CAMBODIA

Main Visit Report

Our "official" visit began at CMAC headquarters located in a fashionable suburb with very large and relatively new houses. The streets are wide but unmade and infrastructure clearly lags well behind private developments, like in some parts of many developing countries.

The headquarters building is a 5 story high-rise with an impressive entry and a large number of Toyota and other 4-wheel drive vehicles parked outside.

We were greeted by the chief of protocol who explained that there had been a change in our schedule. We would fly to Battambang at lunchtime, instead of the following day because the person who arranged our original schedule had not checked a timetable. This meant that our headquarters schedule was greatly compressed and we missed several of the appointments arranged for us.

We started with a formal meeting with Niem Chouleng, the assistant director of CMAC, as Sam Sothy was in Australia that week. He made us feel welcome and thanked us for our interest in CMAC and Cambodia.

We then moved to Chief of Staff Phan Sothy's office where Lt. Col. Chip Bowness was also present. I had first met Phan Sothy in Zagreb last October where he was accompanied by Bowness, who is chief technical advisor (TA) to CMAC. Bowness is completing a two year term due to finish in June.

We reviewed the revised arrangements for our visit, and Bowness gave us a quick introduction to Rejean Cote who would be looking after us in Battambang.

We introduced the equipment items we had brought with us.

The helmet and visor created considerable interest, and elicited complimentary remarks on the weight and quality of finish.

Phan Sothy thought the prodder was very good, particularly the hand shield, though only partly for the obvious blast protection feature. Phan pointed out that the blast shield would protect the deminer's hand from being rubbed on the ground, reducing scratches, grazes and hence skin infections.

We showed my own garden saw (above) and Phan Sothy told us that the deminers liked the saw very much. Of the two we sent, they had shown a preference for the smaller Japanese saw like my own. CMAC would be approaching Japanese Government agencies for funding to equip all the demining platoons with them.

These remarks suggested that the saws had helped to establish our credentials: later comments from several people suggested that they had been enthusiastically received, and had made quite an impact.

We introduced the powder ground marker, and talked briefly about some of our other recent work, such as magnetic fragment removal.

Chip Bowness explained that Major Harry Burke (also Canadian) and Heng Savay (CMAC) were responsible at CMAC HQ for new equipment trials. Phan Sothy apologised -- he was due to meet another delegation shortly.

Maj. Harry Burke

Maj. Burke is the technical advisor responsible for new equipment trials and developments. Like Bowness, his term is due to end in June, though like most other TA's he is on a 12 month appointment.

Once again we brought out our equipment which created some interest and several favourable comments.

Burke mentioned that we ought to contact Finn Gundersen (tel +855 18 812 069, 12 802 437, home fax 23 364 051). Finn has set up a workshop in Phnom Penh which could make the equipment for CMAC.

We discussed developments in mine clearance machinery.

Two Finnish flails are currently being tested in different parts of Cambodia to see whether they can be effective, and a number of machines are due to arrive for testing through the rest of this year.

I mentioned the Japanese UNO machine I had seen on a videotape. There was some confusion as the machine Burke seemed to know about was made by Maruma Corporation, represented in Phnom Penh by Mitsui (tel/fax 23-427495).

It seems that perhaps 2 - 4 Japanese companies and some European companies are all working on several similar concepts. The machines are based on ground mills used either for forestry (grinding up stumps of harvested trees) or stripping the surface from old roads. Burke said that he was happy that the companies were in competition with each other to win CMAC approval ­ he favours a competitive approach. CMAC approval opens the way for donor governments to buy the favoured equipment for CMAC to use.

Burke showed us drawers full of ideas, concepts, designs and photographs of demining machinery which had been sent or brought to CMAC. Machines which reach the testing stage are few and far between, and the results are invariably confidential to the donor government and respective companies. However, there has not yet been a machine or concept which comes near to meeting requirements.

Burke said that maintenance in the field is a big problem. Internal communications are difficult in Cambodia, and satellite telephones are essential even between Phnom Penh and Battambang which is the second largest city. Roads are apt to be in poor condition in the dry season (30 ­ 40 km average per hour by 4 wheel drive) and can be impassable in the wet season (which starts intermittently in June-July, eases in August, and sets in heavily for September and October).

