Phnom Penh, Jul 18 (IANS): Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Thursday that more than 1 million people in the country still live in areas contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs).

Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for a museum of antiquities in northwest Siem Reap province, Hun Manet said from 1992 to date, Cambodia had cleared approximately 3,000 square km of landmine and ERW-contaminated areas, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Yet, another 1,700 square km of land have not yet been cleared of landmines and ERWs, posing a risk to more than 1 million Cambodian people who live in those areas," he said in a speech live broadcast on the official news channel TVK.

Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and ERWs. An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions have been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.

According to Yale University, between 1965 and 1973, the United States dropped some 230,516 bombs on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.

A Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) official report showed that from 1979 to June 2024, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,830 lives and either injured or amputated 45,242 others.

Hun Manet said war had not only cost human lives, but also jeopardized cultural properties, adding that numerous Cambodian ancient statues and objects at various temples had been damaged, stolen, and illegally trafficked to other countries during the past decades of war and internal conflicts.

According to the prime minister, since 1996 to date, the Southeast Asian country has reclaimed 1,098 looted antiquities from 15 countries, including the United States, Britain and Thailand.