wfn.org | Landmines, war's hidden horror, still disturb Kosovo's peace

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Note #6257 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

9-November-2000
00398

Landmines, war's hidden horror, still disturb Kosovo's peace

PCUSA funds help pay for the painstaking process of de-mining

by Eva Stimson

HEREQ, Kosovo -- A brightly painted three-story building stands next to the
road on the edge of this small town nestled at the foot of the mountains
separating Kosovo from Albania.  This  is "command central" for a
church-sponsored team involved in land-mine removal, one of the most
dangerous but essential clean-up activities in the wake of the Serbian
onslaught on Kosovo last year. Inside the building Halil Zadogoshi, a local
manager for one of Kosovo's mine clearing efforts, strides back and forth
between a carefully plotted "Operations Board" and an ominous-looking
display of de-activated mines, grenades and cluster bombs.

	"These are not meant to kill; they are meant to injure," he says, pointing
to one of the smaller landmines.  "The larger ones can kill one or two
people."  These "anti-personnel mines" explode when stepped on or when
activated by an attached trip wire, all but invisible to the untrained eye.

	Anti-tank mines, about a foot in diameter, are designed for heavier prey. 
But "cows can set them off," remarks operations officer Luke Atkinson.

	Zadogoshi and Atkinson, who is from Great Britain, help oversee a landmine
removal project sponsored by Action by Churches Together (ACT), an
ecumenical relief organization based in Geneva.  ACT is one of 14
international organizations that have been engaged in de-mining efforts,
under United Nations' supervision, since a peace agreement for Kosovo went
into effect in June 1999.  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has contributed
$50,000 to ACT for landmine removal.

	The ACT de-miners have extracted from Kosovo hillsides more than 1,800
anti-personnel mines, nearly 800 anti-tank mines and nearly 500 pieces of
"unexploded ordnance" (cluster bombs, grenades, and other leftover
ammunition).

	"Most of the large minefields have already been cleared," Zadogoshi says. 
"Now we're moving on to smaller sites." U.N. officials expect the country to
be mine-free by the end of 2001.

	Two factors have helped landmine-removal proceed more smoothly in Kosovo
than in other war sites such as Vietnam and Cambodia.  First, the Kosovo
de-miners have found far fewer mines planted in houses than they expected. 
The most heavily mined areas are in mountainous areas close to the Albanian
border, apparently intended by the Serbs to repel invasions by the Kosovo
Liberation Army.  Second, as part of last year's peace agreement, Serbian
troops turned over to the United Nations about 700 detailed sketches of the
minefields they had laid.

	But of course these maps don't include the hundreds of unexploded cluster
bombs dropped by NATO in an attempt to halt the Serbs' murderous rampage
against Kosovar Albanians. Unlike grenades and some of the less sensitive
landmines, the cluster bombs are too dangerous to move, and must be
destroyed in place.

	Just getting to some of the minefields that are being cleared is a
challenge, even for a sturdy Toyota Landcruiser, the vehicle of choice for
many relief agencies in this part of the world.  One of the ACT teams is
working on a sheer forested mountain slope, accessible only by a rutted dirt
road not much wider than a walking path, full of rocks, hairpin turns and
lake-sized mud puddles. A Red Cross ambulance sits at the entrance to the
minefield site, with a three-person medical team ready to respond in case of
an accident.  Red-and-white-striped plastic tape stretched between posts
marks the danger areas, where de-mining is underway.

	Landmine removal is slow, meticulous work, much of it done on hands and
knees.  Starting at the bottom of the hillside, de-miners clear one
three-by-seven-foot rectangle at a time, marking it with yellow tape.  They
trim the grass to one-inch high and remove leaves and branches.  Then they
use a "prodder," which looks like a long screwdriver, to probe into the soil
at a 30-degree angle, marking their progress to make sure they stick the
prodder into the soil at 2-centimeter intervals.

	Mechanical mine detectors sent to Kosovo by Great Britain are not widely
used.  They don't work very well, the de-miners say, because the high metal
content in the country's soil causes too many false readings.  Specially
trained dogs are sometimes used to sniff out mines that may have been missed
by other clearance methods.

	When a mine is located, the de-miners disarm it if possible and check
underneath and around it for trip wire, booby traps or other mines.
Ultrasensitive mines must be exploded on site with an electric detonator. 
Others are taken back to the base and destroyed later.  Kosovo's minefields
typically have a high concentration of mines and unexploded ordnance. 
Workers at one of the ACT sites reported finding 28 mines in one
10-square-meter plot of ground.

	Nearly 500 mine casualties -- 103 of them fatal -- have been reported in
Kosovo since the fighting ended in June 1999.  Even the mine clearance
teams, no matter how careful and well-trained, are not immune to accidents.

	Asked whether his team has suffered any casualties, a worker at one of the
ACT minefields bends over and picks up a piece of rubber boot heel almost
hidden under the leaves.  The boot fragment marks the spot where not too
long ago a coworker had his right foot and ankle blown off when he stepped
on a tree root that concealed a deadly mine.

	Of course, the injured man acknowledges now that he should have checked
under the root before taking that tragic step, the ACT worker comments,
shaking his head regretfully.  But with landmines you don't get a second
chance.

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