Esquire: The Devil in the Dirt

Source: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/blog/landmines-092107

There are so many landmines in Afghanistan, the country is literally about to blow. But removing these mines is no easy task. An exclusive report from Kabul.

By Jeffrey Stern



A member of the United Nations mine-removal team in Afghanistan delicately holds the fuse from a soon-to-be detonated ERW.



KABUL, Afghanistan -- There is a landmine museum in Kabul. It�s a single poorly lit room with portraits on the wall of kids suddenly made asymmetrical by munitions left behind. Armies withdraw, but they don�t pick up after themselves.

Here, on display, are all the devilish devices men have dreamt up to disassemble one another. Claymores, rocket propelled grenades, rounds the size of your forearm. The cases are open, so you can reach in and pick the things up.

They have mines from America, China, Italy, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt; everyone seems to have buried relics somewhere in Afghanistan. The tags on the unearthed weapons are simple: �Russia; trip wire; operational pressure 250kgs; 1000 pieces chopped steel rod.� �Pakistan; claymore; electrical initiation; 600 6-millimeter steel ball bearings.� They�re less �improvised� than buried propane tanks wrapped in nails on roadsides, but the idea is the same.

And just like IED�s, they�re assigned sterile-sounding acronyms. The agencies deal in ERW�s and UXO�s -- Explosive Remnants of War and Unexploded Ordinance, respectively -- so they might talk courteously about these things that keep refugees from repatriating, rob families of their breadwinner, and don�t know an advancing soldier from a child fetching water, so that the kid giving you the thumbs-up when your armored SUV rumbles by will one day take a wrong step and be ripped apart by a six hundred steel ball bearings. Something like that happens twice a day in Afghanistan.

Read the rest of this article here.

Rutland Herald: CPI continuing to grow its reputation as a force for humanitarian relief

Dorset organization raises land mine awareness

September 11, 2007
By PATRICK McARDLE Herald Staff

DORSET - Clear Path International is continuing to grow its reputation as a force for humanitarian relief with new developments this year in Afghanistan and Slovenia.

For the first time, Clear Path is operating a program in Afghanistan in partnership with an American company and the Department of State.

Clear Path, which has offices in Dorset and Seattle, has also received a promise of almost a quarter million dollars from a nonprofit organization in Slovenia which will allow it to continue and expand their work in Vietnam.

Martha Hathaway, the executive director of Clear Path, said it was important for the organization to get the kind of wider recognition that leads to expansions like the one it has recently undertaken.

But Hathaway is much more interested in talking about the work Clear Path is doing and the need in the countries it operates than in congratulating Clear Path on its efforts.

In Afghanistan, Clear Path will be creating victims' assistance programs which has been part of its mission for some time.

Hathaway founded Clear Path in 2001 with her husband, James, Kristen Leadem of Dorset, and Imbert Matthee of Washington, as a land mine removal organization. Now, the group works primarily in assisting victims and raising awareness.


Kristen Leadem (left) and Martha Hathaway of Clear Path International in the Vermont office.

In Afghanistan, Clear Path will be working as a subcontractor to DynCorp International which has a contract with the Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. Hathaway said the Clear Path office in Kabul, which has been operating since April, is staffed partially by Americans, working to engage Afghanis in the process.

"The State Department is worried about projects that are not self-sustaining," Hathaway said.

Hathaway said because the government of Afghanistan already had a national strategy for helping victims of land mines, who not only have to deal with their injury but access issues and loss of income, Clear Path would look for ways the State Department can assist the local agencies. That is likely to include things like organizing a national workshop on victims' assistance or creating a system for building ramps and making schools accessible.

While Clear Path has already had some success with similar programs in Cambodia and along the Thailand-Burma border, Hathaway said that didn't necessarily make things easier when they expanded into a country like Afghanistan that has suffered greatly from the use of land mines.

"Every country impacted by land mines is different but we can take the bits and pieces of institutional knowledge we've gained over the years and apply it where it makes sense," she said.

According to Clear Path, an average of 90 people are injured by land mines or explosive remnants in Afghanistan every month and about half die before they can be treated.

The grant from the Slovenia-based International Trust for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance also presents new opportunities for Clear Path.

Under the agreement, the trust will raise $230,000 from among its 27 government and private-sector donors to match what Clear Path raises from the United States government and donors.

Hathaway said this is the first time Clear Path has received funds from the trust and marks the trust's first efforts in Southeast Asia.

The trust was founded about 10 years ago to assist people in the Balkans but Hathaway said as land mines became less of a threat in Europe, charitable organizations there have begun to look at ways they can help victims in other places.

According to Hathaway, Clear Path will use the money to assist ongoing efforts in Vietnam through capital purchases and the hiring of new staff rather than to create new programs.

Despite Clear Path's successes, which have led to more contracts and funding, the need is still great and money remains an issue.

The problem of land mines, especially those which remain after a war is over and injure civilians, gained international attention more than 10 years ago through the support of several well-known figures, primarily England's Princess Diana.

Land mine removal is expensive, however, and organizations like Clear Path, which assist with rehabilitation and the development of resources so victims can earn their own living, are in it for the long-term.

"Donor fatigue is a real problem," Hathaway said.

While Clear Path is raising more money than it has in the past, it comes from fewer donors, primarily the large donations like the ones from the trust, rather than the numerous pledges of $50 or $100 they received in the past.

Clear Path also has the disadvantage of being based in Seattle and out-of-the-mainstream Dorset, far from the significant donors based in New York City or Washington, D.C.

