SIEM REAP, Cambodia: The UN Secretary-General on Monday slammed the \u201crenewed threat\u201d of anti-personnel land mines, days after the United States said it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces battling Russia\u2019s invasion.
\nIn remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia to review progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed the work of clearing and destroying land mines across the world.
\n\u201cBut the threat remains. This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons,\u201d he said in the statement.
\nHe called on the 164 signatories \u2014 which include Ukraine but not Russia or the United States \u2014 to \u201cmeet their obligations and ensure compliance to the Convention.\u201d
\nGuterres\u2019 remarks were delivered by UN Under-Secretary General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.
\nAFP has contacted her office and a spokesman for Guterres to ask if the remarks were directed specifically at Ukraine.
\nThe Ukrainian team at the conference did not respond to AFP questions about the US land mine supplies.
\nWashington\u2019s announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel land mines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.
\nThe outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines \u201cvery important\u201d to halting Russian attacks.
\nThe conference is being held in Cambodia, which was left one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world after three decades of civil war from the 1960s.
\nCambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told the conference his country still needs to clear over 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of contaminated land that is affecting the lives of more than one million people.
\nAround 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1979, and twice as many have been injured.
\nThe International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday that at least 5,757 people had been casualties of land mines and explosive remnants of war across the world last year, 1,983 of whom were killed.
\nCivilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SIEM REAP, Cambodia: The UN Secretary-General on Monday slammed the \u201crenewed threat\u201d of anti-personnel land mines, days after the United States said it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces battling Russia\u2019s invasion. In remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia to review progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n