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PCL Officially Accredited in Cambodia
December 15, 2006 - PCL has become the only accredited commercial clearance agency operating in Cambodia.
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Nam Theun 2 Power Project Press Release
September 14, 2006 - As progress continues on the Nam Theun 2 Power Project in Khammouane Province changes continue to occur in the lives of resettled villagers. Approximately 6,000 people living in 18 affected villages are in the process of moving to newly-constructed homes located beyond the boundaries of a future reservoir.
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| Cambodia |
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War and Insurrection in Cambodia:
In the early months of 1969, US military intelligence reports identified significant North Vietnamese Army activity just inside Cambodian territory. The US had in fact discovered the Central Office for North Vietnam Headquarters. In March of the same year President Nixon would approve intensive air-strikes in Cambodia.
From the spring of 1970 through January 1973, US-supported Cambodian troops engaged North Vietnamese communist forces. While the fighting raged, a little known communist group called the Khmer Rouge worked side by side with the Vietnamese in order to gain ground in Cambodia. As the Khmer Rouge grew in numbers, strength and popularity, civil war in Cambodia was becoming inevitable.
On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge forces marched unopposed into Phnom Penh and they would remain in power for the next 4 years. January 1979 saw Vietnamese forces enter Cambodia with the intention of ousting the Khmer Rouge from power - and so begins many years of fighting between the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese installed government and ultimately, a Cambodian led government and the Khmer Rouge.
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The Landmine threat in Cambodia:
Landmines were employed in Cambodia by all forces including the Khmer Rouge, Vietnamese forces and US backed Cambodian forces over the course of many years of war. Although nobody will ever know exactly how many mines were employed, estimates range between 4,000,000 and 10,000,000 devices.
In addition, across very large swaths of Cambodia, the fighting left vast numbers of unexploded land service munitions including rockets, mortar bombs, artillery shells and grenades to name only a few.
These devices pose an immediate threat to the Cambodian population by restricting access to markets, schools, agricultural land, water sources and continue to inflict injuries and deaths.
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The Unexploded Ordnance threat:
The oldest air-delivered UXO found in Cambodia dates from World War II and from the French Indochina wars. Most air-delivered UXO contamination in Cambodia is the result of US air attacks along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This trail was a series of routes that ran from north to south through the entire eastern region between the Mekong River and the border with Vietnam and was used to re-supply Viet Cong forces operating in South Vietnam.
The US dropped a variety of general purpose high explosive bombs and a variety of submunitions across the entire region. While it has been estimated that some 15,000,000 tons of ordnance was dropped during the entire war, in this one relatively small area of Cambodia approximately 540,000 tons of ordnance was dropped between 1969 and 1975.
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