Demining restarts

Demining work has restarted in the Rasht and Tavildara districts of Tajikistan, some 300 km from the capital, Dushanbe, Parviz Mavlonkulov, deputy head of the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), told IRIN on Wednesday. “The demining work in these areas was suspended in November due to poor weather conditions. In 2005, we are planning to clear three minefields of five remaining,” Mavlonkulov said. Minefields in the two districts are a legacy of the civil war that ravaged the former Soviet republic from 1992 to 1997. Government forces and armed groups of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) mined the area heavily. Tajik deminers have been undergoing training for this year’s programme. A consultant from the French army conducted an instruction scheme for local deminers. A six-week long emergency medical training programme to assist mine victims has also been organised. “Demining is carried out in high priority areas, where mines have been put in the vicinity of residential areas. Next week we are planning to start demining in the Vanch district, more than 350 km east of Dushanbe, where earlier this month, two Tajik border guards were injured after stepping on landmines. According to the TMAC, more than 15 people fell victims to landmines in the Central Asian state in the first five months of the year. Eleven of them were seriously injured and four were killed. Another high priority for the TMAC is to complete a general assessment of landmine risk areas in the country. “We started a general assessment of the western part of the Tajik-Uzbek border and it is underway in the Tursunzade district [some 70 km west of Dushanbe],” Mavlonkulov noted. However, the most heavily mined area is in the northern part of the Uzbek border. Here, in Sogd province, at least 49 minefields have been identified. Demining of these areas requires a bilateral agreement between the two countries, an issue still under discussion, Tajik demining officials said. TMAC reported that since 1992, 241 people have been killed by landmines and 239 others injured. The majority of victims were women and children.