Clear Path has raised money through benefit concerts and a music CD. Its next concert will be on Oct. 13 at the Long Trail School in Dorset with performers Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

For more information on Clear Path on the Internet, visit its Web site at www.cpi.org.

Contact Patrick McArdle at Patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.

Iraq: Which minefield should we clear next?

From the Reuters Alertnet blog, Sean Moorehouse writes about the work of Mines Advisory Group in Iraq:

We were visiting the almost-vertical Qalat minefield, part of a minebelt that meanders for tens of miles across the harsh terrain of the Kurdish mountains.

Why, I wondered, did MAG choose to clear Qalat, instead of any of the countless other bits.

Fkry and I continued our inspection of the perimeter of the minefield, which was marked by a line of red-painted sticks, about 30cm (12 inches) high, running vertically up the hillside. A 2-metre (2.2 yards) wide path had been hacked out alongside them, to give the deminers access to their working lanes.

Just as importantly, the path allowed for casualty evacuation in the event of a mine accident. An ambulance stood waiting at the other side of the minefield and stretchers were dotted about in strategic locations. The highly trained medic tried to keep himself motivated, but it wasn't easy to sit around for seven hours a day hoping to have nothing to do.

Read the rest of this story here.

Shell explosion kills 3 family members in Vietnam

Source: Chinadaily.com

HANOI -- A couple and their three-year-old child were killed when an ammunition shell exploded in Vietnam's central Quang Nam Province, according to local newspaper Youth on Wednesday.

The explosion occurred at the victims' house in Duy Xuyen District on Tuesday afternoon when the 31-year-old man named Pham Van Thang was trying to break the shell for scraps. His wife, standing nearby, and the child held in her arms were killed on the spot.

According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund of the United States, during the Vietnam War from 1965-1975, the US Armed Forces deployed more than 15 million tons of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other ordnance in the country, in which 10 percent did not detonate as designed.

Local scrap collectors often saw of unexploded ordnance (UXO) for metal and explosive, while small children play ammunitions by breaking them, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries annually.

Now, there are over 300,000 tons of UXO in Vietnam, estimated local officials

Howstuffworks.com: How Landmines Work

So many people come to our site to learn how to clear landmines, that it seems many of you may be interested in how landmines work.

The below is an excerpt from a great article by Kevin Bonsor for the website Howstuffworks.com:

Mines are often laid in groups, called mine fields, and are designed to prevent the enemy from passing through a certain area, or sometimes to force an enemy through a particular area. An army also will use landmines to slow an enemy until reinforcements can arrive. While more than 350 varieties of mines exist, they can be broken into two categories:

Anti-personnel (AP) mines

Anti-tank (AT) mines

The basic function of both of these types of landmines is the same, but there are a couple of key differences between them. Anti-tank mines are typically larger and contain several times more explosive material than anti-personnel mines. There is enough explosive in an anti-tank mine to destroy a tank or truck, as well as kill people in or around the vehicle. Additionally, more pressure is usually required for an anti-tank mine to detonate. Most of these mines are found on roads, bridges and large clearances where tanks may travel.

...

Landmine detection is a slow, methodical process due to the danger involved in locating landmines. While location technology is improving, the following conventional techniques are still relied on heavily:

Probing the ground - For many years, the most sophisticated technology used for locating landmines was probing the ground with a stick or bayonet. Soldiers are trained to poke the ground lightly with a bayonet, knowing that just one mistake may cost them their lives.

Trained dogs - Dogs can be trained to sniff out vapors coming from the explosive ingredients inside the landmine.

Metal detectors - Metal detectors are limited in their ability to find mines, because many mines are made of plastic with only a tiny bit of metal.

Read the rest of this article here.



Below is a brief video on clearing landmines in Vietnam narrated by Clear Path International's executive director, Martha Hathaway.

O & P Edge: CPI Clearing the Way for a Safer Future

The below is an excerpt from a very well-written and researched piece by Brady Delander who interviewed Martha, Imbert and me. He would have talked to Kristen too, but she is pretty busy over in Afghanistan at the moment!

Thanks, Brady!!

CPI: Clearing the Way for a Safer Future

By Brady Delander

Will and determination help expand worldly mission of Clear Path International.

James Hathaway was late for his flight�"of course," he says�when he saw his opportunity. Imbert Matthee was deep in the jungles of Vietnam when the purpose of his efforts crystallized. Such is the world of humanitarianism. Anything can happen at anytime? it usually does.

Hathaway and Matthee, along with Martha Hathaway and Kristen Leadem, are the co-founders of Clear Path International (CPI), an organization established in 2000 originally dedicated to the removal of unexploded ordnance�landmines, clusters bombs, etc.�in war-torn locations around the globe that now focuses on helping the victims of such explosions. "There is certainly no shortage of work," says Martha Hathaway, CPI's executive director and co-founder.

The bulk of that work is deadly serious. With programs in Vietnam, Cambodia, along the Thai-Burma border, and now Afghanistan, the realities of war�even wars that ended more than 30 years ago�could not be any more dramatic. Dealing with the everyday horror can be overwhelming, but Matthee recalls a moment that makes even the most trying days seem worthwhile.

Read the rest of this story here.

Landmine explosion in Vietnam kills 3 children

Source: International Herald Tribune

HANOI, Vietnam: A land mine left over from the 1970s exploded in northern Vietnam, killing three children and wounding six others, two seriously, state media reported Sunday.

The three children, all aged 10, were killed at the scene as they tried to extract scrap metal from the land mine on Friday in Lai Chau province, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said.

Six other children, also the same age, were wounded and two remained in critical condition, the newspaper said.

Read the rest of this article here.