PM Cites Cambodia's Painful Past in Denouncing Cluster Bomb Supplies to Ukraine

A couple of days in the run-up to the NATO summit this week, where vital decisions on Ukraine are expected, the Global South has warned both Ukraine and the United States against the transfer of cluster munitions.

One of the patriarchs of Asian politics, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, appealed to Western politicians and the authorities in Kiev on the pressing issue of the distant Ukraine conflict.

This is how one should regard fresh statements to the public, and then a post on Twitter by the veteran Asian politician, long-term permanent Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, suddenly preoccupied with the state of affairs in distant Ukraine.

“It would be the greatest danger for Ukrainians for many years or up to a hundred years,” if cluster bombs are used during the Ukraine conflict, Hun Sen tweeted, citing Cambodia's 'painful experience' of US cluster munitions dropped in the early 1970s, a foreign legacy that has left tens of thousands maimed or killed.

“It has been more than half a century. There have been no means to destroy them all yet,” Hun Sen added.

“I know for sure that Cambodia is small and weak, but out of compassion for the Ukrainian people, I appeal to the US president as the supplier and the Ukrainian president as the recipient not to use cluster bombs in this war because the real victims [will be] the people of Ukraine,” he said.

When Hun Sen recalls the American bombings, he means approved by late US President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, the top secret bombing campaign known as Operation MENU, during which bombs were dropped on the territory of Cambodia and Laos under the pretext of fighting Vietnamese partisan camps.

In total, 2.5 million air bombs were dropped on Cambodia in those years, and the process of demining the territory dragged on until the mid-2000s and in some places it has not been completed to this day.

The bombings were kept secret from the American public and the US Congress.

Cluster Bomb Supplies to Ukraine

Last week, the US unveiled a new military assistance package for Ukraine that includes cluster bombs. The weapons are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has been ratified by 123 countries, excluding the US and Ukraine.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Ukraine and the United States have not signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which means the formal argument about illegality of using cluster munitions does not imply in this case.

Where Does Cambodia Stand on the Ukraine Conflict?

Hun Sen expounded his stance on the Ukraine issue earlier when he expressed disbelief in a military victory by Ukraine and called on the parties involved to proceed with dialogue and diplomacy.

“I do not believe that Ukraine will be able to return the territories [lost] during the conflict by means of force,” a Cambodia-based paper quoted Hun Sen as saying.

On 29 May, Hun Sen told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call that “using a military approach could end the conflict. I don't think, that Russia is ready to give Crimea and Donbass to Ukraine. I think that even if the United States and Western countries continue to supply Ukraine with weapons, it's all the same, it will be impossible.”