Logistics is always a problem, for any equipment. Good equipment can fail simply through logistical problems.

Fragment protection

I asked about the specifications for fragment protection which had appeared in the CMAC Demining Machinery SOR. Burke replied that he thought this information had come from tests carried out at the Candian Defence Research Establishment at Valcartier, or possibly Sudbury. Burke thought that the Valcartier people had tested mines and UXO samples from Cambodia and collected the fragments to assess the size and velocity distribution (tests done possibly late 1996 or early 1997). In designing armour, according to Burke, the window/armour connection was critically important.

Artillery and tank UXO's in Cambodia are generally no more than 105mm calibre. The distribution of UXO's reflects history:

East of Mekong river: US air dropped munitions, particularly AP bomblets (BLU's)

Northern and Western or Mekong: Russian and Vietnamese mines and UXO in predominantly Government areas, Chinese in former Khmer Rouge areas.

CMAC had tended to concentrate on mine clearance, but is now moving more into UXO clearance which is needed in the east.

Burke said that armour specifications are a guide only. In practice one would take the risks anyway and use the machine, making deployment decisions based on avoiding known risks and threats which would compromise operator safety.

After we reviewed photographs of our recent tests on fragment removal, Burke mentioned that some of the demining units had started using voice-coil magnets from old loudspeakers to make it easier to find small fragments.

He said that "truckloads" of frag were removed from some minefields. Any "frag" remaining in a minefield and found during a QA inspection led to a penalty to the team leader.

Tripwire Puller

Burke was interested in Dino's tripwire puller. He said there was a military requirement for this kind of device, but in demining they need to know where the mines are in case pulling a tripwire detonates a mine near or even behind the person pulling. Sometimes tripwires are linked so that one wire pulled will set off a series of more distant mines.

Boots

Burke said that boots posed a significant problem. Currently CMAC is using Malaysian army boots, but they are more expensive than they would like. He is concerned about deminers slipping on steep or muddy slopes.

There had been accidents "along the tape" meaning deminers had lost legs in accidents close to, or on the edge of mined areas. The accuracy of marking, and completeness of metal detector scanning could be questioned.

Because of this there is considerable interest in the possibility of mine-proof boots (ref Cote). I briefly discussed what little I knew of recent Australian tests which had shown that none of the boots tested could withstand even the smallest AP mine tested.

Ground Marker

Burke would like to know that it works in high humidity, perhaps would prefer the disc or liquid type. Would it work on vegetation stubble?

Productivity

Platoons (equivalent to teams in Afghanistan) have 24 deminers (of which 12 are detector operators, 12 men do the probing and vegetation cutting). Usually several platoons work together at one site. A platoon also includes a leader and four section leaders.

Average productivity is 50 - 80 sq metres per day per detector. (Corresponding figure for soft ground in Afghanistan is 80 - 300 sq metres per day). On the basis that vegetation clearance takes at least half of demining effort in Cambodian conditions, and that this is seldom a problem in Afghanistan, the figures are more or less comparable. (My own field observations suggest that fragment counts may be significantly higher in current Cambodian conditions than Afghanistan and this would be sufficient to explain the remaining differences).

CMAC are exploring a new prodding drill.

The current drill is to probe (with a long, thin, sharp pointed rod probe) at 30 degrees up to the metal detector location, but CMAC know that the probing depth is less than the required 20cm (vertical depth). After probing (to confirm that it is not a mine) the deminers search for the fragment.

The new drill involves digging a trench towards the location from about 30 cm back, with a bottom which slopes down to reach a depth of about 20 cm about 5 cm back from the target location. Some TA's think this will be slower than the current drill, though possibly safer.

There is concern about the relatively shallow depth of much of the probing which is currently being done.

In the dry season, water is used to soften the ground 20 ­ 30 minutes before probing begins. The water runs down into cracks in the dried mud. However, water is in very short supply in the dry season and has to be carefully conserved. It is a particularly scarce commodity for local people who don't have access to tankers.

The hard work pattern which falls on the deminer (the metal detector person can rest for much of the time in heavy vegetation) is a problem to be addressed in future. Burke said that there had been considerable recent change in CMAC and a period of consolidation was needed.

Prodding Drill Details

A deminer clears a 1 metre wide lane, marking the end of the cleared lane with a 1 metre long marker stick, and the sides with red coloured cord. The deminer carefully removes vegetation to a distance 0.5 metres ahead of the currently cleared lane, checking for tripwires with a feeler rod (like a thin hollow fibreglass fishing rod about 80 cm long). The deminers uses grass clippers, pruning shears and a small saw. The vegetation is removed as close to ground level as possible.

The deminer places a second marker stick 0.5 metres ahead when the vegetation has been removed. (see minefield tour)

The metal detector operator scans the area between the sticks. He marks the first metal indication with a small red cone and walks back to the control point.

The deminer probes around the location, removes soil, and probes again until a mine is exposed or the metal target has been found and removed. Some deminers use small voice coil magnets to help find small magnetic targets. Since probing can often only be done to a depth of 2-3 cm, especially if the ground is baked hard, or has roots or stones, this step has to be repeated several times for a deep target. Most targets are on or near the surface.

This process (metal detection, then probing) is repeated until all metal targets between the marker sticks have been removed.

Finally, the rear marker stick is moved up to the front one and the red tape lane marking is advanced to the front stick. Then the process recommences.

Materials and Availability

This is a major problem in Cambodia. Apart from steel re-bars and some mild steel plate and wire, the major source of material is wrecked cars, motor scooters (known as "motos") and bicycles.

Scap metal is a significant source of income for rural areas, and children are sent out to find it (even in minefield frag pits).

DU 2 Headquarters Battambang

Major Rejean Cote (pronounced Rayzshon Kotay) was our guide and mentor, and we owe him heaps! He met us at the airport, and introduced us first to Mam Neang, Demining Unit 2 (DU2) Manager at Battambang HQ.

CMAC DU2 Headquarters in Battambang ­ Flag raising ceremony held at 7am each morning when the national anthem is played.

Mam Neang provided us with a general introduction to demining in the region and its geographic significance.

Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia and strategic roads head south west towards Pailin, the former KR stronghold, and key to the main border road to Thailand and Bangkok. Other roads head west and north to other border towns.

The west of Cambodia saw heavy fighting and a struggle for control between the Khmer Rouge forces and Vietnamese occupying forces, and later between government forces and Khmer Rouge elements in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

The region has considerable timber and gemstone resources.

Battambang itself is located in a flat plain near the head of the huge Ton Le Sap lake which dominates the geography of western Cambodia.

There are many mined areas in the region, and survey teams are still working to define the extent of mined areas. Demining work is largely confined to strips along major roads stretching just 300m from the road except in some places where up to 1 km is cleared. Demining work is carefully prioritised to reflect socio-economic objectives.

CMAC concentrates their work near major support bases. Up to 5 or 6 platoons ( up to 150 ­180 deminers) live at a single base camp which is set up within 2 hours drive of demining operations, though mostly the transit time is much less. A single support base may be used for several years. Demining priorities are determined in conjunction with local authorities, other NGO's and funding agencies.

CMAC works with other demining organisations, principally Mines Advisory Group (MAG) based in the UK, HALO Trust, World Vision and other agencies. From what we learned there seems to be a reasonably good working relationship between the different groups: the TA's meet at dinner at local restaurants frequented by ex-patriates.

Community Mine Marking Project

This is a UNICEF funded project being undertaken by CMAC, though it is managed as a separate project from the mainstream demining and survey work.

The project was started by an Australian, Michael Hayes, who is now working in Laos though there was a suggestion he would soon be returning to Battambang. The local TA is Michael McDonnell who explained the project in some detail.

The main aim is to develop a local capacity to mark mined areas which will take many years to clear so that casualties to local people are reduced in the meantime. The marking needs to reflect local maintenance capabilities.

As this report will show later, people are living in mined areas in considerable numbers. Land ownership records prior to 1975 are missing or possibly irrelevant as so many died during the Khmer Rouge period. With the fighting since, land has fallen into the hands of anyone brave enough to occupy it. There are people who have lost everything elsewhere who are desperate enough to occupy land which is not being used. They are known to ex-patriates as IDP's ­ Internally Displaced Persons.

