US claims government knew about chemical bombs

Khmer Circle: Of course, the Phnom Penh regime knew about it. Villagers are known to have been suffering the effects of chemical bombs, babies born with deformities etc. These things cannot stay hidden for long. It's just a question of waiting for the opportune moment to make a fuss of it all. The only disappointment is how the regional and local media run the horror story so uncritically. How often have any of us read about the much larger scale civilian deaths and casualties resulting from the mass forced labour conscription project known as the "K-5 Plan" in the 1980s? At least the US has shown it has made an effort towards the country's post-war recovery. The same cannot be said of some of the other war-time protagonists linked to Cambodia's mass deforestation, over-exploitation of natural assets of all kinds, ELCs, as well as most disconcertingly, sponsoring or backing this abominable regime...

Cambodian Mine Action Centre officials remove a US chemical bomb in Svay Rieng’s Koki commune. Photo supplied

Fri, 20 October 2017

Daphne Chen

p

The US Embassy in Phnom Penh denounced “efforts to politicise” the recent discovery of several tear gas bombs in Svay Rieng province in a statement yesterday, claiming that Cambodian authorities knew about the bombs “for many years”.

The embassy’s statement added that the Cambodian Mine Action Centre [CMAC] had “received two rounds of detailed training in 2015 and 2016 from US military experts on this specific topic”.

Cooperation between the Kingdom and the US in finding and disposing of unexploded ordinance “has saved lives and brought significant development benefits” to the Kingdom, the statement continues.

CMAC Director Heng Ratana denied the group was aware of bombs in Svay Rieng and rejected claims that the issue was being politicised.

“This is a real problem to Cambodians,” Ratana said. “If someone in the embassy wants to go to the site, I will ask someone on my staff to take them there so that they can see the problem.”

The bombs have become a talking point for Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has repeatedly linked them to birth defects in the province, despite there being no evidence to support such a claim.

Ratana allowed that a “proper assessment” was needed to determine the cause of the birth defects.

Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority Senior Minister Ly Thuch said he wasn’t sure when the body first learned of the bombs because he was new to the organisation, but said the US had “a historic obligation” to remove them.