Defense and Security Studies Commons^™

Argentina, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

After gaining independence from Spain in 1816, Argentineans battled amongst themselves in political conflicts between conservatives and liberals. Naturally, due to the intensity of a structured environment aggravated by war, conflicts also arose as the military society merged with the civilians. These opposing entities battled through a long period of authoritarian rule that later ended in a military junta, which usurped the Peronists' authority in 1976. Democracy was not implemented as a governing standard until 1983.

Chile, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In 1973, Chile's Marxist government was overthrown by a dictatorial military regime led by Augusto Pinochet. With the goal of exterminating Marxism, Pinochet suspended parliament, banned political activity, limited civil liberties and boosted efforts to guard Chilean borders. Between 1973 and 1983, in an attempt to protect the country from its neighbors, Pinochet's government littered the Chilean borders of Bolivia, Peru and Argentina with 293 minefields containing one million mines. In 1990, Pinochet stepped down and a presidential parliamentary democracy was restored with the election of Patricio Aylwin.

Colombia, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Referred to as La Violencia, political unrest in Colombia's countryside lasted from 1948 until 1962. Efforts to overthrow the Colombian government escalated again in the 1990s with a rebel uprising. To forward their advances, four different guerilla groups used landmines, staged coups and attempted political assassinations. Guerilla attacks led mostly by the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), National Liberation Army (ELN) and United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), combined with drug cultivation, social inequities and widespread violence, contributed to Colombia's 40-year political crisis. Upon his election in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe promised to begin taking action to end the …

Costa Rica, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Settled by Spain in 1522, Costa Rica remained under Spanish control for three centuries before declaring its independence from Spain along with other Central American provinces in 1821. The Central American Federation, created by the newly independent provinces, was soon interrupted by border disputes. Costa Rica formally withdrew from the Federation in 1838, declaring its sovereignty. In 1899, the country became a democracy, holding what were considered to be its first truly free elections. This peaceful democracy was only disrupted twice, being controlled by a dictator from 1917 to 1919 and experiencing an uprising in 1948 due to a disputed …

Ecuador, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Before the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, the "Republic of the Equator" was part of the Inca empire. The country remained under Spanish control until Antonio José de Sucre liberated the region in 1822, at which time it became part of Greater Colombia. When this union collapsed in 1830, three countries were formed: Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. During the period of 1904–1942, several conflicts with neighboring countries caused Ecuador to lose some of its territory. Since then, several uprisings and clashes with Peru have contributed to Ecuador's volatile history.

Guatemala, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Tucked among Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, Guatemala is a country full of history. Farming and fishing villages date back to as early as 2000 B.C. and represent the beginning of the Mayan culture that dominated the area for centuries. In 1583, Pedro de Alvarado, sent by the king of Spain, conquered the lands of the remaining Mayans and took possession of the land. The year 1821 brought independence from Spanish rule but not an improvement in the lives of the Mayans. Various leaders and governments took power, and in the 1950s, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán carried on the liberal …

Nicaragua, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Nicaragua’s landscape is as volatile as its past. Located in Central America south of Honduras and north of Costa Rica, its land is troubled by earthquakes, 40 volcanoes, landslides and tropical hurricanes. Nicaragua received its political independence from Spain in 1821 and became an independent republic in 1838. From 1896, it was ruled under a dynasty/dictatorship established by President Anastasio Somoza García until a bloody revolution occurred in 1979 led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Over a decade of internal conflict caused Nicaragua to be heavily mined before most of the fighting ended in 1990. Since 1990, the …

Peru, Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Peru is located at the center of the Andean states, bordered by Colombia and Ecuador in the north, Brazil and Bolivia in the east, and Chile in the south. The people of Peru declared their independence from Spain in 1821. Revolutionary fighting continued, however, until 1824, when all remaining Spanish forces in Peru were defeated. Peru's primary landmine problems are a result of guerilla military activity in the 1980s that afflicted its internal regions, particularly near electrical towers and power-generation stations that were mined for protection against guerilla sabotage. Border conflicts with Ecuador in the north during the mid-1990s also …

Data Fusion For Mine Action Decision Support: An Example From Lebanon, Aldo Benini, Charles Conley

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Within humanitarian mine action, progress in integrating information is manifest chiefly by the way the traditional array of survey activities have been reformed. Following the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to ban anti-personnel mines, several mine action non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) launched the Global Landmine Survey, a multi-country survey project. This initiative has helped to institutionalize the collection of social and economic data, along with contaminated-area data, to enhance the overall management of mine action programs worldwide, and in that sense has achieved a paradigm change over the erstwhile purely technical approach to mine clearance.

