A Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) team of experts yesterday successfully removed two unexploded anti-tank mines discovered by rat hunters in Battambang province on Wednesday, police said.

Song Sopheak, police chief in Phnom Proek district, said the hunters discovered the mines while digging a hole on their farmland in Buor commune.

“Both mines are anti-tank mines,” he said. “They are legacies of the war between the Phnom Penh government troops and Khmer Rouge troops during 1980s.”

CMAC yesterday dispatched a team of experts to clear the mines, and transported them to the provincial CMAC Unit 2 location.

Sun Samphors, leader of the CMAC mobile team based in Battambang province, said that removing the mines had been an especially dangerous task because they could have easily exploded, given that they were stacked on top of each other and were only 40 centimetres underground.

“Both mines are [TM-46] anti-tank mines made in China,” he added.

Most of the unexploded ordnance found along the Cambodia-Thailand border was made in China and Russia, Samphors said.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy on Wednesday announced it has opened the bidding process for a one-year grant worth $2 million to survey and clear unexploded ordnance in eastern Cambodia for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

There’s a possibility that the grant could be extended for a second year, according to the embassy’s announcement.