The main problem (not yet solved) is to develop cheap minefield markers which:

Require low maintenance

Can be made locally

Less than 90 cm high, and robust so they are resistant to collisions from bullock carts (axle clearance is 90 cm).

Easily identifiable

Minimal theft value ­ ie no possible use or resale value if stolen

The last requirement is quite difficult to meet since even rusty scrap metal has a re-sale value and bamboo for building huts is keenly sought after.

Michael is experimenting with wire-reinforced cement posts cast in plastic drain pipes (sawn in half).

	Minefield marker posts (mine signs will be secured by wire left projecting from flat face).
	Corner posts

Success requires community involvement to protect the signs and replace them when required.

CMMP maintain their own survey/clearance teams. They generally move into mined areas before CMAC survey parties, so they have a limited mandate for emergency clearance tasks ­ up to 500 sq metres. Their priority process reflects

High population density

High casualty records

Low infrastructure development

Little information on mine threat

Information to help prioritise projects often comes from other NGO's such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Mines Advisory Group who send out field officers to systematically survey population movements and casualties. CARE and MAG between them have been digging village wells for water supply ­ an urgent community need.

As CMAC's activities are concentrated on the land immediately either side of major roads, CMMT tends to operate away from main roads.

Some of the mine clearance procedures used by villagers themselves are interesting:

A "mine pig" ­ a farmer whose pig has learned to dig up mines

A local farmer hires out his tractor with a plough especially to find mines in rice padi fields at US$20 per hactare ­ he uses a metal wheeled plough and rake.

Michael described a typical project. A number of people had moved into the compound around a temple ­ the compound is a little less than 1 sq km and both the compound and the surrounding woodland is known to be mined. Local people petition CMAC or CMMT directly to assist.

Most of the people have moved into concentrated areas of ground inside the compound. They tend to stick to well-worn paths to and from the compound, and within it. The compound has overgrown areas within which the people think contain mines.

CMMT will start by clearing and marking the access paths, and paths to the local water supply. Then they will clear emergency areas which will make a big difference to the local people, for example an area around a small dam or enough area to re-organise crowded shacks. By the time they have finished, maybe 10 ­ 12 km of minefield perimeter and path boundaries has to be marked with posts at 20 ­ 30 metre intervals.

CMMT has difficulties with prioritising their tasks because their objectives are different to CMAC objectives and priorities. Also, the minefield marking activity creates an unrealistic expectation among the locals that the area will soon be demined.

Can people move into areas of land where there are no mines instead of occupying mined areas?

Mostly the answer is no. Mines were laid with the military objective of protecting infrastructure ­ villages, road junctions, river crossings, places which had significance because of fertile land, good water supply etc. Typically villages have mine belts laid around them between the occupying forces and the perceived enemy, with relatively narrow free access ways.

Mines were also laid to deny cover to attacking forces: along canal and river banks, in natural and man-made depressions, heavily wooded copses, temples, ruins and so on.

Vacant land is often unoccupied because it cannot support agriculture and village life. This can be due to many geographic factors. This means that there is constant pressure on useful land. Useful land had people and infrastructure, and hence was mined during fighting.

CMMT have close links with mine awareness projects. MAG follow a policy of training the trainers: creating a trained group of locals who go out to villages to educate local people. World Vision place a mine awareness representative in every village they can.

New International Survey Standard Classifications for Land

Low risk areas:

L1 ­ demined

L2 ­ checked by dogs

L3 ­ information suggests there are no mines there

High risk areas

H1 ­ marked minefield

H2 ­ physical evidence of mines: casualties, visible mines, animals killed

H3 ­ assumed mined until proved otherwise

Priorities

1: Clear access to land, population, infrastructure (mainly roads)

2: Residential areas, limited farming and grazing land to support population

3: Economically significant areas

4: Other areas

A View of HALO Trust

HALO is seen to complement other demining organisations. Staffed predominantly by British ex-military personnel who live in the field for 21 days at a stretch with the deminers (at a village) and then return for a 7 day break at their base (Sisawan, north of Battambang).