Fusing Aerial Multispectral Imagery And High-Resolution Photography, Milan Bajic

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Aerial remote sensing is useful for spotting indicators in the survey of mine-suspected areas and minefields. Because the detection of landmines in the soil and under the vegetation cover is not yet practical, the minefield indicators and their electromagnetic signatures provide means for detection of the mine-suspected areas and minefields. The minefield indicators can be natural (e.g., vegetation cover) over a large spatial extent, or else artificial or man-made (e.g., trenches, bunkers, demolished objects) over a small spatial extent. The dimensions of artificial minefield indicators require use of multi-spectral sensors and aerial images with spatial resolution below one meter. Due …

Optimising The Use Of Rest For Mine Detection, Ian Mclean, Rebecca Sargisson

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST) is a detection technology involving the transfer of odours to an animal detector using filters. Like Remote Scent Tracing (RST), the technology could potentially be used to detect anything that has an odour. REST technology was used originally by Mechem in Mozambique and Angola in the early 1990s. Despite the potential it demonstrated at that time, it received little attention or investment through the late 1990s until a revival of interest occurred in recent years. Currently, it is being used operationally for mine detection in Afghanistan and is likely to be implemented for road clearance …

Machines Can Get The Job Done Faster, Alexander Griffiths

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) published A Study of Mechanical Application in Demining in June 2004. The study looked at the most suitable roles for machines in demining, examined the potential for machines to be considered a primary clearance tool, explained factors involved in protecting operators and presented a software model to help programme managers understand the cost-effectiveness of their mechanical assets. In 2005, the GICHD plans to release six more sub-studies related to mechanical demining. The following article explains some aspects of the operational tasks where machines are currently employed.

Working Towards A Mine-Free Hemisphere, Suzanne Fiederlein

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The government of Ecuador served as the host of the Americas Regional Mine Action Conference "One More Step Toward a Mine-Free Hemisphere" held in Quito, Ecuador, on August 12–13, 2004. The government of Canada and the Organization of American States Mine Action Program (AICMA, for its initials in Spanish) co-sponsored the conference, the fourth in a series of annual meetings convened in the region since 2001.

Landmine And Uxo Safety: The “Duty Of Care”, Sebastian Kasack

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

A long wheelbase Landcruiser can seat 13 people: five in the front and eight in the rear. Usually those sitting in the rear cannot use seat belts because there are none, and those in front often choose not to wear them. Besides, at the end of the world, as the Portuguese called the southeastern corner of Angola, it is very unlikely you will meet another car anyway, so why wear seat belts?

International Mine Action Standards: Some Frequently Asked Questions And Answers, Phil Bean

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) were requested by the mine action community and are produced and sponsored by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), with support from a variety of organisations, including the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). The initial design and development of the standards involved extensive participation from representative elements of the mine action sector during the period of 1998–2000. Since that time, the sector has continued to expand with the addition of new programmes and new people joining the sector. IMAS continue to evolve and now benefit from the experience of practical application into …

Red Rocks And Green Grapes, Jed Harris

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As I stopped along the roadside north of Kabul, three young boys emerged from an overgrown vineyard and proudly offered me a handful of fresh grapes. Soon more children emerged. The sight brought back childhood memories of summer days spent roaming through the vast vineyards that joined our ranch in California. However, my smile quickly vanished with alarm. The unmistakable signs of a minefield, rocks painted red, surrounded the field from where these children surfaced. Why would they trespass through the jeopardy of a minefield I wondered? The oldest boy quickly responded, ma goashna, "we are hungry." The basic …

Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Country Profile

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The English landed on the Falkland Islands in 1690, but the first settlement on this land off the coast of southern Argentina was not established until 1764 by the French. The next year, Britain established its own settlement and claimed the islands in the name of King George III. In 1766, the Falklands were turned over to Spain, beginning a centuries-long territorial dispute, first between Britain and Spain, then between Britain and Argentina. The United Kingdom established a naval garrison on the islands in 1833, thus asserting its claim to them. In April 1982, Argentina invaded the islands, starting a …

Itep Test Trials For Detection Reliability Assessment Of Metal Detectors, Christina Mueller, Mate Gaal, Martina Scharmach, Sylke Bär, A.M. Lewis, T.J. Bloodworth, Dieter Guelle, Peter-Th Wilrich

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The total detection reliability of a mine-searching system is governed by the following three elements:

• Intrinsic capability, which describes the basic physical-technical capability of the method.
• Application factors, which include those due to environment.
• Human factor, which is the effect of human operators on the detection reliability.

Some of these can be determined in simple laboratory measurements in which the effect on detection capability of individual parameters is measured. However, the human factor and some aspects of the effects of environmental conditions on the system need to be treated statistically.

