United Nations Radio

mine area

The United Nations in Afghanistan is highlighting the importance of de-mining as part of the global activities for the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, which is observed each year on April 4th. UN Mine Action chief, Maxwell Kerley recently visited projects in Afghanistan supported by the United Nations. Dianne Penn has the story.

NARRATOR: Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, with more than four million citizens living in mine-contaminated areas. It is therefore fitting that Maxwell Kerley, the newly appointed director of the UN Mine Action Service in New York, chose Afghanistan for his first official visit since assuming the post earlier this year.

KERLEY 1: I wanted to come to Afghanistan first because it is the biggest programme that we run, and one of the most extensive.

NARRATOR: Landmines and other explosive remnants of war are the legacy of 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan-from Soviet occupation to civil war. The various forces laid mines to protect key points and installations, but also to block routes from their enemies. As Mr. Kerley notes, there are significant challenges to ridding Afghanistan of landmines.

KERLEY 2: It's a very big country, and the minefields are extensive and spread throughout the country. There are also in some areas security issues that make it difficult for the programme to operate. These problems occur in other countries, of course they do. But I think in Afghanistan they are compounded by the size of the problem, by the geographical separation, by the difficulties of travel and by the security situation.

NARRATOR: Mr. Kerley explained that day-to-day operations are managed by the Mine Action Coordinating Centre of Afghanistan, or MACCA, which is based in the capital, Kabul, and has several regional offices. The actual mine clearance is handled by a mixture of Afghan NGOs, international NGOs such as the Halo Trust, and some commercial companies.

KERLEY 3: The role of my headquarters in New York is to primarily raise the funding to enable this programme to run. The day-to-day tasking of the teams, the day-to-day quality assurance, and the day-to-day liaison with the government is undertaken by the MACCA, the M-A-C-C-A.

NARRATOR: According to the 1997 international treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines known as the Ottawa Convention, Afghanistan must be completely cleared of mines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs) by 2013. Furthermore, the Afghanistan Compact, which was launched in 2006, calls for 70 per cent of explosive-infested land to be cleared by 2011. The UN wants to see both goals become reality, says Mr. Kerley.

KERLEY 4: We would like to try and achieve the goals in the Afghan Compact, and we would like to be able to assist the government of Afghanistan as quickly as possibly to achieve the requirements under the Ottawa Treaty.  Resource mobilization, raising funding, is getting difficult given the overall financial situation in the world today.

NARRATOR: In addition to their de-mining work, the UN and its partners continue to educate Afghans on the danger of landmines, which kill or injure up to 50 people a month. The majority of victims are males, but at least half are children.

KERLEY 5: The programme here is very successful. We know what needs to be done to clear Afghanistan of mines. The main challenge at present, given the global financial crisis, is to ensure that we raise sufficient funding to do that in as short a time as possible.

NARRATOR: Maxwell Kerley, director of the UN Mine Action Service in New York. He is currently in Afghanistan through April 8th and he plans to visit several projects there. For UN Radio, I'm Dianne Penn.

duration: 3'58"