In the view of one CMAC TA, it is "let's do it tough" demining.

HALO is using a medium plant tractor (hardened) with a 5 to 8 metre boom carrying a hedge cutter widely used in England for trimming hedgerows. This can cut up to 35 mm wood.

HALO also carry out bridge and culvert repairs.

Technical Advisers in CMAC

Information supplied verbally:

Military Advisers:

7 Canadian

2 New Zealanders

2 Australians

3 Dutch

2 Belgians

8 Swedes

8 Finnish (attached to flail project)

Total 32

Civilian advisers help with EOD, Socio-economics, procurement, logistics and administration ­ total about 28.

Interesting Observations

From what I have read, I expected that CMAC cut all vegetation less than 30 cm in diameter when clearing a mine field. Although this is done in some places, it is not a general practice. The deminers try and leave as much vegetation in place as possible to provide fuel and wood resources for villagers who will move into the cleared area. It also saves time and the deminers only remove vegetation to the extent that they need access. Thicker scrub is left standing and tangled vines etc are cut off at shoulder height and left hanging in the upper canopy to clear the understorey.

Sometimes the core of a bush will need to be cut out carefully so that a detector can be inserted to check for a buried mine. The rest of the bush is left standing.

Tall clumps of bamboo, up to 20 metres high, pose a formidable obstacle and these are often simply left untouched with a red marker rope strung around the outside to indicate that there may be mines.

Minefield Activity

We were surprised at the number of people involved in a coordinated way at a single demining site with up to 100 deminers working, for example, on a minefield 1km across. Everywhere you turn there is activity: a row of umbrellas reveal the control points from which demining activities are supervised.

Village Life

We were surprised to see the extent of apparently normal village life developing in heavily mined areas of ground along route 10. With heavy fighting throughout the Vietnamese occupation and the subsequent struggle between government forces and the Khmer Rouge, the original inhabitants have either died or disappeared. Land ownership records prior to 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over, may be non existent. Therefore land is available to the first person prepared to take the risks, and many do. If they can hold on to the land after the mines have been removed and establish their title over it, they will have acquired a valuable asset. Even though the land only produces one crop of rice per year, (yield is 0.8-1.5 tonnes of rice worth US$0-50 to 0-70 per kilogram) it is still worth between US$750 and 1500 per hectare. In terms of local buying power, land is very valuable.

Accidents and Casualties

Along the areas of route 10 which we observed where hundreds, possibly more than 2000 people have moved in the last 12 months or so, there have only been three recorded mine casualties in the last six months. This is astonishing given the large number of mines which are being removed everyday by deminers working in this area. There were many anecdotes told to us where deminers have removed mines from areas immediately around a hut occupied by a family with children.

One can only conclude that it is much more difficult to set these mines off than one might expect. It might be possible to explain this in terms of baked hard mud containing well established grass and vegetation roots which together provide a reinforced cap over a buried mine. In the wet season the ground becomes so soft that an animal may simply push a mine deeper into the ground or overturn it rather than setting it off. We had the opportunity to examine mine casings left by local people who dig up the mines to recover the explosives for fishing. Corrosion in some of the working parts was evident and this may be a further factor which reduces the chances of mines exploding.

CMAC kindly supplied me with summaries of all the accidents which had occurred to DU2 deminers since 1993. Only eight demining accidents have occurred in that time. The current DU2 compliment is 420 deminers. Of these accidents only one involved prodding.

In Afghanistan the accident rate is much higher. For this many deminers, one would expect about 15 accidents a year, of which 12 would involve prodding. The difference could be explained with a hypothesis that conditions in Afghanistan make prodding accidents much more likely. The rate for non prodding accidents is similar to the Cambodian accident rate, though a little higher.

The difference between PMN-1 and a PMN-2 mine may explain much of this dramatic difference in prodding accident rates.

A PMN-1 mine can be detonated by mechanical force anywhere on the top half of the mine. On the other hand, the PMN-2 can only be detonated by applying force to the X shaped rubber cap which projects through the centre of the top cap.

