Georgia

ABKHAZIA 1997-2011

ABKHAZIA WAS DECLARED MINE FREE ON 3RD NOVEMBER 2011

Between 1998 and 2011 HALO completed the clearance of 336 minefields and battle areas, covering an area of over 1,500 hectares. In the process 9,788 mines and 48,998 items of explosive ordnance were found and safely destroyed.

Between 1998 and 2009 HALO ran a large-scale, fully integrated mineclearance programme using up to 530 manual deminers, recruited from both Abkhazian and ethnic Georgian communities, supported by armoured mechanical assets. This programme brought the clearance of all minefields available for clearance close to completion.

With the opening of access in late 2008 to the mountainous upper Kodori region and the identification of a further 36 minefields in need of clearance, HALO’s programme was extended. These high altitude minefields were accessible from June to October only each year. HALO’s clearance of bombed ammunition stores in Kodori resulted in the location and safe destruction of more than 25,000 items of explosive ordnance.

As the end of clearance approached, in order to confirm all necessary clearance was conducted HALO carried out a “mine free” survey with Abkhazia’s 118 Village Administrations and Regional Authorities. The survey comprised an extensive formal consultation with every community with each officially recording their satisfaction that no further clearance was required in their areas of responsibility.

With the completion of clearance of the last known minefield in Abkhazia in October 2011, the last Village Administration was declared “mine free” later that month and the whole of Abkhazia was formally declared Mine Free on 3rd September 2011.

Guy Willoughby, Director of the HALO Trust, speaking in Abkhazia said “It is great news that after 14 years we can announce the complete clearance of all 336 known mined areas in Abkhazia, in line with Article 5 of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. It is a testament to the hard work of our local deminers, and to the financial support of our international donors, that total mineclearance can be achieved after a full scale war where mines had been widely laid.     The HALO Trust will support the Abkhazia Mine Action Office to assist with any emergency call-out facilities for the disposal of single items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) that may be found by farmers. The office will also maintain the database and detailed maps of all the districts, to help advise agricultural and tourism developers who may seek information in the years ahead.”

Soviet Legacy Minefields

HALO is currently working on two of these minefields and hopes to clear a further seven by the end of 2011.

The clearance of minefields surrounding former Soviet military installations in Georgia is often complicated by significant quantities of waste and rubble.  HALO is using its extensive worldwide experience in mechanical mineclearance to efficiently clear such sites using adapted civil engineering plant including armoured excavators, front-loading shovels, rock crushers, vegetation cutters and processing buckets.

HALO currently employs over 100 staff on Legacy minefield clearance, the majority of whom come from within the mine-affected communities.  As increasingly remote minefields are tackled, the recruitment and training of local staff will continue to bring employment to these villages.

Shida Kartli Region

Between August 2008 and December 2009 HALO recruited, trained and deployed 280 local staff to conduct battle area clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas, using both surface and sub-surface clearance techniques. Mobile explosive ordnance disposal teams dealt with abandoned ammunition or individual items of unexploded ordnance. HALO also provided risk education teams, which conducted a school-based programme for children and a public information campaign in affected areas.

Clearance of this region, funded by The United States Department of State, The European Commission (through ECHO), The UK Government (through DFID) and The Federal Government of Germany, was completed on 5th December 2009. The programme cleared and returned to productive use a total of 3,402 hectares of land across 22 communities. 1,706 cluster munitions and 2,031 other items of ordnance were located and safely destroyed.

The American NGO CNFA partnered with HALO to target the delivery of agricultural assistance to the farmers of Shida Kartli; this resulted in the region’s best ever apple and wheat harvests. HALO also worked with UNHCR, Danish Refugee Council and GTZ to assess and clear land prior to the building of housing for internally displaced people, and with the Red Cross on assessing land prior to water supply projects.