New districts to be demined

Tajik demining specialists are planning to clear minefields in two districts of the eastern Badakhshon region, a move set to benefit some 12,000 rural residents in the area. "We are planning to start demining work in six minefields in Vanj and Darvoz districts of Badakhshon next year after the cold weather has passed, probably in March or April of 2005," Parviz Mavlonkulov, an operations coordinator for the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), told IRIN from the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Wednesday. A general assessment done by TMAC revealed that there are many dangerous sites in the area, which have an impact on the local population. The sites have been divided into three groups - low, medium and high impact - with demining to start in the high impact areas. According to TMAC, around 12,000 people could benefit from the work. "People, especially children, would be relieved of the danger of being blown up by mines and there wouldn't any more losses," Mavlonkulov said. Jonmakhmad Rajabov, head of the TMAC, told IRIN earlier that almost 340 people had been affected by landmine blasts in various districts of the country since 1993, of whom 175 had died and the remaining 163 seriously injured. According to TMAC, the problem of landmines, planted during the 1992-97 civil war, is a longstanding one, aggravated by the fact that minefields are often close to villages and other areas where local people lived and worked. "Local inhabitants used to graze their cattle in what are now minefields and they used to gather firewood there along with growing crops," Mavlonkulov said, noting that the local population was now deprived of those economic resources. The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) is training the Tajik special personnel within their programme in Tajikistan which is scheduled to last till 2008. There are no exact figures on the extent of the landmine problem in Tajikistan, but according to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), almost 3,000 sq km - an area roughly the size of Luxembourg - is contaminated, with the number of deaths in mine-related accidents is estimated at more than 30 per year. According to the most recent report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an estimated 16,000 mines, demolition charges and other explosive devices can be found in the landlocked and impoverished nation, requiring the demining of nearly 2,500 sq km of agricultural land and more than 500 sq km of roads and paths.