A further factor must be the ground conditions. Afghanistan is rocky and stony and vegetation cannot produce the dense thatch of roots which can reinforce the ground over the top of a mine in Cambodia.

DU2 accident summary:

1. lost right leg through stepping on PMN-2 mine

2. lost left leg through stepping on PMN-2 mine

3. lost right leg through stepping on PMN-2 mine

4. lost left leg through stepping on type 72 mine

5. eye injuries after type 72 mine exploded while investigating a detector signal

6. lost right leg after stepping on type 72 mine

7. blind in one eye, lost one finger after pressing on PMN-2 mine with metal detector- deminer probably
slipped while using metal detector (wet season)

8. lost left arm, fore fingers and blinded in one eye after PMN-2 mine exploded while trying to extract
explosive for fishing

(detailed information is confidential to CMAC)

Vegetation

Before I came to Cambodia, I imagined thick jungle and rain forest vegetation growing in mined areas. Instead I found that many mined areas have open grazing and ploughed paddy fields as explained above. Other vegetation is much more open than I expected and consists of tough, scrubby growth interlaced with thorny creepers and copses of bamboo. The ground is much drier than I expected- we arrived at the end of the dry season and there is rapid growth during the wet months. However, there are huge populations of insects which eat the leaves almost as fast as they grow.

Fragmentation

I had been led to believe that fragmentation (presence of metal fragments, junk etc) was not such a problem in Cambodia as in, for example, Afghanistan. I was surprised to find that the problem is worse, especially along route 10 where heavy fighting and human occupants have left lots of metal scrap in the ground. In the Treng minefield area where 25.9 hectares have been cleared since work started in January of this year, close to two million metal fragments were found as well as 585 AP mines, 900 UXO's and one AT mine near the main road. This represents one of the more severe cases of fragmentation density. Further from route 10, fragmentation is less of a problem.

Mechanised demining could help with this problem, if a demining machine can be designed to separate magnetic material and roots etc from the soil after processing. Most of the deminers' work is investigating and removing metal fragments. The fragment distribution is very uneven.

Close to roads and paths, scenes of heavy fighting and ammunition dumps (which were blown up) there may be dense fragmentation. Other areas may be much less affected.

An alternative solution to this problem would be a metal detector with discrimination such that magnetic and iron fragment signals are attenuated in comparison to other metals. As all AP mine detonators contain aluminium this could help reduce the total number of fragments which have to be investigated. Most detectors are more sensitive to iron than other metals. However, the Quantum 2020 A detector developed in Western Australia could be modified to do this.

Basic Improvements

When we spoke to deminers (through interpreters) they told us about some of their problems- principally the fragmentation problem and dealing with bamboo. On most occasions expatriate technical advisers were present. In the absence of technical advisers, the deminers spoke about much more basic improvements which they think are necessary:

Water Supply

Deminers said that water supplies were a problem, especially in the dry season. The demining base camps have a water boiling facility from which deminers take supplies of drinking water for the day's work. However, this water is sometimes dirty, and can taste bad. When this happens the deminers are concerned they will get sick if they drink too much water, so they drink less than they should during the day. This makes them work slower, and sometimes makes them sick through dehydration.

We were surprised to learn how hot and dry the dry season is. Typically there is no rain between mid-November and mid-May and temperatures rise to 40 degrees or more with up to 80% humidity.

The demining base camps may not have access to running water: water often has to be carried in with a tanker truck or in drums.

Basic water pumping equipment is available in markets, using low horse-power petrol engines.

A demining base camp has single and married quarters, and may accommodate up to 200 deminers with families, perhaps 500 people in all.

Since our visit, we have collected information on low cost water filtration methods which could solve this problem. Details will be sent to CMAC.

Battery Charger

Batteries for their field radios often run down during the day. They asked if solar battery chargers existed and we mentioned that you could buy chargers that ran off cigarette lighter sockets in vehicles.

If time permits we will send information on commercial products available in Perth.

