wfn.org | Cambodia: LWF cooperation with demining experts

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Development workers and demining experts should collaborate

GENEVA, 7 December 1998 (lwi) - Demining experts and development
organizations should aim at closer and better cooperation in the future,
an assessment of the cooperation between the Lutheran World Federation
Department for World Service (LWF-WS) and an organization of demining
experts in Cambodia has proposed.

At the request of the LWF and DanChurchAid, the development agency of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, three experts assessed the project
in October. In particular, they recommend that the coordination between
the two organizations be strengthened by establishing a more formal basis
for the partnership and, on the part of the LWF, engaging one person as
coordinator.

According to Bo Bischoff, a member of the assessment group, one of the
future requirements is that "the demining organizations learn more about
development work. The LWF is at an initial stage, there is still a long
way to go," Lennart Skov-Hansen, the head of the Relief Division at
DanChurchAid, summed up. According to the recommendations of the
assessment group, more personnel and equipment should be made available
for demining and, in line with the LWF planning schedule of projects,
funding extended to four years.

Initially, a large proportion of the funds would be spent on demining,
later more on development work. This is how demining and rural development
merge and sustainability is guaranteed. With regard to demining, too,
indicators for social effects must be found in order to see better whether
the intended goals have been achieved.

The demining expert Niels Kamp talks about the forthcoming opening of the
Danish foreign ministry center for humanitarian demining. As in similar
institutions in Sweden and Norway, experts will be trained in DANDEC
(Dansk Demining Center) from the beginning of 1999.They will then go to
work in mine-infested areas.

"We shall make available the necessary professional skills for use by the
aid agencies," Kamp explained and referred to the high requirements
necessary for demining- weapons technology, surveying the territory in
order to demarcate dangerous or demined areas, quality control, medical
care and more.

The LWF-WS has been active in development work in Cambodia since 1980,
initially in five provinces in the western part of the country. Since
1994, the focus has been on Integrated Rural Development Projects.
Following the withdrawal of the Khmer Rouge in 1996, a large number of
prisoners, who were released, returned to their villages with the hope of
earning a living by running small farms.

In this way, the LWF programs which promoted village and agricultural
development as well as income-generating measures, such as providing
agricultural training and granting small-scale credits to women, gained in
importance. At the same time, it became clear that the ubiquitous
landmines posed a great threat. "People focus on casualties, but there are
other impacts," Niels Kamp, a member of the assessment group, underlined.

The landmines are a much greater obstacle to the development of rural
regions. They prevent safe access to territories, the reconstruction of
the infrastructure, transportation of goods and cultivation of fields.
This has serious consequences: malnutrition, lack of education, absence of
health care. "In the longer term this will claim more lives than the mines
themselves," the report states.

Organizations that have to do with the problems of demarcation and removal
of landmines have different aims. In Cambodia, the state organization CMAC
concentrates on demining in areas considered to be particularly valuable
economically, and less on humanitarian aspects.

On the other hand, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engage in
projects that above all have the needs of the population in mind,
especially in rural areas. These projects called "Humanitarian Mine
Action" (HMA) include a number of measures which are geared not only to
the technical aspects of demining. The priorities are set according to the
needs of the population.

They include, for instance, the demining of access routes and agricultural
areas, the demarcation of dangerous territory, the training of the
population in medical emergencies and strategies on how to live as safely
as possible in spite of the daily hazards. In the future, the NGO HALO
Trust (Hazardous Area Life Support Organization Trust) will be upgrading
its capacities for training and awareness-building among the population.

According to the DanChurchAid report, the British NGO MAG (Mines Advisory
Group) is the only organization which fulfills the concept of integrated
aid in mine-infested areas by being ready for close cooperation and
organizational coordination with development aid agencies.

When in 1995 LWF - WS as the only foreign aid agency took up its
development project in Oral district, at a time when the security in the
country allowed it, it recognized the need to include HMA in its rural
development projects in Cambodia. In December 1997, the LWF initiated
cooperation negotiations with MAG once the Danish church agency,
DanChurchAid, had secured the necessary funds.

The coordinated project was to assist 2,000 poor families to resettle in
Oral district. This meant that 47 hectares of land had to be demined. The
primary and most important objective is to demine route No. 42, the access
road, and to reconstruct it. The next aim is to expand the health clinic
especially with a trauma care unit for the treatment of people injured by
mines. Subsequently, the environs of villages are to be demined, according
to the plan. Parallel activities would include development and
resettlement assistance, building of houses, well-drilling, establishing a
school and providing health care.

That the project is behind schedule is due to various factors such as bad
weather, security concerns, insufficient equipment and delays in signing
the contract. By mid-1999 the access road is to be demined to such an
extent that the Sangke Santop health clinic can again be reached. It is
feared, however, that funding will be exhausted before this objective is
reached and thus there is an urgent need for a continuation of the joint
undertaking.

The evaluators conclude from the experiences of the past years that
demining experts and development agencies must urgently cooperate more
closely than ever before. One reason for this is that, especially at the
beginning of a demining action, high costs are incurred due to the
purchase of expensive equipment and the necessary training of experts. If
the funding stops too early, these high investments will have only little
impact.

Bo Bischoff, a member of the assessment committee, listed the grotesque
costs caused by landmines as warfare: while an anti-personnel mine can be
bought for about five US dollars, 200 to 5000 dollars, depending on the
type of territory and the soil, are needed to find arbitrarily planted
mines and to defuse them. A person with a mine detector is able to examine
15 to 30 square meters per day but most time is spent on removing plant
growth.

MAG also recognizes that demining experts need the expertise of
development specialists since their sponsors increasingly want information
on the social effects of their work. "HMA needs to be linked to a
development effort to ensure that the demined land is used for the
intended purposes," the assessment group noted. For one of the
"unfortunate lessons" learned in Cambodia is that demined land is often
bought by property speculators, foreign investors or government officials,
leaving the small farmers without land. One conclusion of the project
assessment urges intensified cooperation: "The extra funding for demining
greatly increases the humanitarian impact of the program."

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/