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Articles 31 - 48 of 48
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators visited the site on 9/10th July. They found that the accident occurred in a minefield laid by government troops in 1991/2. The mines were irregularly spaced in 3km long lanes. PPM-2 and POMZ-2 mines were found (largely) in different parts of the field. There was "scrub" about a metre high where the accident occurred and the ground was "hard clay with some organic mix" which allowed the use of detectors. Two parallel lines of PPM-2 mines had been found with an "exploratory base line". Further lanes were being cut to confirm the direction of the mine-lines. The accident …
Ddasaccident058, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident058, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
No accident report was made available. The demining group's country office had no copy. The accident was listed on a simple spreadsheet held by the country MAC.The injury was given as "upper jaw".
Ddasaccident059, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident059, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 11:10 he initiated the device while kneeling on the ground "carrying out demining". He had "obviously not found" the device when he had cleared the area himself "some minutes earlier". The mine was "very old and rusty which probably caused the malfunction of the mine". "Metal fragments at the scene confirm that the metal in the mine was almost completely corrugated" [presumably the word "corroded" was intended]. The deminer had been working with the "Ebex 420SI" detector [Ebinger] and either found metal near the mine and did not recheck after removing it, or did not calibrate his detector properly. …
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report stated that the demining task was a series of pylons and a bridge. Teams of two deminers per pylon were clearing a 10 metre square area around the base. When the board of inquiry visited the site on 1st March, demining was in progress around other pylons and they ordered it to stop immediately. The inquiry criticised the fact that the site had been tidied before their arrival. The were told that the victim had located two mines that day prior to the accident. These were destroyed and the victim was checking the blast area with his detector …
Ddasaccident061, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident061, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators were unable to approach the accident site when they visited on 2nd December 1996. They returned on 5th December when the area had been re-cleared. Their report stated that the demining group were working on two sites, with 18 men at one site and seven men working at the other. Both came under an expatriate supervisor who was at the larger site 18k away). The track being cleared ran along the side of "an old railway embankment". It was described as "distinct" but "overgrown with sparse vegetation". [A photograph showed stubs of coarse grass in the path and …
Ddasaccident062, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident062, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report gave a timetable of events which indicated that the team started work at 06:00 and the accident occurred at 07:05 when the victim "prodded onto" a PPM-2. By 07:09 the victim had been carried to a safe area by two colleagues and was receiving treatment from the medic. The deminer "took deep blast wound to the area between the thumb and forefinger" of his left hand. The medic did not administer painkillers but "packs wound on the hand".
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Meanwhile deminers from another team approached and joined the two who had moved closer to the sticks lying by the missed mine. As Victim No.1 bent to pick up the sticks he stepped on the mine with his left foot. His body was low down and immediately over the mine. As he had been resting, he was not wearing any protective equipment. He suffered traumatic amputation of his left foot, amputation of "several" fingers of his right hand, a broken jaw, his lower lip was torn away, both eyes were severely damaged (resulting in blindness) and the "frontal area of …
Ddasaccident064, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident064, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The demining group's spokesman reported that the accident occurred on a day when two clearance teams were sent to work at an area that had been previously surveyed and marked. When the teams arrived they found that the warning signs and marking system had been removed (presumed stolen). The teams had to determine the borders of the area to be cleared again. There was a path running along one side of the area and the two Team Leaders disagreed over whether the path had been inside or outside of the original marked area. They finally decided that it had been …
The Un Department Of Humanitarian Affairs In Angola: A Model For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Assistance?, Toby Lanzer
The Un Department Of Humanitarian Affairs In Angola: A Model For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Assistance?, Toby Lanzer
Global CWD Repository
This report outlines the problems of, and gives recommendations on the mine action activities in Angola. It looks at the situation which faces the Central Mine Action Office (CMAO) and the possibilities to improve the situation. The complicated relationship between CMAO and the National Institute for the Removal of Obstacles and Explosive Ordnance (INAROE) is of main concern. The aim was to draft an agreement between CMAO and INAROE and to assess the institutional structure in which CMAO was operating, to indentify problems, and to recommend an effective and sustainable alternative structure.
Ddasaccident065, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident065, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At around 11:10 the victim got a detector reading and began "prodding and excavating the ground using a bayonet" held in his left hand. A PPM-2 mine detonated. The victim was knocked backward "about" two metres by the blast and was lying partly in an uncleared area. He stood up quickly, leaving his visor which had been "blown away and broken by the blast". The victim received first aid and arrived at the field hospital at 11:20.
Ddasaccident066, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident066, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Prior to the accident a two-man team including Victim No.3 were clearing a one metre wide lane. They were wearing frag-jackets, helmets and visors. The Team supervisor (a Uruguayan National) was not wearing protective clothing. He became Victim No.1. Another ex-pat supervisor (Pakistani National) on site was wearing a helmet and visor. He became Victim No.2. The deminers could see a partly exposed PMN about two metres in front of the end-of-lane marker stick.
Ddasaccident068, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident068, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 10:05 the victim located a PPM-2 at the head of his lane. He called the Team Leader who marked the mine to be destroyed it at the end of the day. The victim and his partner then moved to another lane. When they changed roles (resting/demining) just before 10:30, the victim went back to the lane where he had found the mine. His partner saw that he had taken off his visor and shouted a warning to him. The victim ignored him and started probing a metre from the uncovered mine in the belief that a second mine had …
Ddasaccident067, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident067, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
In an "Accident report" supplied by the commercial demining company on 13th January 1999 the accident was described as having occurred on a narrow section of bridge that was left spanning the River "Lui" (the main part of the bridge was destroyed). The demining company had been contracted to clear the road and did not have responsibility for clearing the bridge. The narrow section was used to gain access to the far side of the bridge and continue working along the road. The demining team crossed it in order to work. When they returned the victim (who was a medic) …
Ddasaccident069, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident069, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
In a copy of a FAX dated 6th March 1996 to another company (presumed to have been the victims' direct employers) the accident is recorded as "two members of our North Team were seriously injured in a landmine detonation while they were demining the bridge site over the river Lui". It goes on "both men are in a serious but fortunately stable condition. One man has regrettably lost the use of his eyes whilst the prognosis for the other man is slightly better".
Ddasaccident071, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident071, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
A senior official with the demining group reported in informal discussions during December 1998 that an accident had occurred at Luchimba (spelt phonetically) Bridge in Malanje in 1995. In this accident an expatriate Technical Advisor was using a Schiebel detector in an uncleared area and detonated a Type 72 blast mine. It did not have a booster charge so he only initiated the percussion cap and escaped unhurt. He left Angola soon afterwards.
Ddasaccident070, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident070, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Because the demining group’s SOPs do not permit them to "handle" devices, it is inferred from the injuries that the accident occurred while prodding or excavating. The demining group approved squatting to prod and/or excavate at a later date and are assumed to have done so at this time.
Ddasaccident368, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident368, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
[Victim No.2] started the clearance and was alone inside the tank at first. As it entered the area it set off a tank mine and the roller system was thrown backwards with far more force than anticipated, hitting the tank. The detonation made the driver’s view ports of armoured glass muddy, so [Victim No.2] called a deminer to clean it. The tank progressed and initiated another three AT mines.
Ddasaccident369, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident369, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
When the Victim ignored the Supervisor, the Supervisor sent him ahead 50 meters to work, telling him that he should not endanger others if he wanted to take risks. The Victim initiated a TM-57 anti-tank mine with his pickaxe.