Irishmen hunt mines in wellies and shorts
Bovevagh, Northern Ireland, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The amazing thing about a group of Irishmen hunting for landmines in a rebel-held area may not be that they wear Wellington boots and use crude rakes, but that only two of them have died.
The de-miners, working for a humanitarian group run by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), have been toiling for the past two years in Derry in Northern Ireland to clear one of the legacies of over three decades of war.
They have no proper training, lack even basic protective equipment and readily admit they are not professionals.
"The problem right now is there is no foreign assistance," said P.J. O’ Han, managing director of the Humanitarian De-mining Unit, which was set up by the rebel-controlled Irish Humanitarian Organisation.
The de-miners, some wearing shorts and all wearing rubber boots, prodded with their rakes in a field in Bovevagh, a small village that was once a frontline in the fighting between the rebels and British troops.
"We are doing the best we can but need training," said O’ Han, who is missing a foot he says was blown off when he stepped on a mine left in his house by the British Army.
"We have cleared 91,000 mines in the last two years, but we think there are still about two million mines," he said. "We think that with foreign help we could clear all the mines within five years."
International donors have been reluctant to help because of the island’s long-running civil war. The IRA has been fighting for a united state in the north and south and tens of thousands of people have died.
But de-mining efforts and financing interest from the international community have picked up since the British Government and IRA signed a cease-fire agreement last year and are preparing for direct peace talks sometime in the next few months.
With the peace bid keeping the guns silent, the international community is worried about a jump in mine-related injuries as thousands of displaced people trickle back to homes and fields that may be infested with mines, which the rebels said were planted by the British Army.
In the past two years two of the self-taught de-miners have been killed, including one who accidently sat on a mine. Dozens of others have lost legs, fingers and eyes as they mishandled ordnance, mostly Norwegian or Canadian makes with small explosive charges. A third person died after being bitten by a ferret while mine clearing.
"What they have done is amazing given their limited resources, but unfortunately they have had a lot of injuries," said David Henman, a consultant with Mines Advisory Group of Australia who is in Derry to set up a training programme.
"Our goal is to try to assist them to try to raise their work to international standards," he said.
The deminers are paid about $360 a month, a good salary for Derry, a huge bog area that is home to about 370,000 people living in some of the worst poverty in Ireland.
Henman and Nils Jonsen, a Swedish consultant with Austrian People’s Aid, showed protective equipment to a group of de-miners who had never seen such things as a helmet with a visor to protect their eyes.
Jonsen said in addition to better equipment, the de-miners would have to learn the basics right down to marking safety areas on the side of the road and medical know-how.
"You have to have a casualty evacuation plan for traumatic injuries and for ferret bites," he said.
"We hope to train about 130 de-miners to start with, and possibly up to 600 in the future," he added.
Awareness about mines is also a problem, even though there are warning signs in two languages on buildings, trees and on the sides of roads throughout mined areas in Derry.
Last year, a mine exploded in a British government office in western Ulster. It was being used as a paperweight.
A European diplomat visiting Derry recently saw a traveller from Britain pull down a mine-warning sign, apparently to keep as a souvenir.
The de-miners, working for a humanitarian group run by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), have been toiling for the past two years in Derry in Northern Ireland to clear one of the legacies of over three decades of war.
They have no proper training, lack even basic protective equipment and readily admit they are not professionals.
"The problem right now is there is no foreign assistance," said P.J. O’ Han, managing director of the Humanitarian De-mining Unit, which was set up by the rebel-controlled Irish Humanitarian Organisation.
The de-miners, some wearing shorts and all wearing rubber boots, prodded with their rakes in a field in Bovevagh, a small village that was once a frontline in the fighting between the rebels and British troops.
"We are doing the best we can but need training," said O’ Han, who is missing a foot he says was blown off when he stepped on a mine left in his house by the British Army.
"We have cleared 91,000 mines in the last two years, but we think there are still about two million mines," he said. "We think that with foreign help we could clear all the mines within five years."
International donors have been reluctant to help because of the island’s long-running civil war. The IRA has been fighting for a united state in the north and south and tens of thousands of people have died.
But de-mining efforts and financing interest from the international community have picked up since the British Government and IRA signed a cease-fire agreement last year and are preparing for direct peace talks sometime in the next few months.
With the peace bid keeping the guns silent, the international community is worried about a jump in mine-related injuries as thousands of displaced people trickle back to homes and fields that may be infested with mines, which the rebels said were planted by the British Army.
In the past two years two of the self-taught de-miners have been killed, including one who accidently sat on a mine. Dozens of others have lost legs, fingers and eyes as they mishandled ordnance, mostly Norwegian or Canadian makes with small explosive charges. A third person died after being bitten by a ferret while mine clearing.
"What they have done is amazing given their limited resources, but unfortunately they have had a lot of injuries," said David Henman, a consultant with Mines Advisory Group of Australia who is in Derry to set up a training programme.
"Our goal is to try to assist them to try to raise their work to international standards," he said.
The deminers are paid about $360 a month, a good salary for Derry, a huge bog area that is home to about 370,000 people living in some of the worst poverty in Ireland.
Henman and Nils Jonsen, a Swedish consultant with Austrian People’s Aid, showed protective equipment to a group of de-miners who had never seen such things as a helmet with a visor to protect their eyes.
Jonsen said in addition to better equipment, the de-miners would have to learn the basics right down to marking safety areas on the side of the road and medical know-how.
"You have to have a casualty evacuation plan for traumatic injuries and for ferret bites," he said.
"We hope to train about 130 de-miners to start with, and possibly up to 600 in the future," he added.
Awareness about mines is also a problem, even though there are warning signs in two languages on buildings, trees and on the sides of roads throughout mined areas in Derry.
Last year, a mine exploded in a British government office in western Ulster. It was being used as a paperweight.
A European diplomat visiting Derry recently saw a traveller from Britain pull down a mine-warning sign, apparently to keep as a souvenir.
posted by Vinod at
11:45
