Reports on Landmines in Nepal IRIN Demining under way but threat of casualties persists June 2008 Action against landmines: Links

Demining under way but threat of casualties persists

KATHMANDU, 3 June 2008 (IRIN)

The demining process is making steady progress, according to the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which has been involved in the clearance and destruction of landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) since November 2007, supported by a team of international specialists from ArmorGroup.

By May 2008, UNMIN's Mine Action unit had destroyed more than 14,500 IEDs stored in seven main cantonments and two satellite camps of the former Maoist rebels. The UN has been supervising the management of arms and armies since the end of the decade-long armed conflict and peace accord signing in November 2006. Almost all the IEDs in the Maoist sites have been destroyed, according to UNMIN.

Officials told IRIN the mission had also helped the Nepal Army to clear four out of 53 anti-personnel landmine sites in and around army barracks and camps ? all of which are estimated to hold more than 14,000 landmines laid by the army to thwart off possible Maoist attacks.

Although the number of casualties from IEDs and anti-personnel landmines has fallen compared with the last several years because of demining and mine-risk education programmes, there is still a lot of potential danger, according to a national NGO, Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal (NCBL).

Between 1998 and 2007, there were 4,809 victims of IEDs and landmines, more than half of whom were children, according to NCBL. Between January to May 2008, the number of casualties was 24, of whom 17 were children.

"Statistically, children are becoming more vulnerable. Seventy-five percent of the casualties involved in victim-activated explosions were children this year compared with 50-57 percent in the past," UN's mine action consultant Hugues Laurenge told IRIN.

He said there was a need for mine-risk education to improve awareness about the location of abandoned, unexploded or stored IEDs.

There is also a danger of IEDs in the Terai region of southern Nepal, where armed groups have been using IEDs, resulting in civilian casualties, according to a report, Local View on Mine Action and Ottawa Treaty by NCBL.

Source: IRIN, June 2008 Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2008 [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).