*EPF313 05/14/2003
Text: Bugs Bunny to Help Warn Cambodians on Risks From Landmines
(Daffy Duck also to aid U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Initiative) (380)

Following is the text of the Department of State May 14 media note on Warner Brothers cartoon characters to be deployed in U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Initiative:

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
May 14, 2003

MEDIA NOTE

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck Deployed to Cambodia on U.S. Department of State Humanitarian Mine Action Initiative

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development have enlisted two famous Warner Bros. characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, to deliver public service messages on mine risk education and landmine survivors social reintegration to the Cambodian people. These messages, delivered in the Khmer language, will also test the usefulness of this medium that combines animation and real local footage.

On Wednesday, May 14, 2003, the messages debut at the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's Kien Khleang Physical Rehabilitation Center near Phnom Penh and at the Cambodian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, they will be broadcast on television throughout Cambodia and distributed on videotape and DVD to the Cambodian Mine Action Center and to local non-governmental organizations that work in mine affected areas.

The messages feature an animated Cambodian landmine survivor, a young boy named "Rith," who was specially created by Warner Bros. for this project.

"This initiative has successfully demonstrated creativity and real partnership between the U.S. Government, Cambodians and the non-governmental and international organizations that assisted us in carefully formulating both messages," remarked Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action, who also serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.

Cambodia's Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Roland Eng, as well as representatives from CARE, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Landmine Survivors Network, UNICEF, World Education, and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund were consulted during the development process. Even the choice of Bugs Bunny from Warner Bros. stable of characters was by design as the rabbit is considered a kind and intelligent creature in Cambodian culture.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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