Ddasaccident546, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

[Name removed] and myself were in the same location. 11:00 we started going to MCT teams and the smoke was coming out of demolition point, the team waited until 12:30 then as there was not apparently smoke in the demolition point the TL starting going to the demolition point for checking. And TL saw that both artillery were destroyed. In the nearest point a small amount of smoke was existing. He started to use fork shovel in the location and an explosion happened and a small fragment hit to the Right arm flesh of the TL. The sound and power …

Ddasaccident540, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Deminer [the Victim] used his rake in normal manner. He set off a P4 MK1 antipersonnel mine with his 2-tooth heavy rake. Heavy rake bended but remained in one piece in the blast. Deminer was in perfect health and didn’t get bruises nor other minor injuries.

Ddasaccident533, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 09.10hrs on the 22nd of September 2004, deminer [the Victim] was carrying out manual clearance using the prodding method on the northern side of Minefield 0011 at Ina Guuxaa. Whilst excavating earth at the front of his lane, he inadvertently detonated what is suspected to have been a P-4 anti personnel mine.

Ddasaccident460, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

In a non-marked lane, deminer [Victim No.1] tried to identify the source of a metal-detector signal by using a prodder and an excavation tool. He possibly used the prodder and the excavation tool simultaneously to achieve higher productivity. The star of the PROM-1 was above the ground surface. Therefore it is not likely that the mine was activated with a prodder. It is most likely that it was activated with inappropriate excavation tool. The examination of the area cleared in the days before the accident leads to the conclusion that vertical excavation had been performed, which is characteristic for non-demining …

Ddasaccident416, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

There is no definite explanation for how the incident happened. According to deminer, he used his tools slowly and correctly letting the rake to come towards himself by its own weight while pulling. Visual appearance of the incident lane supports this claim. Deminer’s raking tracks are visible, 50 cm in length and symmetrical.

Ddasaccident425, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

[Name excised] and [name excised] will be sending you a very detailed report in the next few days. After seeing the site and the deminer I am going to ask him to buy my lottery ticket in the future!!. He was extremely lucky. He detonated an M4 mine 200g HE less than arms length away. He sustained a broken thumb and lacerations of his first two fingers and his face was badly bruised due to the visor hitting him due to the blast effect.

Ddasaccident415, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Experienced deminer uses his rake slowly and in a correct manner according to SOP. Suddenly he sets off an antipersonnel mine with his heavy rake. Heavy rake breaks into two pieces in the blast. Deminer remains in perfect health and doesn’t have bruises nor other minor injuries.

Ddasaccident414, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Experienced deminer sets up an antipersonnel mine with his heavy rake. There are two one inch thick bush roots lying horizontally in depth of four centimetres, twenty five centimetres from each other. Antipersonnel mine was situated between the roots. Instead of prodding the spot between the roots, deminer continued raking with heavy rake.

Ddasaccident431, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The incident is classed as a “Excavation incident” because the victim had hand and leg injury and a photograph shows an accident site that implies the victim was reaching down into a cavity, perhaps with one leg inside the cavity when the fuze was initiated by his activity. The report states that he “hit the detonator” but does not explain what with, so a hand-tool is presumed.

Ddasaccident424, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Team No 2 was working to establish the location and dorecetion of the Mine Strip No 2 in the minefield HM-5 in area Thomaspuri. [The victim] was the Team Leader of Team No 2. One sub team of Team No , under supervision of [the victim] was clearing the working lane. Deminer [name excised] (mine detector operator) located a metal/mine signal. He immediately marked the location and informed the Team Leader. Then he withdrew to a safe distance. [The victim] Team Leader approached the marked location, searched for and recovered an anti-personnel mine P4 Mk1. He tried to neutralize the …

Ddasaccident457, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

[The Victim] started the work in lane 1. He worked near a metal barrel half buried in the ground, 1.6 metres from the fence. Before the accident he cleared 2 m2. He wore his PPE and had the necessary tools. He had been removing the undergrowth and surface metal pieces ahead of the base stick. He had been searching with his metal detector and had used the prodder and a trowel. When he worked only with a prodder, he investigated the whole area ahead of the base stick where the vegetation had been removed. Just before the explosion he had …

Ddasaccident459, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators found that the main cause of the accident was “wanton violation of technical and safety procedures proscribed in the SOPs of the organisation and in the National Standards of B&H”. For this reason the primary cause of the accident is listed as a “Management control inadequacy”. So many basic safety rules were being breached at a site where there was known to be a fragmentation mine threat that the conditions must have been known to senior management. The secondary cause is listed as a “Field control inadequacy” because the field managers allowed safety distances and PPE rules to …