By Mark Magnier

Officials from 24 nations and international organizations pledged $27.2 million--including $7 million by the U.S.--for de-mining Afghanistan, as a two-day conference on rebuilding the country came to a close Tuesday.

Although the funds were welcomed by Afghan officials, they are a fraction of the $668 million over seven years that U.N. experts say is needed to eliminate the nation's land mine and unexploded ordnance problem.

Ridding Afghanistan of these time bombs, or at least minimizing their ability to inflict damage, is an ambitious goal. By some estimates, as many as 10 million land mines and other unexploded munitions litter the Central Asian country after decades of war and instability.

An estimated 300 Afghans are killed every month by the deadly leftovers, including children scavenging for the 25 cents' worth of metal in each mine, according to the United Nations. Half of the victims die instantly or succumb to their wounds on the way to doctors, who are often several days of hard travel away, land mine experts here say. That compares with about 30 people a month killed nowadays in Cambodia, a past poster child for anti-mine campaigns, the U.N. says.

At the conference in Tokyo, officials from contributing nations and Afghanistan pressed for a fast, concerted de-mining campaign. "The need for action is great," said interim Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai. "Our citizens are falling victim to them daily."

Experts argue that the $668 million price tag compares favorably with the more than $700 million spent de-mining Kuwait after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the $70 million spent so far in Kosovo, the Serbian province that sparked a battle between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Yugoslavia in 1999.

"Kosovo is a postage stamp," said Richard Daniel Kelly, mine action program director with the Office of the U.N. Coordinator for Afghanistan. "It's the size of one province in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan has 31 provinces."

Money spent to de-mine the country has secondary benefits. With nearly 5,000 Afghans now working to identify and deactivate mines, the campaign ranks as the nation's largest single source of employment, U.S. and U.N. officials say. A portion of the money pledged Tuesday by the United States, which is to be routed through the HALO Trust, a nonprofit de-mining group, is expected to employ 800 more.

Torek Farhadi, an economic advisor to the interim government, said mines take a huge psychological toll on Afghans, killing people years after fighting has stopped. In addition to preventing such tragedies, mine clearing allows refugees to cross back into Afghanistan, helps put farmland back into production and gives children and adults the confidence to walk roads to schools and markets, he added.

Some of the money pledged Tuesday is expected to go to UNICEF for an intensive education campaign timed to coincide with the scheduled reopening of schools in March. The campaign will cover what mines look like, how to avoid them and how to report them to authorities.

In the last six months, about $10 million in land mine detection equipment has been stolen, vandalized or destroyed in Afghanistan, officials said. Japan will spend $15.4 million to pay for new equipment.

The U.S. has refused to sign a 1997 international accord banning land mines, arguing that the weapons are necessary in certain places such as the border between North and South Korea. But Washington is reviewing its position, with a decision expected within a few months, a senior U.S. official said. He added that the government has destroyed about 3.3 million of its own stockpiled land mines and banned the weapons' export. Karzai said Monday that his government plans to sign the accord. . .

. . .Deciding where to start demining in Afghanistan is a problem. The Russian government gave 350 battle plans, showing some minefields, to the Afghan government in the early 1990s, but they were lost. The Russians have now found 150 more maps that will be handed over to the U.N. de-mining authority, a senior U.N. official said. The U.S. has provided a list of 188 locations where it dropped cluster bombs, the official added.

According to U.N. estimates, more than 320 square miles of the country are riddled with mines, with nearly half that in heavily populated areas.

In some places, surveyors catalog where land mine accidents have occurred, and computers correlate the data with road, electricity and water grids. This allows planners to identify the worst dangers in the most populated areas.

"It's impossible to clear every ordnance in Afghanistan," said Donald K. Steinberg, deputy director of policy planning with the State Department. "The goal is to figure out where you're going to get the best results quickly and also where there are no land mines." . . .

By Margaret Coker

Fanny, Kenny and Buck stood in perfect drill formation, their tails wagging and furry faces filled with anticipation for the order to hunt down the enemy.

Ripping off excited barks, the German shepherds raced through the brown grass and mud, in training to search for land mines hidden throughout Afghanistan --- a scourge that maims, wounds or kills as many as 30 civilians every day.

More than 200 German shepherds and another breed, the Belgian malinois, along with their dedicated Afghan handlers, are instrumental in the effort to clear the country, among the most densely mined on Earth.

"The dogs are doing an important job," said Bismullah Kalandari, a canine trainer at the Afghan Mine Detection Center in Kabul. "Together, we are making the land safe for our children again."

The State Department estimated more than 10 million land mines were sown from 1979 to 1989, when the Soviets occupied Afghanistan.

More mines followed. Afghan warlords fought a five-year civil war. It was followed by on-again, off-again battles between the Taliban and Northern Alliance that lasted until November, when the Taliban forces were routed from Kabul with the help of U.S. air power.

The mine detection center, a non-governmental organization that receives assistance from the United Nations and Germany, was started in 1989 by Afghans horrified by the death toll.

"Each day, I hear about or see a child wounded by a land mine," said Shah Wali Ayubi, the manager of the center. "In villages, there are many people without arms or legs."

At least six different aid organizations, with 4,000 de-miners, are working in Afghanistan, but the mine-detection center is the only one that uses dogs.

The most prevalent threat is a Soviet-era anti-personnel mine known as the PMN-2. Made of steel, the PMN-2 is the size of two hockey pucks stacked one on the other. It has a plastic-covered top, which makes it difficult for a metal detector to find.

"The only way to find these hidden menaces is with a dog," Ayubi said. "They are the only ones who can sniff them out."

The dogs are trained to search in a straight line, as far as 15 feet from their handler. A minefield is designated with a grid, so handlers and dogs move in tight rectangles. The dog, on a leash, is trained to walk slowly, without jumping. The handler reads its body language to tell when it is

getting close to a mine --- a prick of the ears, a quickly moving tail and then a bark.

When the bark comes, the handler immediately calls the dog back and notes how far ahead it had moved by the length of the leash.

While the dog enjoys hugs and a rest, a second handler brings his dog over to the same spot. If the second dog verifies the presence of a mine, then the ground is flagged and a de-miner will start the dangerous work of digging out the mine and setting a controlled explosion to detonate it.

Ten handlers and seven dogs have died in work-related accidents since the center was founded. Twelve puppies were born Oct. 1, but two were killed days later when a U.S. warplane mistakenly bombed their kennels.

"It was a very sad day," Kalandari said. "We are working very hard to expand our program, and that was a terrible blow." He became the head puppy trainer five years ago after losing his left eye and his own dog, Axel, when an unstable mine the dog had found blew up in their faces.

At the training facility, the daily routine starts at 6 a.m., rain or shine. Puppies are schooled, and working dogs return every six months for a refresher course. In all, the program has 244 dogs and an equal number of handlers. . .

. . .Puppies born here spend their first six to eight months in socialization courses, followed by six to eight months of ball training, in which they learn simple obedience and fetching. Dogs that show exceptional aptitude graduate to the next level.

The next stage matches dogs with their handlers, forming a team that will work together for about six years, the average dog's working life. (At retirement, dogs are placed with private owners and are never destroyed, Ayubi said. The same goes for puppies who fail to show aptitude for the work.)…