Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ap Mine Ban Convention 2020 Intercessional Meeting: Committee On Article 5 Implementation Observations, Apmbc

Global CWD Repository

Background documents and preliminary observations of the Committee on Article 5 Implementation from the following countries:

• Angola
• Argentina
• Cambodia
• Croatia
• Ethiopia
• Iraq
• Mozambique
• Oman
• Peru
• Serbia
• Sudan
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Ap Mine Ban Convention 2020 Intercessional Meeting: Committee On Victim Assistance Observations, Apmbc

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APMBC Intercessional Meeting June-July 2020 Committee on Victim Assistance preliminary observations by the following countries:

• Algeria
• Angola
• Cambodia
• Chile
• Colombia
• Croatia
• Ethiopia
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Mozambique
• Peru
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe National Mine Action Strategy 2018-2025, Mine Action Centre Zimbabwe

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This National Mine Action Strategy, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe, presents the overall vision, mission, goals and objectives of Zimbabwe’s mine action programme for the period 2018-2025. The strategy’s timeline corresponds to Zimbabwe’s Article 5 Extension Request, submitted in March 2017 and its end state is the completion of clearance obligations under Article 5 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC).

Its vision is for a mine/ERW-free Zimbabwe where women, girls, boys and men safely engage in sustainable livelihood activities and where mine/ERW victims are fully integrated into society. While its mission is to develop a sustainable national …

Ddasaccident303, Hd-Aid

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On the 30th October 2000, an Anti Personnel Mine, Type R2M2, detonated app 3,5m in front of [the victim] without obvious reason.

Ddasaccident302, Hd-Aid

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On 5 October at 12:55, [the victim] was carrying out normal demining duties with complete PPE on. He was clearing in the Cordon Sanitaire when a mine suspected to R2M2 model detonated on its own 2,5 metres in front of him. At that particular time [the victim] was in a kneeling position excavating to try and locate another mine.

Ddasaccident301, Hd-Aid

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At 10:50 on 11 Aug 2000, [the victim – name withheld by group manager] detonated a mine whilst conducting clearance in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield at UTM 0380797 8194039 in Mukumbura Communal lands.

Ddasaccident300, Hd-Aid

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The deminer identified the reading within the confirmed row of mines. The deminer acted on this reading using excavation procedures. The mines destroyed and marked within the first row were R2M2. The predominate mine in this area of the Cordon is R2M2. The deminer stated he was excavating a reading when the mine detonated. There was physical evidence of excavation and water being used.

Ddasaccident299, Hd-Aid

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At 07:50 on 04 Aug 2000, Deminer [name withheld by demining group] detonated a mine whilst conducting clearance in the Ploughshare Minefield at UTM 0331525 8209341.

Ddasaccident297, Hd-Aid

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On 22 April 2000, the Deminer was conducting clearance activities in the CS [Cordon Sanitaire] along the first row mines. As he was working an R2M2 approximately 2m in front of him detonated without any external influences.

Ddasaccident298, Hd-Aid

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At the time of the accident [the] deminer had identified a reading within a row of mines in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield. Ground conditions were favourable with relatively level ground and not very hard but with small loose stones. The deminer was wearing full PPE including gloves in both hands for arm protection. After identifying a reading, the deminer pinpointed and started excavating. From his own statement, he had already located the mine and was further exposing it when it went off. He further states that a rock rolled back into the hole he was excavating and landed on a …

Ddasaccident276, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The report stated that at “12:50 on 15 April 2000, [the victim] detonated a mine whilst conducting clearance in the Cordon Sanitaire Minefield”. When the casualty was recovered from the minefield and tended by the paramedic, it was found that he was conscious and had sustained only minor injuries.” The victim arrived at the site medical unit at 13:05 and the field doctor arrived “immediately afterwards”. The victim sustained superficial burns to his left “arm and forearm. A minor contusion also developed on his left wrist.” [Apparently, he was not taken to a hospital.]

Ddasaccident270, Hd-Aid

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The victim initiated a mine at 13:10 while he was prodding to investigate a detector reading. His visor and apron "absorbed the blast", with the visor being torn off and landing in an uncleared area 8m away. The prodder had not been found at the time the report was written [it was found and photographed later].

Ddasaccident275, Hd-Aid

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The victim was continuing the breach begun by the earlier victim. He worked a further ten metres and checked the lane with his detector as he walked back towards the safe area. As he passed the site of the earlier accident, he got a slight detector reading and began to investigate with his prod. The mine detonated.

Ddasaccident296, Hd-Aid

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Wearing his visor and armour apron, the victim swept the ground with his detector and noticed no signal. He then got up to cut vegetation and, at 0825 hours, detonated an R2M2 mine by stepping on it. “He sustained traumatic high velocity blast amputation of the right foot with sparing of the ipsilateral ankle joint. He also sustained first degree burns to the right arm”. The site supervisor corrected this to “part of” his right foot being amputated.

