New cost effective approach for mine clearance

Cambodia unveils new cost effective approach for mine clearance as it promotes the Anti¬Personnel Mine Ban Convention

PHNOM PENH, 23 September 2011 - Eleven Asian countries concluded a two-day regional meeting on Addressing the Human Costs of Anti-Personnel Landmines in which they resolved to continue to improve their responsiveness to the humanitarian challenges of landmines. In a related technical meeting in Siem Reap, mine specialists from 23 countries, presented enhanced approaches to mine clearance.

These and other events are part of Cambodia`s preparations to host the Eleventh Meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention from 27 November to 2 December 2011 in Phnom Penh. It will be the largest international meeting ever held in the Kingdom of Cambodia with more than 1,000 planned participants from Governments, international organizations and civil society.

As one of the most mine-affected countries in the world, Cambodia sparked the international movement to ban these weapons, and is at the forefront of the promotion of a universal ban on anti-personnel landmines.

Cambodia`s landmines are a result of 30 years of armed conflict. Financial support from development partners has helped it remove and destroy 902,913 landmines from 1992 until January 2011 It is estimated that some 650 million square meters of land are still contaminated by mines; one-third of landmine survivors are children.

In Phnom Penh:
At this week`s regional meeting hosted by Cambodia in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), representatives from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam shared their views on the Mine Ban Convention and States Parties presented their experiences and challenges in its implementation.

H.E. Prak Sokhonn, Vice-President of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) and President designate of the upcoming 11MSP, reminded participants that landmines are still a contemporary issue, and that the humanitarian consequences of anti-personnel mines are likely to continue until we achieve a mine-free world. “The road to a mine-free world in still long, but given the universal humanitarian conscience and conviction that states from around the world share, I believe we will get there” added H.E. Prak Sokhonn.

Douglas Broderick, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cambodia, emphasized the impact landmines have on development prospects as “they prevent access to farm land. They slow down the construction of critical infrastructure such as schools, health centers and roads. They create fear and leave people with a feeling of insecurity, many years after conflicts have ended. Those that survive a landmine accident will require medical and social welfare support for their entire lives. In summary, landmines are a burden that weighs heavily on a country’s social and economic development.”

“The high civilian casualties underscore the indiscriminate effect of these weapons and suggest that they cannot be directed only against military targets. Fortunately, most countries are now convinced that the military value of anti-personnel mines is far outweighed by the humanitarian consequences for civilians,” said Mr. Jacques Stroun, Head of ICRC Regional Delegation in Bangkok.

In Siem Reap:
In a related event in Siem Reap, Government and its partners have introduced the Land Release methodology, a new way to release mine affected land in a faster and most economic way and which has the potential to greatly accelerate the pace of land returned safely to population for productive use.

Technical specialists from mine affected countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Croatia, Iraq, Jordan, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Vietnam discussed enhanced approaches to mine clearance. Cambodia is the first country which is fully implementing that new methodology. Since it was put into use in May 2011, Cambodia has already observed up to a 40% productivity increase in the release of suspected mine areas.

"We strongly believe that the Land Release concept will contribute largely to the national strategy for development of the Cambodian government by allowing Cambodia to release its suspected contaminated land with the same quality and safety as the full clearance method. Furthermore, this concept provides an improvement on the current conventional method of clearance, by allowing the analysis in the ways we deploy clearance resources to make our operations more efficient and timely without compromising quality of land released to the community." H.E Heng Ratana, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Director General of CMAC. "This method will be the key method for Cambodia mine clearance program in meeting its deadline of the Mine Ban Convention".

Thanks to this enhanced methodology, where a demining team used to release 1,000 square meters in a month, the same team can now release up to 1,400 square meters. Indeed, up to now, in Cambodia like in most affected countries, little resources were spent in gathering evidence to better define the exact location of landmines. As result, expensive clearance assets have too often been used onto areas where no mines were later found.

Land Release methodology uses survey tools, such as collecting, analyzing new and/or existing information about a suspected land, as well as mine detection dogs, machines and detectors albeit in a limited capacity, to define as far as possible the perimeter of the actual mined area. Once the exact perimeter has been confirmed, clearance assets are deployed to remove the mines and other hazards. This means that the previously suspected land sitting outside this perimeter is released without the use of additional demining tools. Where slow and expensive demining tools were applied before, less expensive and more rapid survey tools are now being applied enabling a faster and cost-effective release of suspected land.

© Scoop Media