Ethiopia's mine information now "finalised"

Ethiopia has handed over complete details of where it laid thousands of mines during the war with Eritrea, the UN announced on Friday. Details were handed over to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) more than a year after the signing of a peace agreement which stipulated such information should be made available. The move was welcomed by UNMEE which said it had been demanding the information for 14 months as part of the December 2000 Algiers peace accord. "The information is as requested and is comprehensive, detailed and suitable to facilitate safe and efficient mine clearance operations on those minefields," said Phil Lewis, the programme manager of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC). "UNMEE MACC now considers the issue of provision of minefield information by the Ethiopian authorities finalised," he said. Mine experts from UNMEE had given the Ethiopian government until 13 April – when a crucial border ruling will be announced - to hand over the documents. Lewis told a press briefing in Asmara that the information was better than expected. "The accuracy of the minefields is in far greater detail than we had previously received and we now have details of the types and numbers of every type of mine laid in these minefields," he said. "It is exactly what we had been requesting all along and it will facilitate safe and cost effective, efficient mine clearance operations." Many of the mines come from Russia, America, Italy and Belgium. Lewis said the length of time it would take to remove them depended on funding from donors. According to the information provided by Ethiopia, there are around 10,000-11,000 mines – mostly anti-personnel mines – that are still left in the ground. "We haven’t received information on what they laid during the conflict, we have received information concerning what’s remaining after they have lifted the bulk of what they laid," Lewis added. "They obviously laid many more mines than the 10,000 but that’s what is left after their clearance operations." He said the Ethiopian forces had cleared thousands of mines – as required under the Algiers agreement – but they did not have access to some areas. "The Eritrean information that we received over a year ago had far greater detail with regard to what was actually laid. But it had no details as to what had been lifted by their own forces since those mines were laid," Lewis said. He said UNMEE was aware that around 150,000 mines had been laid by the Eritrean forces in about 1,000 mine fields both in the buffer area known as the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), and areas now under Ethiopian control. "What we don’t know is how many of those mines are still in the ground," he added. Lewis said he could not speculate on whether the delay by the Ethiopians had led to any casualties. But most of the injuries had been caused by unexploded ordnance, not mines. UNMEE also revealed that two demining companies of the Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO) were now in the field clearing mines in Gerhusernay and Sebya. The teams – which were ready late last year - had been delayed because they were not properly insured to carry out the work. UNMEE spokesman Jean-Viktor Nkolo told the press briefing that the mission would step up monitoring and surveillance activities in the days surrounding the announcement by an independent Boundary Commission on where the border will lie. Declan Lawlor, UNMEE's military public information officer, added that the forces would be in a "state of heightened alert for a period preceding and immediately after the announcement".