K ING Norodom Sihanouk has called on the parliament to unequivocably condemn the use of landmines and draft a bill to outlaw their use.

"I ask the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia to draft and vote for an anti-landmines law," King Sihanouk said in a press release from Beijing issued on Oct 2.

"I ask that we condemn very severely and definitively the use and planting of anti-personnel landmines, and that we outlaw the people who lay the mines and the mines themselves."

The King urged the RCAF and the Khmer Rouge to stop laying mines, to demine Cambodia and destroy all stockpiles. The King also sought international support for a total ban on the production, export and sale of mines.

Surveys estimate that between 8 to 10 million mines have been laid in Cambodia which has the highest proportion of amputees in the world-one amputee in every 236 inhabitants.