Government sets up demining authority

After ordering most international demining groups to leave the country, the Eritrean government has set up its own demining authority. According to Eritrean radio, the authority will be tasked with "studying landmines planted in the country, demining, and turning the mined areas into productive land". It will also sensitise the public on mine awareness and coordinate the demining programme in the country. The radio said that following the end of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war in 2000, five international demining groups entered the country - Halo Trust, Danish Church Aid, Danish Demining Group, Mine Awareness Trust and RONCO - to demine the Temporary Security Zone between the two countries and develop Eritrea's demining capacity. But Brigadier-General Abrahaley Kifle, who heads Eritrea's Commission for Coordination with the UN peacekeeping force, claimed some NGOs "were trying to overstay in the country by operating in areas where there are no landmines", after the their contracts expired in June. He said they were given a one-month ultimatum to leave the country. He also accused some organisations of "only collecting shrapnel". However, the UK-based Halo Trust demining group and the US company RONCO are to stay in Eritrea. Halo Trust told IRIN on Monday that it had a good working relationship with the Eritrean government and was hoping to expand its activities in the country. It says that for the period 2001-July 2002, it has cleared 2,211 antipersonnel mines, 124 antitank mines, 1,495 pieces of unexploded ordnance and has destroyed 8,326 pieces of stray ammunition. Large swathes of contaminated area have been cleared manually and by mechanical excavation. Kifle said that since the border with Ethiopia was "clearly delimited" in April this year, "it was decided that the demining done by the NGOs would be carried out by Eritreans". "Eritrea lacks demining facilities, but not capacity," he added, according to Eritrean radio. Last week, the UN urged Eritrea to extend the deadline by which the groups had to leave so that an "appropriate transition strategy" could be worked out with the government. However, President Isayas Afewerki reiterated that the organisations should leave by the end of August, a UN spokesman said.