For the second year running, a delegation of Iraqi demining trainees have come to the Kingdom for a training programme at the Cambodian Mine Action Centre’s (CMAC) Technical Institute of Mine Action in Kampong Chhnang province.

Head of CMAC Heng Ratana said yesterday that the 27 trainees taking the three-week course are the second batch to enlist Cambodian expertise.

“They have reviewed and evaluated very carefully about our experience before they decided to request for assistance from the Japanese government,” he said.

The collaboration is managed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency under the South-South Cooperation Programme, according to a Facebook post by Ratana.

Ratana, who has on several occasions castigated the United States for its bombing of Cambodia, drew parallels with Iraq’s experience of US military intervention, noting the US invaded the Gulf state in 2003, but “finally they found no weapons of mass destruction”, and adding that CMAC was “happy” to share its expertise with the Iraqi team.