Ratana decries lack of UXO aid
A top Cambodian demining official slammed US President Barack Obama’s widely heralded pledge to increase demining aid to Laos on September 6, faulting the US for what he characterised as its “marginal assistance” to Cambodia’s demining efforts. In a speech at the 2016 ASEAN Summit in Vientiane on September 6, Obama pledged $90 million in demining aid to Laos over the next three years, prompting Heng Ratana, director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, to immediately take to social media to decry the aid package. “This is very unfair and injustice for Cambodian people!” Ratana wrote in a status update, published late that same night. Ratana claimed almost 3 million tonnes of bombs were dropped in Cambodia, killing 500,000 people. (The actual tally of US bombs and the casualties they caused is still disputed by historians.)
