Mine action and awareness day marked

Tajikistan marked International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on Wednesday as the country strives to clear its territory of landmines by 2010.

A special event to mark the day was organised by the Tajikistan Mine Action Centre (TMAC) and supported by the United Nations and other donors. The event sought to raise awareness of landmines and make progress toward their eradication.

"Events on April 4 will help renew public and media interest in mine action," Maxwell Gaylard, UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) director, said in a statement. "We must keep the cause high on the global political agenda if we are to maintain the momentum achieved toward a world free from landmines and explosive remnants of war.”

Landmines and explosive remnants of war continue to kill or injure as many as 15,000 people worldwide annually, according to UNMAS. The overwhelming majority are civilians, who can trigger these devices years or even decades after a conflict ends.

Tajikistan has the largest landmine problem in Central Asia, with more than 25,000 square kilometres of land in need of mine clearance - an area more than half the size of Switzerland. Most of the mines were laid during the country’s five-year civil war, which ended in 1997. Mines were laid both by the opposition and government sides.

In addition, Uzbekistan began planting mines on part of its undemarcated border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in 1999 to stave off incursions by militants in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. “Most of the victims have been affected on the Tajik-Uzbek border,” Parviz Mavlonkulov, TMAC deputy director, said.

Also, Russian border troops, who were stationed in the country in the 1990s, reportedly laid minefields on the border with Afghanistan.

Mines affected more than 600

Landmines and unexploded ordinance in Tajikistan killed, injured or maimed more than 600 people over the past 15 years.

Women and children account for many of the victims because many men in rural areas migrate to Russia in search of jobs, leaving women to work the land.

According to TMAC officials, minefields in mountains and in irrigated fields are a particular threat to women as they cultivate land, collect firewood and take their animals to graze in mountain pastures.

In 2003, Tajikistan signed the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which calls for a complete ban on all anti-personnel landmines, and is expected to destroy its mines by 1 April 2010. “To make Tajikistan mine-free by 2010 is not realistic. During three years of our activities, we have been able to clean only 500,000 square metres. The biggest hurdles to our work are climate, geography and financing,” Mavlonkulov said.

Tajikistan has also been making more effort to raise awareness within local populations of the risks of landmines. Mine education in community centres and schools is being carried out at the same time as demining work. The Ministry of Education has trained 46 teachers from six mine-affected districts, and organised training workshops at 50 schools on mine awareness with support from the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF).

“Before, when mine warning signs were installed in minefields, local people did not pay attention to them,” Mirzoahmad Mirzoev, mine awareness programme coordinator of the education ministry, said.

“Following the introduction of mine action programmes in schools, many children are now aware of the risks of landmines and unnecessary death. While the programme is getting stronger in the schools this year, we have plans to expand it to communities as well,” Mirzoev added.

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