DEMINING GOAL SHOULD BE "ZERO VICTIMS," U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS
(U.S. is single largest donor nation to demining effort)
Economic Realities of Demining, Alexandria, VA, March 19-20, 1998
By Jacquelyn S. Porth USIA Security Affairs Writer
Washington -- "The goal of humanitarian demining should be 'zero victims'," a top State Department official says, and that requires better international coordination to ensure that the $1 billion a year needed to address the problem won't be "squandered or left unspent" due to a lack of infrastructure in affected nations.
Speaking at an international conference March 19-20 in Alexandria, Virginia, Priscilla Clapp, the department's deputy special representative for global demining, cited President Clinton's action last year in launching the Global Humanitarian Demining Initiative. He called for an international campaign to accelerate demining, efforts to raise $1 billion a year from public and private sources, and the removal of all mines threatening civilians worldwide by the year 2010.
"We just need to set a goal for ourselves as a global community and do our best to reach it," she said. Solving the humanitarian demining problem in 12 years doesn't mean "taking every mine out of the ground all over the world," but, rather, "reaching a zero-victim objective" in line with which certain areas not vital to local economies might be sealed off, she noted.
In an effort to encourage action on the initiative, the United States will host a conference in Washington May 20-22, bringing together major donor governments and international organizations. U.S. Ambassador Karl Inderfurth will be in Ottawa, Canada next week discussing the need for a plan to develop effective international coordination for humanitarian demining.
In her talk at the two-day conference on the theme of "Economic Realities of Demining: Value and Compassion," Clapp stressed the need for those in the demining community to coordinate their efforts at the policy level as "the prerequisite for bringing things together on the ground." Humanitarian demining is being pursued in a growing number of nations that are experiencing "various states of confusion, because, in many cases, complex demining programs must be developed where there is no effective government, let alone local infrastructure," she said.
Clapp told attendees from Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom the international coordination that is needed begins with the United Nations. She indicated that U.N. Under Secretary General Bernard Miyet is expected to reveal a plan by the end of March providing a new coordinating mechanism to bring U.N. demining operations under a humanitarian umbrella.
The United States would also like the U.N. to be "the platform for communication among all the major entities engaged in humanitarian demining activity" including public-private donors and partners, she said.
Effective coordination requires accurate data, she noted, suggesting that the U.N. "should be the platform for creating an integrated database." In the meantime, Clapp indicated that the State Department-published "Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis (1994)" will be updated and reissued in May or June.
Because there are large gaps in demining technology between the product design and deminer requirements, Clapp pointed out that international coordination could help bring technological research and development more effectively to bear on humanitarian demining problems.
She said the United States is a leader internationally in R&D for new demining technology and is always looking for better applications. The Defense Department will manage $21 million in humanitarian demining R&D in 1998.
Clapp noted that the United States is "the single largest national donor in the area of humanitarian demining." The administration hopes to spend $100 million or more in fiscal year 1999. A spending level of $80 million is projected in fiscal year 1998. Between 1993 and 1997, the U.S. invested $153 million in related programming.
The United States is working in 17 mine-affected countries and anticipates adding four more in the year ahead. U.S.-supported programs include ones in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Angola, Rwanda, and Lebanon.
Marine Colonel G.K. Cunningham, who also works on demining at the State Department, told the non-government organizations (NGOs), demining specialists, defense contractors, and Swiss and Swedish military officials attending the conference, which was organized by Bergerac International, that funding for the U.S. humanitarian demining program is expected to remain "fairly stable." He also indicated that the estimates placing the number of embedded landmines at between 35 and 110 million, are "highly suspect," but indicated that arguing about the numbers does nothing to reduce human suffering.
He said the United States wants to foster accurate surveys and assessments. Cunningham stressed the importance of realistic projections of mine clearing based on "sound data."
While allowing that the goal of solving the humanitarian demining crisis by 2010 is "ambitious," Cunningham said the United States is seeking to "establish a consensus on an international coordinating mechanism to match resources to needs in a rational manner."
Army Colonel George Zahaczewsky, assistant for explosive ordnance disposal in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, said there is a real need to enhance demining tools because it is difficult to tell landmines from other battlefield clutter and debris. He warned of unrealistic expectations internationally about what technology can achieve. An array of techniques combining high- and low-tech tools is what works best for deminers, Zahaczewsky said.
Brian Green, project manager for mines, countermines and demolitions at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, reminded the international audience that tools being designed for deminers, which are funded by the United States, are meant to be left behind in host countries so that an indigenous demining capability remains permanently in place. For that reason, the tools need to be simple to use and operate and the host nation must be able to make or acquire the parts needed to maintain them, he said.
Dr. Alois Sieber of the European Commission's Joint Research Center said the synergy between military and civilian demining capabilities has not yet been exploited and "more can be done" in this area. He added that he believes R&D problems can be solved in the next decade or so, given a more focused effort.
Dr. Dave Atkinson of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory noted that the Departments of Defense and Energy are increasingly cooperating on the landmine and unexploded ordnance removal problem. He said that the labs managed by the Energy Department now have incentives to cooperate with the private sector, including NGOs, to address problems such as how to locate mines by means of robotics or chemical "sniffers."
Dr. Steve Kaufman of Sandia National Laboratories' Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center said it is very important to find out where mines "are not." He noted that 60 percent of alleged mine fields have no mines in them. Still, land which has not been swept for mines will not be used by local populations.
Anything that can be done to speed up the clearing of landmines will bring down the overall cost of demining operations, Kaufman said. To this end, Sandia is designing robotic "ants" to go into areas of rubble and bring back trace samples of chemicals that may reveal the presence or absence of mines.
Zahaczewsky said the economic reality is that "high technology equipment that enhances efficiency in both mine detection and clearance is almost always very expensive." Hence the need for what Clapp described as the three "gets" for the international community: "get organized, get more resources, and get the job done."
Clapp, Zahaczewsky, and others will return to consider one aspect of the demining problem, "Mine Victim Assistance," at another Bergerac International Conference April 14-15 with a special focus on international agencies, mine victim medical care and rehabilitation, and how to prevent mine-related accidents.
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