Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The $64,000 Question: How Are We Going To Remove All Landmines In Ten Years?, Margaret S. Busé

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Thorsten Peter, of Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellscaft, manufacturers of the MINEBREAKER 2000 offers insight into the challenges of mechanical landmine clearance. "Humanitarian demining has to be accelerated. We can't go on at the pace we are presently going. It will simply take too long." -Mr. Thorsten Peter.

Body Protection Systems For Use In Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science And End-User Feedback To Improve Personal Protection For Deminers, Richard L'Abbe, Aris Makris, Derrick Poon Young

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Somewhere between the tightening budgets of program managers, myriad of demining activities, and fatigue among donors, lies a life-threatening issue which receives limited attention within the hierarchy of themes defining humanitarian demining. According to a large cross-section of deminers around the world, personal protection for deminers is considered a poor second cousin to such themes as mine awareness and victim assistance. They say the issue of improving personal protection needs to be pushed higher up the demining agenda.

Mechanical Assistance Systems For Humanitarian Mine & Uxo Clearance, Roger Hess

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Removing the phrase "Mechanical Mine Clearance " from humanitarian demining terminology was an issue that gained approval from most during the Karlsruhe Conference. The amount of money spent within the last few years on systems that are now in the advanced stages of rigor mortis is staggering. Now there seems to be many questions about what is an acceptable standard for the new definition of "Mechanically Assisted Demining". In some perspectives the answer is fairly clear, but in others it is as dark as Turkish coffee.

Humanitarian Demining And Robotics, Y. Baudoin, M. Acheroy, M. Piette, J.P. Salmon

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Mines were used for the first time during the American Civil War in the United States (1861-1865). Anti-tank mines were later ameliorated and laid on the battlefields of the First World War. Mine clearing operations did not pose major problems with those visible and easy-to-detect anti-tank mines. The reason why Anti-personnel mines have been conceived and systematically used on the anti-tank minefields during the Second World War was because such mines prevented the enemy from easy demining of the defense system.

Grab A Cup Of Coffee, Pull Up A Seat, And Have Your Credit Card Ready, Margaret S. Busé

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Shopping for mechanical mine clearance equipment? Well, check out the German Federal Foreign Office's Humanitarian Mine Action Equipment Catalog 1998/1999. The catalog showcases state of the art equipment available for mechanical mine clearance and detection.

The Swedish Mine Fighter, An Interview With Mattias Willersjo, Catherine Harrigan, Mattias Willersjo

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

While mechanical mine clearance machines are regarded as an important part of the mine clearance effort, most experts agree that there is no one machine capable of clearing land mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) to the 99.6% clearance standard recommended by the United Nations. Acknowledging this problem, but still recognizing the potential benefits of mechanical mine clearance machines, many field experts advocate a "toolbox" approach to mine clearance, using various mechanical mine clearance machines in tandem with manual mine clearance to achieve the 99.6% clearance standard.

The Swedish Mine Fighter: The Ultimate Mine- Clearance For Anti-Personnel Mines, Cisr Journal

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

New Swede Construction AB, NSC, AB, has since 1996, developed a mechanical mine clearance machine which can operate in areas where already existing machines cannot operate. The Swedish Mine Fighter is also an environmentally friendly machine since it does not destroy the ground where it operates. In initial tests using live mines placed in the ground, all mines were either destroyed or detonated.

Magnetic Fragment Collection, James Trevelyan

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In a typical manual mine clearance operation, deminers often spend nearly all of their time finding metal fragments in the search for anti-personnel mines. Often there is too much metal to be able to use metal detectors: then the deminers have to probe an entire minefield by hand, every 25 - 50 mm apart, or even dig through thousands of square metres of ground by hand.

To Walk The Earth In Safety 1st Edition (Fy1998), Us Dos Pm/Wra

Global CWD Repository

To Walk the Earth in Safety. The United States Commitment to Humanitarian Demining informs the reader about the U.S. commitment to rid the world by the year 2010 of anti-personnel landmines (APL) which pose a threat to civilians. The most recent U.S. Government survey identified 93 countries affected with either an APL, or an unexploded ordnance (UXO) problem, or both. Although the estimates regarding the number of mines implanted in each country vary widely among sources, the U.S. estimate of APL infestation is approximately 60-70 million worldwide. This report covers FY1998.

Opportunities For An Integrated Demining Strategy In Rural Areas, U Weyl

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As early as 1993, GTZ was one of the first organizations to recognize the importance of community mine awareness within the framework of mine survey and clearance operations. GTZ also recognized that there needs to be a partnership between the development organization and mine clearance operator. It is this partnership, which is the foundation upon which the IHDD concept has been built, modified and adapted. The CMAD concept has been developed for those communities that are deemed low priority for mine action support. The process of modification and adaptation has been continuous. It has spanned every facet of the concepts, …

Peacetrees Vietnam's Uxo Clearance Training Mission To Quang Tri Province, Roger Hess

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The president of UXB International, Dr. Richmond Dugger, had offered to help out an NGO called PeaceTrees Vietnam with their efforts to clear land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the former demilitarized zone between what was North & South Vietnam. We would conduct a training course for the Vietnamese with UXB International covering the wages and airfare of two senior Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) employees, and donate five Shonstedt ferrous ordnance detectors.

The Operational Implementation Of The International Humanitarian Demining Development Concept, C.J. Pearce

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The International Humanitarian Demining Development (IHHD) concept did not evolve on a haphazard basis. The concept was born out of practical experience in Manica Province, Mozambique during the emergency relief phase between 1993 and 1995. Based on those experiences, and a serious concern that mine clearance was regarded as a purely technical activity with local involvement being relegated to by-stander status, GTZ and Mine-Tech held wide-ranging discussions over a lengthy period before defining the IHDD concept. Subsequently, with funding from the BMZ (German Ministry of Co-operation) two pilot projects were undertaken in Manica and Sofala Provinces, Mozambique. These pilot projects …

Developing And Integrating A Lessons Learned Methodology For Humanitarian Mine Action, Cisr

Global CWD Repository

The demand for a centralized lessons learned database has made it clear that there is value in consolidating the experience derived from the numerous de-mining missions by a variety of teams in a variety of countries. Consequently, the James Madison University Mine Action Information Center developed a methodology for collecting, validating, and distributing lessons-learned within the mine action community.

In order to develop this lessons-learned system, individuals involved in the wide spectrum of activities (victim assistance, mine clearance, survey, mine awareness, etc.) and belonging to the myriad agencies (NGOs, military demining, United Nations, MACs, etc.) related to the field of …