be filled by any one nation, said Yoshinara Asada, an adviser with the Japan International Cooperation Agency who works within the Cambodian Mine Action Center. 'We need a joint effort to tackle this issue,' said Asada, who added that 'sudden 180-degree policy changes can bring considerable confusion and damage reputations.' The aid suspension could create an opening for rival governments in the region to step into America's soft power shoes. 'When we start making foreign aid a political cudgel, we end up pushing people, who could be on our side, or at least be sympathetic to our aims, into the arms of our adversaries,' Ray said. 'It is a no-win situation for us when we start playing games with aid to people.' In early February, less than two weeks after the U.S. aid suspension went into effect, China pledged $4.4 million to humanitarian demining in Cambodia. 'The job is not yet finished. That's why the contributions from friendly countries, like the United States, is crucial,' Ly Thuch, a senior government minister and vice president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, said in an interview in Phnom Penh, the capital. He added, 'Cambodia is blessed in having a number of friendly countries supporting us.' On Friday, government demining teams scoured farmland around Wat village in Siem Reap, where an anti-personnel mine and an unexploded mortar round had been detected. A pair of K-9 units worked in unison to patrol the known edges of the landmine field, once a battleground between the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government, sniffing for explosives. 'We have only worked on this landmine field for three days, and look at how many dangers we have found already,' Oum Socheath, a demining unit manager with the mine action center, said as he motioned to the dogs. If his group and others are unable to continue their work, local residents 'will have to play a lucky draw on minefields,' Socheath said. 'Now that the war in Cambodia has finished, people need to make a living,' Oum said. 'But if we don't clear out the mines, there will always be a risk.' While slowed by the aid freeze, demining continues in Cambodia. The same can't be said in Laos, where the U.S. provided almost 90% of international funding for unexploded ordnance clearance in 2022, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor. The freeze in funding is pushing Laos into 'uncharted territory,' said Danae Hendrickson, chief of mission advancement and communications at Legacies of War, a U.S.-based advocacy group for mine action in the region. 'I fear this pause in funding will undo decades of progress, not only in mine action, but also in U.S.-Laos relations, which have been difficult in the past few decades,' Hendrickson said. Since aid was frozen in late January, four unexploded ordnance accidents have been reported in Laos — leading to two deaths and five injuries across three provinces, according to local authorities. NBC News was unable to independently confirm that figure. 'I refuse to live in a world where we don't continually strive to help our neighbors, especially when we have been part of the problem,' Hendrickson said. 'This is our shared history. The U.S. has dropped these bombs and it is our duty, our moral obligation, to clean that up.'
South China Morning Post
14-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
‘People can die': US funding freeze decimates Mekong demining work
Efforts to clear mines and munitions from parts of the Mekong region blanket bombed by American forces during the Vietnam war have been hit by a sudden US funding freeze , with skilled deminers losing jobs and rural populations exposed to increased risks of injury from unexploded ordnance (UXO). On January 25, the State Department suspended funding of nearly all foreign aid commitments for 90 days pending a review by President Donald Trump's 'America first' government. The department, which funnels tens of millions of dollars annually through aid agencies and local groups to carry out demining across the globe – including in the Mekong region – ordered all new spending to be stopped, hitting frontline work almost immediately. The cash crunch has hampered UXO clearance work in places heavily bombed by the United States air force – Laos and Vietnam – as well as neighbouring Cambodia, where instability in the wake of US military intervention triggered decades of conflict. There will be real world outcomes to the funding freeze, warned Bill Morse who founded Cambodian Self Help Demining, a group which has cleared 285 minefields since 2008. 'There's minefields that should be being worked on right now, and they're not,' he told This Week in Asia. 'What can happen? People can die … lives are at risk.'