Ddasaccident256, Hd-Aid

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The victim was engaged in widening a breaching lane at 13:40 when the accident occurred. He was not using approved marking methods [using none] and the accident occurred 3 metres in front of his base stick. His equipment had been removed from the site but witnesses confirmed that the victim's visor and prodder were some metres behind the victim [visor not worn] and that the handle of his trowel was a metre from the accident site

Ddasaccident260, Hd-Aid

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The victim was cutting an exploratory lane "to identify the direction of the Plough share mines". This appears to have been done by identifying a picket (post on which the plough share mines were originally placed) and working towards the next. The victim missed the next picket and returned to a place 30 metres from the last picket. "This is the normal drill to be used when row direction is lost". The victim did not use the correct marking and clearance procedures. He was investigating a detector reading at 08:15 when the accident occurred.

Ddasaccident258, Hd-Aid

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The investigators concluded that the victim was working correctly and was excavating a detector reading rather than prodding because of "high gravel content" in the ground. They found that "sufficient water was on site and used". They believed that the mine may have been in a tilted position. They added that the victim "was protected from serious injury by wearing protective clothing correctly".

Ddasaccident259, Hd-Aid

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The investigators concluded that the victim was working correctly and was excavating a detector reading. They found that his visor and apron were "covered with mud" and his deformed trowel was found lying about a metre from the detonation. The soil around the hole was still wet, showing that the victim has used enough water to soften the ground. Beneath the point of detonation was "a deep burrow, probably dug by mice". "Detonation signs" were only visible on one side of the "blast hole".

Ddasaccident257, Hd-Aid

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The investigators concluded that the victim was carrying out an excavation drill correctly. A high "gravel" content in the soil made excavation the correct drill to use. His blast apron was covered with mud, which was taken as proof that he was using water to soften the ground. The investigators thought it likely that the mine was unusually sensitive due to having spent "more than 20 years in the ground". They thought it possible that the spring firing mechanism was already partly depressed.

Ddasaccident261, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was carrying out a normal excavation drill at 10:45 when a mine, "suspected R2M2…functioned" and he suffered a slight cut and some bruising to his left hand.

Ddasaccident120, Hd-Aid

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The victim was the one of a two-man team and was supposed to be "controlling" his partner who was in the clearance lane. The victim claimed that he had noticed an object "that he did not recognise" and prodded it with a piece of wire when it exploded. He sustained "lacerations and some light fragment damage to his hands… deep lacerations and damage to his left thumb and forefinger and lighter lacerations to his right middle finger".

Ddasaccident121, Hd-Aid

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The victim was a Team Leader whose duties included disarming R2M2 mines. At 06:27 the Victim was "neutralising" an R2M2 mine by removing its booster charge [unscrewed from below] when the mine detonated. Another Team Leader witnessed the event and reported that the Victim was wearing his protective equipment (visor and apron) properly.

Ddasaccident010, Hd-Aid

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The victim had been investigating a detector reading (at around 11:00) with his prodder when a mine [identified as an R2M2 by inference] detonated. He had bruised (sprained) his thumb. He had no other injury.

Ddasaccident011, Hd-Aid

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The demining group were clearing the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border minefields. The detector used was a Vallon with a folding handle. Deminers reported being poorly paid at the time and morale was low. The site management was intensely unpopular and seen as having little relevant background in humanitarian demining.

Ddasaccident155, Hd-Aid

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Both reports agreed that the victim had located a signal with a Vallon detector and was investigating it with his prodder when the mine detonated at 08:05. The victim walked unaided to the base line where he was treated first by the team medic and then by the site doctor.

Ddasaccident186, Hd-Aid

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The report stated that at the time of the accident there were three team leaders and the driver in the cab and an unspecified number of deminers in the back. On arriving at the site the driver inquired about the mines and subsequently pressed the top of one as it was being held by a Team Leader, making the detonator explode. The victim sustained an injury to the flesh of the mid-finger of his right hand. [However, the victim was the driver and as the blast emanated from the bottom of the mine it seems likely that he held it …

Ddasaccident156, Hd-Aid

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The investigators determined that the victim used his detector over the two meter clearance lane he was working. He then put on an anti-fragment jacket and a helmet to start prodding. During the prodding he "made mistake by inserting excessive pressure on the top of the mine…"

Ddasaccident074, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the day of the accident the victim was inspecting one of four demining teams when it started to rain. He was aware that their explosives store was not properly covered, so he looked around for something suitable to serve as a tarpaulin. He saw some material and picked it up, turning as he did so. His foot detonated an unidentified anti-personnel mine that was partially under his left foot. He was not wearing any protective clothing. The photograph below shows him reproducing the position he was in at the time.

Ddasaccident072, Hd-Aid

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The minefield consisted of a pattern of Ploughshare fragmentation mines surrounded by three anti-personnel mines. The victim was a sapper, tasked with locating and replacing mines that had been detonated by animals etc. He was using a prodder (approximately 50cm long) to find safe places to stand. His colleagues were about 10m behind him. Having prodded in one particular area, he placed his foot there and stepped on a mine. The victim believed that rainwater had caused the mine to move from its place in the pattern, and that he missed it whilst prodding. No detectors were available at that …

Ddasaccident073, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim worked as a medic attached to the Engineer Corps. At the scene of the accident there was a store of mines and ordnance for defence of the Zimbabwe border. Enemy troops had taken some of the mines and laid them on the Zimbabwean side. A soldier stepped on a mine and the victim went to the site and treated the casualty. As he and three others were lifting the casualty onto a stretcher, a second mine exploded. The victim believed the mine was beneath the casualty. He was not able to identify the mine as other than an …