Cambodia still suffers pain from U.S. cluster bombs dropped half-century ago: PM

PHNOM PENH, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia still underwent pain from U.S. cluster munitions dropped in the Southeast Asian country half a century ago, the country's Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Sunday.

"Cambodia has suffered painful experience from cluster bombs dropped by the United States in the early 1970s," he said in a message released on his official Telegram channel.

"Until now, it has been more than half a century, but (we) have not found a way to destroy all of them yet," he added.

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

The Cambodian leader's message came after the U.S. is reportedly supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

"It will be the worst danger for the Ukrainians for decades or even centuries if those cluster bombs are used," Hun Sen said.

"I know for sure that Cambodia is small and weak, and our voice is weightless, but with our pity towards the people of Ukraine, I call on the U.S. president, the provider, and the Ukrainian president, the recipient, not to use cluster bombs in this war because the real victims will be civilians, especially the Ukrainian ones," he said.