PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Two separate explosions from ordnance left over from Cambodia’s decades of warfare killed five people and injured two others, the head of the country’s demining agency said Monday.
Some 4 million to 6 million land mines and other unexploded munitions are estimated to have littered Cambodia’s countryside during almost three decades of war and disorder that ended in 1998.
On Saturday, four members of a family in the northeastern province of Mondulkiri who had gone into the forest to collect resin were killed when a grenade exploded from a handheld B-41 rocket launcher believed to date from the 1980s, according to Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre.
He said he did not know what set off the device, which also injured a 6-year-old girl and the mother in the same family.
Heng Ratana also told The Associated Press that a 47-year-old man who was a dealer of sand used in construction was killed on Sunday in the southern city of Sihanoukville when a 105-mm artillery shell exploded. The director general was unable to provide further details.
Despite a very active demining program, many dangerous munitions remain in place, posing a hazard to villagers. Cambodia reported 7,392 suspected hazardous areas totaling 681 square kilometers (263 square miles) as of the end of 2022, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
There were 65,043 casualties, including 19,822 deaths, caused by land mines and other explosive remnants of war from January 1979 to February 2024, the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority said. There have been an average of 37 casualties a year recorded for 2021-2023, a sharp drop from when the mine removal programs were started.
Cambodian deminers are among the world’s most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under U.N. auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East. Cambodia last year began training deminers from Ukraine, which also suffers from a high density of land mines and other unexploded munitions.
FILE - A Cambodian de-mining expert works at a clearance site of land mines near the Cambodia-Thailand border, in Pailin province, once a Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern Cambodia, on Nov. 27, 2011. Two separate explosions from unexploded ordnance left over from Cambodia’s decades of warfare have killed five people and injured two, the head of the country’s demining agency said Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill dropped by the White House on Friday for a visit with President Joe Biden and walked away with a pair of the president's aviator sunglasses and a greater respect for the office.
“I love the merch," he said, taking off the glasses during a quick appearance at the White House daily press briefing following his visit with Biden. Hamill, 72, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, kidded with reporters that he'd take a few questions — as long as they weren't about “Star Wars.”
“I was honored to be asked to come to the White House to meet the president,” he said. He's been to the White House before, during the Carter and Obama administrations, but he'd never checked out the Oval Office, and that was quite something, he said. Biden showed off photographs and other Oval Office items, Hamill said.
Hamill said Biden told him to call him “Joe,” to which Hamill offered an alternative suggestion: “Can I call you Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?”
“He liked that,” said Hamill, who also voiced the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.”
Both Hamill and the White House were vague about his reason for visiting. But Hamill, a Democrat and Biden supporter with a huge social media following, has been posting about the president's reelection campaign this week.
“May The First Not Quench Your Thirst For Biden’s Re-election!” he wrote on May 1.
On Friday he posted, “May The Third Be Absurd That The Guy Who Tried To Steal A Fair Election Is Allowed To Run Again," a reference to Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
May 4th is unofficially “Star Wars” Day, in part because of the famous Jedi phrase “May the force be with you." The pun goes, “May the fourth be with you.”
Hamill also lent his voice to “Air Alert” — a downloadable app linked to Ukraine’s air defense system. His voice urges people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.
Actor Mark Hamill, left, joins White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as she speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Actor Mark Hamill takes off sunglasses given to him by President Joe Biden, as he joins White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as she speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Actor Mark Hamill takes off sunglasses given to him by President Joe Biden, as he joins White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as she speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
