PRESS BRIEFING ON MINE ACTION STUDY

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON MINE ACTION STUDY

A Multi-Country Study on the Development of Indigenous Mine Action Capacities was launched today at a Headquarters press briefing by the Under- Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet, the Under- Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello and Robert Eaton, team leader for the Study.

Mr. de Mello said landmines killed and maimed most of their victims after wars were over. They threatened peace and reconstruction and were as pernicious, indiscriminate and cowardly as terrorism. They also paralysed through fear and consolidated stagnation and poverty. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in close cooperation with the operational agencies, would have primary responsibility for coordinating a timely response to the landmine threat, either in immediate post-war scenarios or while conflicts were continuing.

Demining and other activities, including mine awareness, mapping, data collection and training were possible, cheap, worthwhile and vital, he continued. Effective mine action was possible, if conducted with the same kind of stamina, conviction, faith, perseverance and tenacity that resulted in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. That treaty, which was concluded at Ottawa, was a major achievement in terms of prevention and a very important and powerful message of hope. However, the Ottawa success story really heralded a new beginning and the major task of dealing with the millions of mines left hidden in the ground was a long-term humanitarian challenge.

He said the often-quoted figures of 10 million landmines in Afghanistan and 8 million mines in Cambodia gave the impression that little could be done, that clearance would take decades and that the costs would be prohibitive. The Study showed that there were solutions. In the past, the idea was to clear landmines wherever they were found, whether in a fruit orchard or on a remote mountain top. The Study promoted a slightly different approach, based on people's needs.

First, surveys had to be conducted to set priorities among high-use, livable areas, arable land, development and service-oriented areas, he continued. The idea was to clear where absolutely necessary and use fencing and raise awareness in other areas. That selective, targeted approach allowed larger areas to be made relatively safe and usable, much faster. The Study also found that affected communities should be used for training local demining teams and for raising awareness.

With that type of approach, thousands of barren hectares in Cambodia had been brought back into production and hundreds of thousands of mines in

Mine Study Briefing - 2 - 12 February 1998

Afghanistan had been, and continued to be, cleared, he said. In the next two years, the main landmine problem in Afghanistan could be dealt with, even though the conflict and laying of mines continued. It was not an easy task, but with the right mix of resources and support to affected communities, the most dangerous landmines -- those that directly threatened lives, limbs and livelihoods -- could be located and dealt with in years, rather than decades.

Even so, he continued, action must start very early in the transition from war to peace. One clear illustration was the conflict in and around Nagorno Karabakh, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees would not be able to return to the occupied territories and to Nagorno Karabakh itself, unless the problem was addressed, preferably before the conclusion of a final peace settlement.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, said that although his Department was the focal point for demining activities, the humanitarian and advocacy perspective had not been lost. The Secretary- General himself, and the United Nations, had been engaged in the campaign for the Ottawa Convention. The Study's recommendation for more inclusiveness, cooperation and coordination among United Nations agencies and departments was exactly what was needed and was already being implemented through an inter- agency working group.

He said United Nations agencies and departments were already working very effectively through specific working groups -- a very important one was chaired by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Affairs would also contribute to keeping a strong interest on all mine action matters. The focus would be maintained, including through several working groups chaired by experts from the United Nations agencies dealing with different areas: the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on mine awareness and victim assistance; Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance on emergency and development questions; the Department of Disarmament Affairs on advocacy, verification and compliance; and the Mine Action Service on resource mobilization, information and quality management.

The objective was to have, by mid-March, a common strategy and policy guidelines agreed to by all agencies and departments and, at the level of the Secretary-General, to prepare for the next important step, namely "the road from Ottawa", he said. At two important conferences, in Ottawa at the end of March and in Washington, D.C. in May, the mine-affected communities and the donor community would have to define what they wanted. "We want to work effectively, we want a clear programme of work, a clear timetable of what we want to achieve and a clear idea of the needs and priorities", he said. The United Nations would then be the point of reference, where transparency, accurate information and priorities were defined and openly offered to the entire international community.

