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Afghanistan:
Mine Clearance Crucial for Reconstruction (Excerpted)
ISLAMABAD, 29 December (IRIN) - The Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan
(MAPA) sent a security assessment team to the eastern city of Jalalabad
on Friday to determine whether full-time land mine clearance could
commence in order to clear the way for reconstruction and rehabilitation
work.
"It is paramount that mine action happens before any reconstruction
or rehabilitation can start," Richard Daniel Kelly, MAPA's
programme manager, told IRIN on Friday. The security assessment
team is due to make recommendation by Sunday on whether mine clearance
can start full-time in and around the city.
Another team due to have undertaken a similar mission to the southern
Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday was unable to set out. "We
had a mission to go into Kandahar this morning by plane, but that
was postponed due to the advice from the coalition force... we are
trying to get justification for that," Kelly said. "It
is imperative that we get in and get our operations started. There
are lot of indications that unexploded ordnance (UXO) and mines
are spread throughout the city," he added.
According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL),
Afghanistan is one of the world's most heavily mined countries,
where two to three people die every day due to land mines.
"This was the case even before the current conflict, and will
remain the reality long after a new government is in place. And,
now de-miners getting back to work for the first time since mid-September
have the added burden of clearing cluster bombs, along with the
countless anti- personnel mines and other unexploded ordnance,"
said a ICBL statement on its website.
Afghanistan's
estimated eight to 10 million land mines and UXO ö the result of
two decades of war - claimed 88 casualties a month last year, according
to one mine action group.
ICBL said it is concerned that civilians, aid workers, peacekeepers
and military personnel in Afghanistan continue to be at grave risk
of death or injury by mines and similar weapons. There was an urgent
need for the international community to boost funding and other
support for mine action and victim assistance in Afghanistan, it
added. It also wanted the Afghan interim government to join the
Mine Ban Treaty as soon as possible.
An interim administration led by Hamid Karzai took control of Kabul
on 22 December for a period of six months as a first step toward
the establishment of a broad-based multi-ethnic government to bring
peace and stability to the country.
A massive reconstruction effort for Afghanistan is being planned
under UN coordination with the help of the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank. A needs-assessment team is busy determining what
is needed for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan,
where more than seven million people are in need of some kind of
aid from the UN and international donors. . .
"How mine action is going to impact [on] the reconstruction
work in intimate details [is being discussed], so that they can
factor in the mine action, especially the mine-clearance requirements
of their individual projects," Kelly said.
Afghanistan has witnessed massive internal displacement of people,
mostly due to factional fighting, and also because of the worst
drought of 30 years, now in its third year. Agriculture, vital for
the survival of the people, is also hampered by presence of land
mines in the fields, and remains a security risk for people returning
to their villages.
Kelly said there was a need to speed up mine-clearance work, which
had had to be suspended during the US-led military campaign against
the Taliban movement and its guest, Osama bin Laden. But the work
has already resumed in some areas after the retreat of the Taliban.
Mine clearance was in progress in the central regions of Afghanistan,
where more than 920 de-miners from various implementing agencies
were also carrying out awareness and survey work, he said. In the
western regions, including the historic city of Herat, more than
200 de-miners were busy with mine clearance, awareness and surveys,
while 150 de- miners were waiting to go in after they obtained security
clearance for road travel.
More than 230 de-miners were active in northern Afghanistan, working
in the Mazar-e Sharif, Baghlan, Samangan and Konduz areas. An additional
100 de-miners were expected to join the others by 3 January, Kelly
added.
Kelly said the state of ammunition depots within military compounds
which were bombed by coalition forces remained a source of major
concern to his group: much of this ordnance was live and could explode
if moved. . .
Afghanistan's mine-action programme has more than 5,000 de-miners,
but Kelly said there was a need to increase this number in order
to keep up with the pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation work,
now at the planning stage. Given the enormity of the task facing
him, Kelly said mine clearance had to be stepped up. "Time
is of real essence here," he stressed.
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