New York Times
28-01-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
‘A Good Chance People Are Going to Die', as U.S. Halts Funding for Mine Clearing
The Vietnam War ended half a century ago, but American weapons from that era continue to kill people to this day. Unexploded bombs rained down by American troops are littered across large swaths of Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia and Laos. They have killed tens of thousands and maimed many more since the fighting ended. People have been working to clear out these bombs for decades, but experts say it may take another 100 years to finish the job. The United States is a big part of the effort and has given out more than $750 million over the past three decades to clear out the unexploded ammunition in the three countries. But that funding has come to a grinding halt. On Saturday, the State Department said it was suspending its global mine-clearing programs for at least three months. It followed a Trump administration announcement of sweeping pauses of U.S. foreign aid. These moves will ripple through many parts of the world where the United States helps pay for disaster relief, aid for refugees as well as health and anti-poverty programs. Even though the long-term effects of the funding pause are unclear, some experts warned of deadly consequences, particularly in places strewn with land mines, cluster munitions and other unexploded bombs. 'There is a good chance people are going to die,' said Bill Morse, who co-founded Cambodian Self Help Demining and the Landmine Relief Fund. 'Somebody is going to walk into a minefield that should have been cleared this week, boom.' In Vietnam, there was bewilderment. Tran Phu Cuong, director of a government agency responsible for managing international aid into Vietnam, pointed out that the Vietnamese people are still living with the lingering effects of the 'unjust' war. Those include the unexploded bombs and the lasting effects of 'Agent Orange,' the chemical toxin that the Americans sprayed during the war that has been linked to cancers and birth defects. 'The U.S. government and the American people bear responsibility for addressing the consequences of the war,' Mr. Cuong said. Millions of acres of land in Vietnam — nearly a fifth of the country — remained contaminated as of 2023. Ho Van Lai was 10 when he came across a cluster bomb in Vietnam's Quang Tri Province in 2000 while playing with his cousins. He picked up the small round objects, which detonated immediately, killing his two cousins. He lost both legs below the knee, one arm below the elbow and the sight in one eye. Mr. Lai, 34, who is teaching schoolchildren to identify and avoid unexploded bombs, said he was 'very sad' to hear that the Trump administration was cutting funding for demining. 'The U.S. support for mine clearing efforts in Vietnam has given the U.S. a good image,' Mr. Lai said. In Cambodia, Sok Eysan, the spokesman of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, said it was the U.S. president's prerogative to cut these funds, but added: 'Who created the wars which left these countries with land mines? Everyone knows.' On Jan. 16, Pov Nepin, 36, was removing mines for the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, a government agency, in Oddar Meanchey Province in northwestern Cambodia when an anti-tank mine killed him. He had cleared hundreds of mines since 2021, inspired by his father, who was a doctor helping people who had been injured by mines, according to Pov Davann, 29, a brother of Mr. Pov Nepin. 'It is very sad news for all Cambodians to hear about the funding cut,' said Mr. Pov Davann. 'There are still a lot of land mines in Cambodia which we need to clear for farmers.' In recent years, China has stepped up its effort to help countries in Southeast Asia clear their mines. Mr. Morse, the co-founder of the demining organization in Cambodia, warned that the Trump administration's decision will prompt Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to turn more toward Beijing. Since the war ended, 40,000 people in Vietnam have been killed by unexploded bombs and another 60,000 injured. The death toll in Cambodia surpasses 65,000. The U.S. Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., has helped provide treatment to people maimed by these weapons. But the bulk of global mine clearing funding from the United States has come from State Department programs. In recent decades, the tiny landlocked country of Laos has been one of the top recipients of money to destroy conventional weapons. The bombing campaign launched by the United States made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita. More than 22,000 people there have been killed by unexploded bombs from that era. In Laos, officials have said that the country needs $50 million annually for ongoing clearance of land mines and unexploded remnants of war. The government contributes $15 million and relies on international assistance from Japan, the United States and the United Nations Development Program. Sera Koulabdara, the chief executive of Legacies of War, a U.S.-based advocacy group for global demining, said she was going to lobby officials in Washington to reconsider the decision. 'This aid suspension is not sending a good message to the parts of the world who really depend on us,' said Ms. Koulabdara, who fled Laos for the United States when she was 6. 'Congress really needs to reconsider this decision and hold our current administration accountable.'
