U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action in the Middle East: A Six-Year Progress ReportReport released by the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs As part of its effort to foster peace in the Middle East, the United States has provided humanitarian mine action assistance, to include landmine clearance, mine risk education, and mine survivors assistance, to a number of countries in the region since 1996. This report reviews U.S. aid and its achievements to date. In 1996, the United States agreed to Jordan's request for assistance in protecting its people from buried landmines and other explosive remnants of past wars, the first time that the U.S. had extended its mine action support to a Middle Eastern nation since the inception of its Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 1993. Egypt, Lebanon, Oman and Yemen subsequently joined the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program. The U.S. Government also supports humanitarian mine action in northern Iraq. Since 1996, U.S. mine action contributions to all six countries total over $30 million dollars through the end of Fiscal Year 2002. Purpose of the Multi-Agency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program The U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program is a combined-agency effort involving the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund, and the U.S. Department of Defense whose contributions include humanitarian mine action training conducted by special operations forces. The goal is to enable all of the nations receiving U.S. demining assistance to become "mine safe," that is, to neutralize the effects of all landmines that pose an immediate threat to their inhabitants. Mine action programs also enable refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes and lands and contribute to political and economic stability. Entering the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program The U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program includes only those Middle Eastern nations that formally have sought demining assistance from the United States. Their requests led to joint U.S. Department of State-U.S. Department of Defense Policy Assessment Visits to determine the scope of their landmine problem followed by a positive determination by the U.S. Government. This is the same process that has applied to the all mine affected nations in other regions of the world that are also within the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program -- a total of 44 -- at present. Iraq is not included in the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program as its government does not meet the requirements for receiving such assistance. However, the severity of the landmine threat to ethnic Kurds and other citizens of northern Iraq clearly merits a compassionate and creative response. Accordingly, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs has developed a humanitarian mine action program in northern Iraq. Mid-East Nations Receiving U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Aid: Scope of the Problem and Results to Date The countries listed below are in chronological order based on when each began to receive U.S. mine action assistance. JORDAN was accepted into the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 1996. Jordan calculates that approximately 310,000 landmines, most dating to the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, remain in approximately 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in the Jordan River Valley and Araba Valley. U.S. assistance, totaling over $8.8 million dollars as of the end of FY 02, has provided demining and mine risk education training for Jordanian deminers, demining equipment and spare parts, minefield surveys and information management. The U.S. Department of Defense has also tested modern mechanical mine-clearance systems in Jordan. RESULTS: Landmine casualties have been dramatically reduced, Jordan's Royal Corps of Engineers' humanitarian mine action capabilities have been significantly strengthened and as of July 2002, 8.7 square kilometers (3.36 square miles) of land had been restored to productive use. YEMEN joined the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 1997. An estimated 100,000 landmines and unexploded ordnance, mainly from conflicts in 1962-69, 1970-83 and 1994, remain in 18 of Yemen's 19 Governorates, affecting about 6 per cent of the population whose safe access to water and grazing land is hampered. This includes 799 square kilometers (308 square miles) of mine-infested land and another 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) of land affected by unexploded ordnance. In October 2000, Yemen became the first nation to complete a nationwide landmine survey with the assistance of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, funded in part by the United States, thereby enabling Yemen to rationally prioritize its demining efforts. Through FY 02, the United States had provided Yemen with total of over $9.3 million dollars to fund a national demining program infrastructure, train its deminers, and support Yemeni mine risk education and survivors assistance teams. RESULTS: As of Fiscal Year 2002, Yemen's internationally-recognized Humanitarian Mine Action Program had 812 personnel adept at providing survey, mine clearance, mine risk education and survivors assistance. Two U.S. military-trained demining units with 350 personnel have restored more than 192 square kilometers (74.13 square miles) to productive use. A U.S. Navy ophthalmology team has treated more than 100 landmine survivors and conducted medical training for Yemeni personnel. LEBANON formally entered the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 1998. Approximately 580,000 landmines and unexploded ordnance remain from the French Mandate period (1923 - 1943), the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and the period covering Israel's occupation of south Lebanon (1982-2000). Well over half of these explosive remnants of war are in the former Israeli security zone. All have contributed to a high rate of death and injuries as well as reduced agricultural productivity. The U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, with contributions from a U.S. public-private partnership program, helped Lebanon to establish a mine detecting dog program. U.S. and other donor nation assistance has enabled Lebanon to train and equip its humanitarian deminers and establish a national demining database and mine risk education program. The Department of State field-tested a mechanical vegetation removal/area reduction system and, in Fiscal Year 2002, integrated an ARMTRAC 100 machine into the overall program. This has proven effective at increasing productivity and making the area safer for Lebanese deminers and mine detecting dog teams. The USAID's Leahy War Victims Fund, in cooperation with the World Rehabilitation Fund, a U.S. non-governmental organization, established a Community Landmine Resource center in Jezzin, assisted in the creation of the Landmine Resource Center at the University of Balamand in Beirut, and created the first-ever war victims cooperative to develop agriculture, bee keeping and poultry enterprises for the direct economic benefit of the mine survivors and their families, who are its main employees and shareholders. At the end of FY 02, the U.S. had provided a total of nearly $6 million dollars in humanitarian mine action assistance for Lebanon. RESULTS: U.S.-funded surveys by the Lebanese Landmine Resource Center and the World Rehabilitation Fund have been precisely locating areas infested with landmines and unexploded ordnance. Mine clearance and a mine risk education campaign, conducted in 2001 and 2002 by Lebanon's National Demining Organization in coordination with selected non-governmental organizations, led to a decrease in the number of victims from 72 in 2000 to 67 in 2001 to 10 thus far in 2002. The Lebanese Ministry of Defense has successfully cleared 3,020,000 square meters (1.37 square miles). This has facilitated the movement of approximately 300,000 people between the western Bekaa Valley and the Jezzin area in southern Lebanon. EGYPT began receiving demining assistance from the U.S. Department of Defense in 2000. Egypt has a great number of buried landmines and unexploded ordnance, estimated by the Government of Egypt to number between 20 to 23 million, although many in the international community believe the number to be much lower. The mines and unexploded ordnance concentrated in the northern portion of the Western Desert between the Nile Delta and Libya date back to WWII. Mines and unexploded ordnance on the West Coast of the Red Sea, the Suez Canal area and Sinai Desert are mostly from the post-WWII era. A total combined area of 2800 square kilometers of land (1081 square miles) is affected. U.S. forces have conducted comprehensive humanitarian mine action training for Egyptian deminers to include information management, mine risk education and computer development. Mechanical demining equipment was provided for operations near El Alamein. By the end of 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense had provided $718,000 dollars worth of assistance and ten M60 tanks for demining purposes. RESULT: The Egyptian Army's humanitarian mine action capability has been significantly enhanced. OMAN was accepted into the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 1999. Its landmine and unexploded ordnance problem, while modest compared to those of some other mine affected countries, is concentrated in the Dhofar region, causing deaths and injuries since 1975 in the aftermath of the insurgency in that area. The U.S. Department of Defense has provided humanitarian mine action training to Omani deminers. The U.S. also helped Oman establish a mine detecting dog program, provided demining equipment, personal protective gear, mine disposal technologies, logistic support and a landmine survey and information management capability. Oman has received over $2.8 million dollars of U.S. mine action assistance. RESULTS: U.S.-trained Omani soldiers have cleared 1,500 square meters (579 square miles) of mine infested land in the Dhofar region to date. IRAQ, although not in the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, receives humanitarian assistance for demining in areas of northern Iraq through an integrated mine action and clearance program. The purpose is to improve living conditions and enable rural communities to live safely in areas affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance. Most of the mines laid in northern Iraq stem from the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Others were laid by Iraqi Government forces during operations against the Kurds. The U.S. Department of State is directly funding two non-governmental organizations engaged in mine action in northern Iraq: Mines Advisory Group and Norwegian People's Aid. Mines Advisory Group began mine clearance and mine risk education operations in northern Iraq in 1992, employing about 600 local deminers. Mines Advisory Group reports that the program has destroyed "nearly half a million landmines and…unexploded ordnance [and] over 100 million square meters of dangerous land have been marked off and fenced." Norwegian People's Aid has operated in the area since 1995, clearing and verifying "some 4,500,000 square meters" of land contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance. The magnitude of the problem is reflected in the fact that since 1992, when Mines Advisory Group began operations in northern Iraq, landmines and unexploded ordnance have claimed 6000 reported injuries and 3350 reported deaths in that region. Both organizations report significant reductions in casualty rates since they began operations. RESULTS: U.S. Government funding is expected to enhance these two organizations' mine action programs in northern Iraq, enabling the population there to live safer and more productive lives in the areas affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance. Selected Quotes on the Landmine Problem and the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program "Yet the fact remains that millions of deadly landmines still remain buried, waiting to kill. Men and women and children in many countries still cannot go about their daily lives without risk to life and limb. Casualties still occur at a terrible rate and hundreds if thousands of landmine accident survivors still need help." -- Secretary of State Colin. L. Powell, describing the global landmine problem in videotaped remarks for the Rotary International-U.S. Department of State Landmine Conference, Seattle, Washington, September 30, 2002. "By the end of 2002, the United States will have provided more than $600,000,000 to 43 countries…for various humanitarian demining efforts, such as deminer training, mine awareness and mine clearance, orthopedic assistance to, and socio-economic reintegration programs for landmine accident survivors and their families. More than $100,000,000 of this total was spent in Fiscal Year 2002, one of the largest commitments of any nation involved in financing humanitarian demining activities." -- Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, from his foreword in the Fourth Edition of To Walk the Earth in Safety, September 2002. "Our demining assistance along with other forms of humanitarian aid to the people of northern Iraq testifies to the United States' commitment to peace in the region. It also illustrates our genuine concern for the well-being of innocent people whose lives are endangered by a tyrannical regime that has not only used poison gas against its own citizens, but has endangered them and their descendants through the indiscriminate use of landmines." -- William J. Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, commenting on U.S. humanitarian mine action assistance to northern Iraq, November 2002. "Since 1988 when we first helped to develop a humanitarian demining program in Afghanistan, a model for all subsequent programs including those in the Middle East, the United States has consistently joined other donors at the forefront of efforts to protect non-combatants from the indiscriminate use of landmines. This would not be possible without the support of the American public. In effect, U.S. taxpayers are our constant partners as we work to help our friends in the Middle East live peaceful, prosperous lives, free from the terror of landmines." -- Donald "Pat" Patierno, Director of the Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State, commenting on U.S. mine action in the Middle East, November 2002. "The Prophet Mohammed said "Imatutu al-'atha' 'anal-tareeq sadaqah' " -- the removal of things that cause suffering from the path is a good deed." -- Her Majesty Queen Noor's prepared remarks for the occasion of the Rotary International-U.S. Department of State Landmine Conference, Seattle, Washington, September 30, 2002. U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program Information Sources
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