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The HALO Trust completes cluster munition clearance in Georgia - December 2009
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On the 5th December 2009 HALO completed the clearance of cluster munitions and other items of unexploded ordnance left behind from the August 2008 conflict in Georgia. The programme was launched within days of the cessation of fighting and it resulted in a total of 3,402 hectares of land across 22 communities being returned to productive use and the safe clearance and destruction of 1,706 cluster munitions and 2,031 other items of ordnance.
HALO worked directly with development partners Danish Refugee Council, GTZ and UNHCR to facilitate the safe rehabilitation of housing and the building of temporary homes, and with CNFA to target USAID agricultural assistance appropriately. The latter resulted in the region’s best ever wheat and apple harvests.
The programme employed 291 Georgian national staff and was funded by the US Department of State, the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the German Foreign Ministry.
In addition to the clearance programme an emergency risk education programme was immediately launched to provide instruction in the risks posed by explosive remnants of war (ERW) to over 20,000 returnees, all schools in the districts affected by and adjacent to the ground fighting, aid workers, embassy staff and European Union monitors. This programme was funded by UNICEF and the US Department of State.
"The HALO Trust developed and executed a model emergency ERW plan", said Dennis Hadrick, Program Manager at the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. "It provided immediate assistance to innocent civilians and relief workers and allowed many displaced persons to return to their homes more quickly and safely than we have ever seen before in post-conflict operations."
HALO continues to clear mines and ERW in the Upper Kodori region of Abkhazia where clearance is expected to be completed by the end of 2010, and has now begun clearance of the minefields in Georgia known as the Soviet legacy minefields.
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| US Ambassador John Bass being interviewed by the Georgian media following the handover of cleared area in Megvrekisi village, Shida Kartli, Georgia. |
Women in Megvrekisi village, Shida Kartli, Georgia, collecting apples from their orchard which was cleared of cluster munitions by HALO. |
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The HALO Trust is invited to Colombia and receives legal registration – Summer 2009
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The HALO Trust has completed legal registration in Colombia making it the first civilian humanitarian mineclearance organisation currently registered in Colombia.
HALO Survey Teams have been assessing and prioritising mineclearance tasking in Colombia since 2008. HALO will start clearance operations in Antioquia when the Presidential Decree for civilian demining is signed later this year.
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Chief Executive Guy Willoughby wins the Burns International Humanitarian Award – May 2009
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Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.
Now in its eighth year, the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award is presented annually to a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service, 'hands on' charitable/volunteer work, or other acts. The winner receives 1759 guineas, a sum which signifies the year of the Bard's birth and the coinage then in circulation, as well as a specially commissioned hand-made award.
Links to the story can be found at:
Visit Scotland http://burns.visitscotland.com/who/award/
Scotland on Sunday http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Landmine-charity-founder-wins-Burns
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/17/land-mines-halo-trust-award
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HALO Emergency Response in Georgia
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Following the August 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia, the US Department of State prepared a large-scale humanitarian response. HALO's longstanding presence in Georgia and the Caucasus region made it the natural partner of choice for the US government in addressing the problem of explosive remnants of the conflict.
Within days after direct hostilities ceased, HALO survey teams were deployed to the various conflict areas to assess the threat to the civilian population. A special website was set up to provide other aid agencies with the most current threat assessments by location. As well as providing emergency risk education to over 20,000 returnees to areas of the conflict, HALO also provides regular focal point briefs for the UN, EU, OSCE, ICRC, Embassies / Donors and other agencies operating within Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) impacted areas.
Clearance teams have been deployed to the highest priority sites – since late August 2008 HALO teams have destroyed over 15,000 mines, cluster bombs and other ordnance in the wake of the recent conflict.
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| HALO clearance teams conduct systematic surface clearance of the village of Shindisi where cluster munitions, as pictured above (M095), pose an immediate threat to current inhabitants and returnees. |
| Twenty-eight HALO teams (200 demining staff) have been trained, equipped and deployed in Georgia (Gori Tskhinvali region) since September primarily clearing cluster bomb strikes. A further 80 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Staff have been clearing UXO in the Upper Kodori Region of Abkhazia.