Mine Study Briefing - 3 - 12 February 1998

Mr. Eaton said the landmine problem was now understood to be one of containment, not elimination. The Study refined four main findings. First and most importantly, demining was a humanitarian concern, not a narrowly focused military clearance issue. The concern was not with mine clearance, but with a human catastrophe and tragedy that inflicted terror on communities around the world. The second concern was to contain the terror, which was different from the impossible task of eliminating all mines. That goal could not be achieved. It had not been done in the European battlefields of the Second World War, and it would not be done on the third world battlefields of the last 20 years. However, with proper funding and good management, the goal of containing landmines could be achieved within 10 years. Another finding of the Study, he said, was the essential role of a central coordinating mechanism at the national level, which could interface between the sovereign power, the donor community, the United Nations and non- governmental organizations. Mine action was a series of three basic technical tasks: mine awareness; mine clearance and training for clearance; and good surveys and data, properly managed. Management was key. The obsession with technical tasks should not distract from the need for good and free management, which had authority and was accountable. Finally, Mr. Eaton said, the Study concluded that once the basic coordination function of the United Nations had been concluded, actual implementation should be contracted out through non-governmental organizations, national authorities and commercial firms. The basic United Nations role would be to coordinate the enhanced understanding of the problem and the time-frame for dealing with it. A correspondent said that, in view of the fact that the problem went back beyond the Second World War, why had there been no coordination in the past. Mr. Miyet said that many United Nations agencies had only recently become involved. For example, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had become involved in the last few years and was developing its strategy. In reply to a question as to why it was only now becoming involved, Mr. Miyet said because of strong interest by the donor community, the non- governmental organizations and the public realization of the importance of addressing the problem. In the United Nations system, the work had begun under the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, with the creation of a trust fund. For a long time, however, mine action had been considered a technical problem. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations had always integrated the notion of demining in its planning, because it was essential in carrying out the tasks given to peacekeepers by the Security Council. Now, there was a strong feeling that something had to be done and the need for coordination was more and more important.

Mr. Eaton said that there had been a shift in the nature of war, since the Second World War. Now, irregular armies were planting mines, with no training or methodology. There had been an explosion of mine activities in the 1970s and 1980s, so, in that sense, it was a new problem.

Mine Study Briefing - 4 - 12 February 1998

Mr. de Mello said there had been coordination in the past. For example, in Cambodia United Nations agencies were responsible for organizing the response to the mine threat and bilateral initiatives had been well coordinated. Now, there was a realization of the need for a comprehensive approach -- military, humanitarian and developmental -- which used the aftermath of the Ottawa process to revive interest in the problem and improve United Nations coordination within and beyond the system.

According to the Study's executive summary, governments should not be encouraged to build large bureaucracies to implement mine action programmes, a correspondent said. Was that a reference to any particular government? he asked. How had governments responded to their role? Mr. Eaton said five years ago, when it was assumed the problem would continue for 100 years, it was natural to create infrastructures to deal with it.

Now, it was understood there were two phases to mine activities, he continued. The acute phase of terror and dislocation of local communities could be dealt with in a fairly short time with a very high impact effort. After that, just as in Belgium today, 20 and 50 years from now people would still be removing mines. The five countries in the Study had achieved remarkable results against incredible odds.

Mr. Miyet said the United Nations did not want to create a bureaucracy to deal with the problem.

A correspondent asked how the model of short-term action and long-term containment, as practiced in Europe, applied to countries such as Afghanistan or Cambodia, which might not have the resources. Mr. Eaton said in Mozambique major infrastructure had been mined and they had to be cleared. The trickier question was how to deal with other areas. In Mozambique, there had been no serious survey. Thus, the mine clearance groups had no basis for deciding whether to move on to places where the economy or lives were more threatened. With good survey information, decisions could be made to fence off certain areas that were not economically essential and clear important infrastructure, such as roads and airports.

A correspondent asked if the participants foresaw a time when in 25 or 50 years, governments would appeal for assistance to clear fenced-off areas that were unavailable for agriculture? Mr. Eaton said containment was a viable strategy. A very small percentage of any nation's land was economically viable for agriculture and most fighting did not take place there. It was unlikely that, 50 years from now, the international donor community would be helpful with that type of demining.

* *** *