Survey of landmines and unexploded ordnance urgently needed, Swiss group says

A Swiss landmine-clearance organisation, Fondation Suisse de Déminage (FSD), said on Wednesday that a survey was urgently needed of areas strewn with unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Ituri District, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). "Demining on a large scale should only take place after such a technical survey, and with clearly established priorities," Hansjörg Eberle, the foundation's director-general, said from his Geneva headquarters. He added that the foundation was able and willing to undertake the general and technical survey provided the donor community met the cost. Current funding for mine clearance in Ituri ends on 31 May. Eberle said the extent of landmine and UXO pollution in the DRC was unknown, but that the Mine Action Centre had catalogued 300 "dangerous area reports". These were mostly based on accident reports, he added. The areas most heavily polluted, he said, appeared to be in Ituri District, North and South Kivu provinces and in the former combat zones. The foundation has already trained two mine-action emergency response teams with 14 local staff members working under the direct supervision of three international experts. "These teams are based in Bunia [the capital of Ituri], but they are mobile and could intervene at short notice wherever needed," he said. Presently, he added, both teams were clearing mines around the water station just outside Bunia so that urgently needed maintenance could be undertaken. He said currently there was "hardly any direct threat" from UXOs or landmines in Bunia, but that "relatively little" was known about the rest of the district. "Many remote areas remain inaccessible both due to the prevailing security situation, the generally poor state of the road network, and the perceived threat of mines and unexploded ordnance," he added. In a document titled "Extension du project de deminage en Republic Democratic du Congo" 2004 (Extension of the Mine-Clearance Project in the DRC 2004), the foundation said only three of the 19 NGOs in Bunia dared to leave the city by road without armed escorts provided by UN troops. "Most roads are considered unsafe because of the perceived threat of mines; in many cases, the humanitarian aid still cannot be delivered safely to those in need," he said. Eberle added that several NGOs had asked the foundation to verify the practicability of routes, roads, and airstrips in Ituri and elsewhere in the country. In this respect he said, "The FSD's survey and demining capacity at this stage, however, is limited and clearly insufficient to fit the identified needs." In its project report, foundation said since the country was in a post-conflict stage, characterised by its fragility, the imminent return of internally displaced people and refugees would coincide with a massive rise in accidents caused by landmines and UXOs. According to the DRC's Centre for the Coordination of Antipersonnel Landmine Clearance (Commission nationale de lutte contre les mines antipersonnelles), the foundation said, 946 people have been victims of landmine and bomb explosions nationwide: there are 313 zones considered dangerous, of which 87 are in Orientale Province, which includes Ituri District. The foundation said Ikela, a town in the southeast of Equateur Province, was in a region heavily polluted by UXOs "and probably mines", adding that its first evaluation mission in the area was due to end on 14 April.