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HALO utilises dual-sensor detector
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The Handheld Stand-off Mine Detection System, known as HSTAMIDS, is a dual-sensor mine detector developed specifically for the U.S. military by L-3 Communications Cyterra Corporation. HSTAMIDS combines advanced metal detector and ground-penetrating radar technologies, allowing a trained user to discriminate between metal debris (clutter) and metal that has associated mass (a possible mine).
Early deployment of HSTAMIDS was restricted to U.S. military operations, with some limited exposure to humanitarian demining organisations. However in 2006, having realised the potential of dual-sensor technology in day to day mineclearance operations, HALO signed up for a lead role in support of the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research & Development Program’s evaluation of HSTAMIDS.
The subsequent HSTAMIDS Operational Field Evaluation conducted in Cambodia made significant strides: in proving the technology in dense mine concentrations, with minimum metal mines, and with high metal contamination and in various types of soil; in entrusting the tool in the hands of locally employed deminers who now train and supervise themselves; and in the development of Standard Operating Procedures which have made possible the productivity increases which were previously just high hopes.
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| HSTAMIDS SOP’s employed in Cambodia involve the operator clearing in lateral direction along search lanes distinguishing possible mines with ‘red chips’ and harmless metal clutter with’ blue chips’. Red chips are investigated with the usual care, whilst blue chips are subject to rapid investigation with a mechanical tool specifically designed by HALO. |
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The statistics shown are entirely associated with HSTAMIDS (March 2006 – June 2008), and these accomplishments are only a small portion of HALO’s overall contribution to resolving the mines problem in Cambodia.
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| Total Area Cleared | 604,375 m˛ |
| Total Detections | 1,423,902 |
| Total Mines Found | 5,610 |
| 2008 Clutter Rejection Rate | 96.5 % |
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| The Cambodia evaluation provides HALO with 12 HSTAMIDS units, but in addition HALO has subsequently procured a further 50 units for deployment globally. Significantly HALO is the only demining agency licensed by the U.S. Department of State to do so. Immediate use is being made of these detectors to tackle minimum metal anti-tank mines in Afghanistan. Similar plans are in motion for clearing roads in Angola.
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Clearance Milestone: HALO Cambodia surpasses 200,000 mines found and destroyed
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In mid-2008 HALO Cambodia’s deminers achieved an extraordinary clearance milestone by surpassing 200,000 mines found and destroyed since our programme started in 1991.
A staggering 168,586 of these mines (84% of the total) were cleared from the northwest border districts where HALO has been concentrating its efforts since 2003.
It is not insignificant that during this same period the annual mine or Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) casualty numbers have dropped year on year from around 900 to less than 250.
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For most of the nineteen nineties the north and west of the country was largely off-limits due to the fighting. After the final demise of the Khmer Rouge in 1998, rapid repopulation along the border districts was unsurprisingly matched by an unacceptably high mines/ERW casualty rate. HALO was the first to recognise how the mines problem had polarised and has since focussed its deminers on the dense accident causing minefields. In particular HALO is unashamedly targeting the infamous 1,046km long ‘K5’ mine-belt which was instigated in 1984 -1985 by the Vietnamese and Peoples Republic of Kampuchea high command in an attempt to seal the border. The K5 - a small section of which is shown in this HALO site clearance map – comprises some of the most densely mined land on the planet.
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March 2008: HALO Trust Board Member Mrs Cindy McCain visits Kosovo
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Mrs McCain took 4 days out from her husband, Senator John McCain’s, Presidential campaign tour to visit HALO in Kosovo during March.
She has previously visited HALO’s humanitarian clearance operations in Angola, Sri Lanka, Mozambique and Cambodia.
During the visit to Kosovo she reviewed minefields and cluster bomb strikes that HALO will clear over the next few years. She also met with the communities that these minefields and cluster strikes still impact.
Mrs McCain concluded her visit by meeting with Kosovo’s President and Prime Minister. Both fully endorsed HALO’s resumption of mines and cluster bomb clearance in Kosovo.
