43 Cambodians killed in 2012 landmine blasts

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia reported 185 landmine casualties last year, representing a 12 percent decrease compared with the 211 casualties reported a year earlier, a government report released Wednesday.

In the 2012's casualties, 43 people were killed and 142 others were either injured or amputated, said the report of the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System.

About 52 percent of the victims were men, 25 percent were boys, and 23 percent were women and girls, it said.

Since 1979 to the end of 2012, a total of 64,202 landmine casualties were recorded. Of the casualties, 19,662 people were killed, 35,640 were injured and 8,900 were amputated.

Cambodia is one of the world's worst countries suffered from mines as the results of nearly three decades of war and internal conflicts from the mid-1960s until the end of 1998.

The five most mine-laid provinces are Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pailin and Preah Vihear.

Heng Ratana, director general of Cambodian Mine Action Center ( CMAC), said last month that the country has removed and destroyed some 3 million mines and unexploded ordnance in the last two decades.

He added that the country will completely eliminate landmines in the next 10 years. By doing so, it needs about 30 million U.S. dollars a year.