On completion of demining this village can be safely reoccupied - mineclearance will solve the problem if sufficient resources are committed
In 1995 and 1996 HALO conducted an 18-month long programme in Nagorno Karabakh that established a mineclearance capacity for the de facto local authorities.
This included a survey of the region and the equipping and training of deminers. The teams operated without assistance for three years and whilst they successfully cleared hundreds of mines, their equipment had degraded and accurate records of clearance had not been kept for some time.
HALO returned to Nagorno Karabakh in 2000 to create the sole local capacity, providing equipment and training and establishing a Mine Action Centre (MAC). The MAC collates information concerning mines, ERW and safe routes, and disseminates it to all stakeholders and other actors as requested, in particular NGOs and international humanitarian bodies operating in Nagorno Karabakh. Over the last eight years HALO’s programme in Nagorno Karabakh has steadily expanded to its current number of 230 national staff. The policy in Nagorno Karabakh (as in all other countries in which HALO operates) is to build a substantial local capacity that can deal with the problem.
Since 2000, HALO Nagorno Karabakh has returned over 125 square kilometres of contaminated land to previously impacted communities, during which time over 50,000 landmines, cluster munitions and other items of unexploded ordnance were safely located and destroyed.
HALO conducts both manual and mechanical clearance of minefields in Nagorno Karabakh. Cluster strikes are cleared by HALO’s Battle Area Clearance (BAC) teams whilst other items of UXO are cleared by HALO’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams. HALO’s programme is complemented by Survey and Mines Risk Education teams. The programme is managed by one expatriate, while all other senior management positions are filled by locally recruited and trained staff.