Leading humanitarian and human rights groups are hoping that the presence of one of South-east Asia's poorest and most war-ravaged countries on the frontline of this new drive will spur others to follow. Groups such as the Nobel-prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) have countries like Laos and Vietnam in mind, given that they, together with Cambodia, top the list of nations in the region affected by unexploded ordnance (UXOs), like cluster munitions (CMs) and anti-personnel mines (APMs).

''The governments of the region should be playing a leading role in the effort to get rid of these weapons that have caused so much human and economic suffering in their countries,'' added Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch, the New York-based global rights lobby. ''The people of South-east Asia know all too well the horrible and long-lasting effects of cluster munitions.''

The conference in the Cambodian capital on Mar. 15, which was attended by victims of UXOs, diplomats, government leaders and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), was the first in a series to be held across the world by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). The coalition aims to conclude negotiations for a new international treaty to ban CMs by late 2008.

This event comes on the heels of a February meeting in Norway, where 46 governments endorsed the Oslo Declaration. The latter called on administrations to help clear a path to ban ''millions of unexploded ''bomblets'' scattered over war-ravaged countries that ''maim and kill people'' and cause ''unacceptable humanitarian harm,'' states the ICBL.

''The campaign has been launched at a time of growing public outrage about the recent use of cluster bombs in Lebanon,'' Coghlan said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. ''Cluster munitions that have lain dormant for a long time in Cambodia still continue to cause devastation.''

This international push against CMs, which are often dropped from aircraft that then separate into ''hundreds of small submunitions,'' is expected to draw lessons from the successful global campaign to ban landmines, which marks its 10th anniversary this year. In 1997, the Mine Ban Treaty was opened for signatures in the Canadian city of Ottawa and it came into force in 1999 after 40 countries ratified it. By this year, 155 countries had signed or ratified the Ottawa Treaty.

Such a milestone stems from countries avoiding the possibility of being ''stigmatised if they are reported trading in this weapon,'' he explained to IPS. ''It is a victory for the campaign.''

Yet, as the 'Landmine Monitor 2006 Report' reveals, the harm caused by these hidden weapons from wars that are over and that are going on is still worrying. While the reported casualties from landmine explosions reached 7,328 in 2005, marking an 11 percent increase from the previous year, the ICBL estimates that the annual new casualty rates each year are significantly higher, between 15,000 and 20,000.

In fact, the 2004 report offers a window into how dire the impact is in South-east Asia, where six countries are grappling with landmines, of which Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are ''three of the most heavily mine contaminated countries in the world''. These six countries in the region have, collectively, produced ''an estimated one landmine casualty every two hours throughout the past five years, resulting in tens of thousands of individuals becoming victims of anti-personnel landmines.''

The conditions in Laos, this region's poorest country, illustrate the magnitude of the danger faced by its people. During Washington's war with Vietnam, Laos fell within the radar of U.S. aircraft out to destroy the movement of North Vietnamese troops through the country. ''U.S. Congressional records show U.S. aircraft averaged 176 sorties a day over nine years and dropped more than two million tons of bomb between 1964 and 1973'' in Laos, states the 2006 landmine monitor report.

Not only did the famous Plain of Jars in Laos become known as the most heavily-bombed place on earth, but the bombs that U.S. B52s and other aircraft dropped in this corner of South-east Asia are reported to have exceeded the total number of bombs that fell on all of Europe during World War II. Among them were the small anti-personnel weapons from the U.S.-made cluster bombs that spread across the landscape. Reports say that close to 30 percent of these bombs failed to explode on impact.

Cambodia, on the other hand, had its land contaminated by UXOs during the Indo-China conflict by both the U.S. , in the country's South-east, because it fell on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that North Vietnamese troops used, and Vietnamese forces, that mined areas to the west of the country after it invaded Cambodia.

''During the Vietnam war, the United States dropped more than a million tons of general purpose bombs and millions of cluster bomblets on Cambodia,'' states the ICBL's annual report. ''Fourteen years after humanitarian demining started in Cambodia, and despite mine risk education and other risk reduction measures, casualties remain high, continuing to average over 800 people each year from 2000 to 2005.''

And as the CMC campaigners move from Cambodia to their next destination, Lima, Peru, to galvanise global support to ban the ''bomblets,'' few expect the challenge to be an easy one. ''This is a long slow process,'' says Moser-Puangsuwan, of the ICBL's landmine monitoring report. ''The political conditions to ban cluster munitions were not ripe till now.''

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency