COLOMBIA| CENTRAL ASIA | AFGHANISTAN |
Map - Mineclearance 
Afghanistan was heavily mined by Soviet forces during their ten year occupation, with further mine-laying by the communist regime of Najibullah, during localised internecine fighting between Mujahideen groups and most recently between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. All defending forces laid landmines to protect their Main Supply Routes (particularly the road north from Kabul to the old Soviet border), their airfields, military posts around key towns, and the actual front lines. The geography of the conflict meant that different factions have frequently mined the same areas at different times. Afghanistan is one of the most mined countries in the world, with HALO estimates of up to 640,000 mines laid since 1979. During the periods of conflict described above millions of Afghans fled their homes and made their way to Pakistan and Iran in order to escape the conflict that was ravaging their country. With prolonged periods of conflict in which front lines were shifting and there was extensive mine-laying, residential areas and agricultural land soon became so dangerous that Afghan families felt that the safest place to be was outside Afghanistan. Upwards of 6.2 million Afghans were reported as having left Afghanistan for Pakistan and Iran alone during the various phases of conflict. However, since the fall of the Taliban over 4.36 million refugees (UNHCR Figures: March 2002 – December 2008) have returned to their homes as the Karzai Government has attempted to bring political and economic stability to the country. HALO’s humanitarian mineclearance project in Afghanistan remains the oldest and largest in the world. HALO introduced to the world the concept of humanitarian mineclearance in 1988 and has continued clearing mines in Afghanistan despite the fragile political situation bought on by the continuous conflict that has beleaguered the country since the late 1970s. Over the last 20 years the programme has developed from two teams up to the current 160 teams. HALO policy in Afghanistan has been based on adherence to principles of good governance and recruiting a multi-ethnic workforce, and this has played a large part in guaranteeing HALO’s freedom of movement in the Central and Northern regions of Afghanistan. It has also enabled HALO to work more or less without interference since 1988, regardless of the regime in power. Between 1988 and 2008, HALO Afghanistan has destroyed over 692,000 mines (156,000 emplaced mines and 536,000 stockpiled mines), 9.0 million items of large calibre ammunition and 45.4 million bullets. HALO Afghanistan currently has an operational capacity employing over 3,300 Afghans, and runs a mixture of manual, mechanical, survey, battle area clearance (BAC), explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and weapon and ammunition disposal (WAD) teams. HALO’s current area of operations, excluding the WAD teams who work in every region of the country, is in nine provinces of the Northern and Central regions and Herat Province in the west of the country. The organisation is dedicated to building a local capacity and nowhere is this better exemplified than in Afghanistan where our 3,300 Afghan staff are managed by Afghans, with assistance from 10 expatriate staff. HALO also continues to be the largest implementing agency of the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA). Weapons & Ammunition Disposal (WAD) Since 2003 HALO has had an independent Weapons & Ammunition Disposal project working in Afghanistan. Initially the WAD teams concentrated on the disposal of the significant quantities of degraded and unstable ammunition that were amassed across the country after the formation of the present government. After destroying those stocks HALO’s focus became the location and destruction of ammunition stocks that lie outside of direct government control. Invariably these are small caches of buried munitions that although often unsuited to conventional warfare are an excellent source o of explosive material for insurgents. Throughout 2008 the HALO WAD teams located and destroyed an average of around 100 tonnes of ammunition each month. Much of this ammunition might well have fallen into the hands of terrorists had HALO not sought out and destroyed it. In total the HALO Afghanistan WAD teams have destroyed more than 20,000 tonnes of ammunition. Requirement for continued clearance Humanitarian mineclearance in Afghanistan must continue unless the international community is prepared to accept thousands of civilian casualties for decades to come. (Afghanistan had 3,800 mine and ERW victims between 2004 and 2008). It is HALO’s strong belief that only through maintaining the appropriate scale can Afghanistan’s landmine problem be addressed in order that casualties are avoided and the population of Afghanistan is no longer impacted by the presence of mines and other explosive remnants of war. Hence it is HALO’s plan to seek to maintain, and where possible expand, its current capacity in order to clear all high and medium priority tasks within its area of operations. |
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