An UNMEE de miner at work [image courtesy of the United Nations: 31602]
By Sarah Chandler
When asked if he wanted to work for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) at the UN Headquarters in New York, Major Peter Gray said he had to think about it, “for about ten seconds.”
MAJ Gray, an Army engineer, says one of the attractions of a two year secondment to UNMAS was working for an agency that was “ardently humanitarian focused.”
“There was no downside. Land mine clearance and risk education are just worthy things to do; they are morally unambiguous. We would not only be getting those things out of the ground, but helping people help themselves to develop their own mine clearance capability. It was immensely rewarding.”
The economic and social cost of land mines and unexploded ordnance is huge: The United Nations Mine Action Service raises over US$100 million annually to address the problem, focusing mainly on clearance, advocacy for landmine legislation, and mine risk education.
Land mines ruin economies and keep people in affected areas in states of anxiety. Afghanistan, having experienced layers of conflict, is thought to have the greatest problem with land mines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), but many parts of Africa, Asia and Europe are affected, and the problem is far reaching: thousands of tonnes of unexploded ordnance are still dug up in Belgium each year, and parts of Europe have simply been fenced off since the second world war.
“The trouble with landmines and ERW is that they continue to hold their deadly potential long after the conflict is over” MAJ Gray says, “You can unload a gun, but you can’t easily unload a landmine. Even now, people in Cambodia and Vietnam suffer injuries from unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam War. Mines move around as a result of floods or snow melt, so even if you had a perfect map of where they were laid, it wouldn’t necessarily reflect where they actually are.”
One concept around unexploded ordnance is to refer to “the dirty battlefield”. This includes deliberately placed land mines, mortar rounds or cluster munitions that have simply failed to go off, abandoned stock piles of ammunition or any other ERW that is dangerous to the in-place population, international aid workers, military personnel, and others.
“It’s not just about getting land mines out of the ground. In many cases, the best intervention is not to clear the mines, which is time consuming, risky, and expensive, but rather to educate people to be land mine aware, to understand what the signs of mines are. Mine Risk Education is thus a critical component of any de mining programme.”
“Further, if you can improve access by road, other humanitarian interventions can occur more cheaply. One of the selling points we made to donors is that it isn’t just about the direct reduction in mine injuries and deaths; there are secondary and tertiary effects where we can enable commerce and humanitarian aid by improving road access. Consider Sudan and Darfur, both of which have mine problems. If you have to fly in supplies because of unsafe roads, it becomes prohibitively expensive. If you can clear a route, it’s not just that people won’t be blown up on that road anymore, but those other humanitarian interventions can get through and aid reaches the people who need it most.” Says MAJ Gray.
The NZ government has long supported mine action and clearing landmines, providing money and personnel to UNMAS. It has also committed to other clearance efforts, such as sending two Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams to Lebanon following the 2006 Israel incursion into south Lebanon.
The NZ Defence Force has been involved in UN efforts to eliminate land mines since before UNMAS, and from its establishment in 1997 has routinely sent an officer from the Royal New Zealand Engineers on a two year rotation.
MAJ Gray says initially mine action was conducted by military personnel, who would leverage off their own engineering skills and undertake area clearance. Now mine clearance tends to be contracted out to specialist firms.
“It’s a profession now. When we send an officer to UNMAS it’s us learning about mine action; we’re not there to teach them how to do it. The people on the end of the prodders are professional mine action workers on contract. What New Zealand Defence Force personnel bring to the UN is the ability to be effective programme managers.”
MAJ Gray wore several hats during his two years at UNMAS, first as desk officer for the de mining component of the United Nations Mission into Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), during which time the mission went into liquidation.
MAJ Gray explains: “The Secretary General eventually recommended that our position In Eritrea was no longer viable, but withdrawal is complicated. Ending a UN mission is similar to winding up a business. It involves the physical extraction of forces, asset disposal and contractual closures. I ensured there was a continuum of route clearance capability maintained through to the end so that UNMEE could extract itself by road. I followed the process from business as usual through to safely extracting the last UN person who turned out the lights in Asmara”.
MAJ Gray saw his share of war-torn hotspots while at UNMAS. In addition to working for UNMEE he was involved in mine action with the UN Mission to Nepal (where Maoist rebels’ weapon of choice was the home made pipe bomb), and planning for a possible UN intervention in Somalia.
While he was slightly apprehensive about site visits to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, he says he thoroughly enjoyed the experience: “People who join the Army don’t tend to be types who like 9-5 in the same office. What you sign up for is to challenge yourself.”
The United Nations Mine Action Service
The United Nations General Assembly created the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in 1997 to serve as the UN focal point for mine action and to support the UN's vision of "a world free of the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance, where individuals and communities live in a safe environment conducive to development, and where mine survivors are fully integrated into their societies."
UNMAS collaborates with 13 other UN departments, agencies, programmes and funds to ensure effective, proactive and coordinated responses to the problems of landmines and the explosive remnants of war. The New Zealand Defence Force has been involved in mine action within the United Nations Headquarters before UNMAS, and since its establishment in 1997 the NZDF has provided a seconded officer from the Royal New Zealand Engineers on two yearly rotations.
Currently MAJ Anthony Blythen is filling the NZDF appointment at UNMAS, in the Programme Planning and Management Section.