Mines and UXOs still a problem

Kesete Ghebrezghi, 40, is an angry man. Living in a dry, stony village just eight kilometres from the border with Ethiopia, he told IRIN that life in his Eritrean village had not been the same since the border war of 1998-2000. He said he felt particularly angry about the destruction caused by the war, but he believed that it was the the mines, more than anything else, that had continued to complicate the situation. "[The war] has really affected our life, because we lost our property, and our farmland near the border has been mined," Kesete said. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought for two years over a border dispute that killed some 70,000 people from both sides, and left a nasty legacy of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). De-mining in Eritrea’s 25,000 sq km temporary security zone (TSZ) along the border is coordinated by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). Although just one percent of the TSZ is mined, said Phil Lewis, programme manager at UNMEE’s Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC), the worst-affected areas are usually the most useful. "Battles were generally fought in areas where people need to live and conduct their daily business of herding [livestock] and growing crops," he told IRIN on 24 March. "Water points are affected, roads are affected. The problem is basically in the Gash Barka region in the southwest, particularly around Shilalo and Shambuko, which are the bread-basket areas of Eritrea." The number of people killed or injured by landmines or UXOs in the border area in 2001 was 161. Some 60,000 people had returned to their homes during that year. Incidents had, however, since fallen to about two per month - divided equally between UXOs and mines. Casualty rates tended to increase when people returned home from temporary camps - when they were least aware of the situation, Lewis explained. In February, the Eritrean government returned another 19,000 people to the Gash Barka region, however no casualties had been recorded, he added. "All mine-action efforts are being focused now on the resettlement of IDPs [internally displaced persons]," he said. According to Lewis, the number of casualties had fallen as mine-risk education (MRE) has taken effect. People have got to know the situation better - where they can go, and where they can not. However, MRE is not always 100 percent effective, and mine and UXO incidents are not just limited to children, he noted. "It is children, but it is also pretty old children too," Lewis said. "Last week, two 19-year-olds were throwing stones at a grenade from behind a small rock. They set it off, and the guy got his shoulder sliced. Both 19-year-olds had received MRE training. "You cannot just give one or two sessions of mine-risk education; you have got to be in their face all the time to keep them aware and focused on the problem." Making progress in the clean-up In the midst of all this, the UN and Eritrean de-miners continue to do their work, clearing American, Belgian, Chinese, German, Soviet and Yugoslav mines and UXOs from the area. Lewis said that Eritrean de-mining capacity was improving, but UN de-miners still made up a large part of the operations in the border region. In June last year, the UN re-organised itself. Military de-miners from Kenya and Bangladesh now work together with commercial de-miners from southern Africa and Slovakia. Dogs, men and machines work together on the same operations, and the information-sharing process has been improved. As a result, said Lewis, the UN’s de-mining efficiency had improved ten-fold in the last nine months already, and he expected it to increase even further by the end of the year. "[A] 2000 percent increase in productivity is what we are aiming for by the end of the year [2005]," he added. "At the moment we are [at] about 1000 percent." According to Lewis, the worst-affected areas along the border could be clear in five years, although this would require not only further donor support for the Eritreans, but also the continued presence of peacekeepers and no resumption of war with Ethiopia. In the meantime, the de-miners get on with their unpleasant task. "The TSZ is an extremely difficult work environment, from the point of view of the weather, the heat, the dust, access - the roads are terrible getting into certain work locations," Lewis explained. "And when you are down on your knees, probing around rocks and whatever, that is where snakes and scorpions are, so you always have to be constantly on the alert for those dangers, as well as the danger of the actual mine itself. It is not a very nice environment to work in," he added. Moreover, mines have been laid on roads in the TSZ in recent years, so road clearance has become a large part of MACC’s $8.5 million annual budget. Lewis does not know who laid the mines, or why, but said that no incidents had taken place in recent months. Outside the TSZ, Eritrea still contains mines and UXOs from other fighting: between Italy and Britain during the second world war; from Eritrea’s 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia; and during the 1998 war with Ethiopia. In the meantime, though, UN de-miners continue to focus their efforts on the TSZ, and hope that the two Horn of Africa countries do not go to war again.