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Mrs McCain meets with schoolchildren near Junic.
The playground of the school requires further clearance to remove the threat of unexploded NATO cluster munitions. |
After investigating a mined area close to this community
Mrs McCain makes time to share a joke with Admir Berisha
(HALO’s acting Programme Manager) and locals |
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| Mrs McCain congratulates Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Kosovo’s independence and discusses HALO’s future clearance in Kosovo |
Mrs McCain and President Fatmir Sejdiu publicly encourage the UN to endorse HALO’s resumption of mines and cluster bomb clearance as soon as possible |
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News update: Cluster bomb accident at Goles, Kosovo
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Directly following Mrs McCain’s visit to Kosovo one man was killed and a further three seriously injured on one of the sites she reviewed.
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All women demining section formed in Somaliland
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| HALO has operated in Somaliland since 1999 and currently employs 440 local staff.
During a routine minefield visit, a senior manager was approached by a group of women seeking jobs with HALO.
After first briefing and receiving approval from local authorities, HALO decided to invite the women to join its
intensive training programme. The trainees successfully completed the course, thus creating Somaliland’s first female demining section.
Since September, the seven-woman section has been deployed to minefields and is proving to be an excellent addition to HALO’s operation in Somaliland.
HALO is closely monitoring their progress and is subsequently planning to hire additional sections if funding levels permit.
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HALO completes work in Northern Mozambique
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| After 13 years of work in northern Mozambique, HALO has closed its doors there.
In an area approximately the size of California, there are simply no more known
minefields requiring clearance. The region will officially be declared ‘Mine Impact
Free’ in early 2008.
An estimated 170,000 mines were laid in Mozambique during its fight for independence (1964-1975) and throughout the
civil war that followed. All factions used mines to defend provincial and district towns, roads, airstrips, key bridges,
power supply infrastructure and military posts. Although the civil war ended in the early nineties, landmines and unexploded
ordnance (UXO) continued to claim lives and hinder development there.
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| Since launching its northern Mozambique programme in 1994, 2,587 acres of land were demined and returned to local
communities. Over 100,000 landmines and 22,000 items of UXO were destroyed in the process. HALO would not have been
able to achieve these results without the generosity of its donors—particularly the British, American, Dutch, Irish,
Japanese and Swiss governments—who jointly provided $30 million in support. “I’ve been privileged to observe firsthand
the positive impact that HALO’s dedicated work has had on the day-to-day lives of people in the north.
This is a great success story and the United States is proud to have been a part of it,” says Deborah Netland,
Programme Manager at the US Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA). |
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Each white stick indicates where HALO located a landmine.
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| Now that the work is completed in the north, HALO has been asked to lend its assistance in south and central Mozambique,
where progress has been slower. A survey to determine the extent of the remaining mines threat there was completed in October 2007,
and workplans are now being developed to tackle these 487 minefields.
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Fundraising Achievement - The HALO South Pole Expedition
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| On 21 January 2004, Alex Blyth, then a Trustee of The HALO Trust, and Ray Middleton,
a senior pilot with Cathay Pacific, reached the South Pole after a 730 mile trek from the coast of Antarctica.
They raised over $200,000 for The HALO Trust.
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International awards received
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| 1998 The European Commission's First
European Festival of Solidarity (Barcelona) - Major post-conflict labour
reconstruction category, Winner.
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| 2002
LEW KOPELEW PRIZE (Cologne) - for peace and human rights 2001, Winner.
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| May 2009 Chief Executive Guy Willoughby wins the Burns International Humanitarian Award. |
Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.
Now in its eighth year, the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award is presented annually to a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service, 'hands on' charitable/volunteer work, or other acts. The winner receives 1759 guineas, a sum which signifies the year of the Bard's birth and the coinage then in circulation, as well as a specially commissioned hand-made award.
Links to the story can be found at:
Visit Scotland http://burns.visitscotland.com/who/award/
Scotland on Sunday http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Landmine-charity-founder-wins-Burns
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/17/land-mines-halo-trust-award
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COLOMBIA