Safety Glasses

The deminers currently wear safety glasses which are neither comfortable nor offer effective protection against mine explosions. The deminers asked if you could get tinted safety glasses which reduce the glare of the sunlight and are more comfortable. (Samples of latest designs will be sent to CMAC)

The question of protecting deminers from mine explosions caused by prodding is a difficult one. Even though we know how to make visors they are unquestionably less comfortable than safety glasses and, through fatigue, may result in more accidents. The almost complete absence of prodding accidents in this area suggests that deminers may be better off with improved safety glasses.

Uniform

The deminers complained that their uniforms are synthetic material and less comfortable than pure cotton. We were told that new cotton uniforms were due any day but may still be part synthetic. Apparently pure cotton fabric is hard to find in Cambodia and Thailand.

Since Pakistan is a major cotton exporter, we have arranged for samples of cotton uniform material to be sourced by HARC and sent to UWA for forwarding to CMAC.

Insect Repellent

The deminers told us that the insect repellents issued to them are not effective. They are supplied with a cheap repellent from Thailand ( 'OFF' ) which causes headaches and maybe we could find better repellents from Australia.

Samples of 'RID' to be supplied to CMAC.

Food

We were told that some deminers had accidents because they were hunting (snakes or fish) to supplement their food during the lunch hour or were looking for firewood.

Meeting with Finn Gundersen and Maj. Harry Burke (dep. Senior Technical Advisor, CMAC)

Both had kindly undertaken to meet my at my hotel so we chatted over a few drinks. A former airline manager, Finn has had a varied career and has just finished managing a European Union training project near Phnom Penh. He has now set up a mechanical workshop from which he hopes to supply CMAC with various demining equipment items. It is because of this that Maj. Burke had strongly suggested we meet.

Finn is apparently liaising with Michael Prince and Russell Gasser of Warwick University Development Technology Unit. This is the first group Andy worked with and left. They are developing "The Tempest" - an attempt at producing a low cost portable remote controlled demining machine.

This is a copy of the lastest sketch sent to Finn Gundersen. The DTU people are due in Cambodia in late July to run field tests, and apparently the machine is being tested in Bosnia at the moment.

Harry Burke arrived and exchanged news with Finn about the slot in the CMAC trials programme which has been reserved for the DTU people, emphasising that they must be no further delays in the timing of their visit. (I gather several posponements have occurred).

I reviewed what we had learned during our visit, particularly what we had learned about accidents and basic deminer needs. I said we would send information to Finn as he may be able to supply CMAC with the needs we have identified such as water purification equipment.

I reviewed our work on visors. Finn said they had had problems with the high humidity in Cambodia causing bubbles in the polycarbonate sheeting during the hot forming stage. I said I would send details of the HARC oven when available so he could replicate the design if he wanted to. When I discussed the low accident rate during prodding, Maj Burke said that CMAC would be adopting UN standards "in any case", meaning that they would be requiring visors.

I let Finn know that we would be supplying 6 prodders to CMAC for evaluation and testing.

I also offered to explain how we had set up dummy minefields for evaluation and testing.

Meeting with Lt. Col. Chip Bowness (Senior Technical Advisor, CMAC)

Friday 22nd May

I summarised what we had achieved during our visit and thanked him for his help in arranging the visit.

I asked if we could have the detector SOR - there is no copy on diskette, so Chip provided a crisp print-out suitable for scanning at UWA (provisional copy attached).

I asked if we could have an up-to-date SOP. Unfortunately there are none available and the new SOP will not be ready until September.

We discussed E-mail communication. Bowness favours a dedicated deminer server free of the "chat" which sometimes plagues the MgM server, and hopes to set up something following the UN Mine Action Seminar at Karlsruhe, Germany on 1st/2nd July.

I wished Chip well for his up-coming transfer and new appointment to Korea.

Final Meeting with Phan Sothy

At the end of our visit to CMAC headquarters, just before we left for the airport, we discussed our visit with Phan Sothy (chief of staff). We discussed CMAC's independence and the difficulty of running an organisation with so many senior foreign advisers.

Phan Sothy explained how most of CMAC's staff have not had the educational opportunities that Westerners take for granted, even in their own language. They are expected to take part in meetings where all discussions take place in English. A Cambodian staff member may present an idea or viewpoint, but he will find it very difficult to explain. A foreign TA will produce eloquent discourse which always sounds more impressive and carries the day.