Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Ddasaccident212, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 08:30 the team started work. The victim was clearing the central lane of three lanes 25 metres from each other. Vegetation was sparse where he was working and surface munitions or mines could have been easily seen. The victim had made three excavations prior to the accident but they were not of a size to indicate that anything had been found. At 09:00 an explosion occurred and the victim was seriously injured. He was found lying on his face with half of his end-of-lane marker stick under him and half behind him. The medic attended him "and removed his …

Ddasaccident213, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

From the site examination, the investigators decided that the victim knelt on his base stick and initiated a mine while clearing undergrowth. The victim was found on his back with his feet towards a crater "about one meter away). The victim later made a brief statement that he was kneeling to prod when the accident occurred.

Ddasaccident244, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators found that the victim was investigating a detector reading in a squatting position and using a pick. He had used two markers. He "finished one layer" [presumably slicing layers from the ground] and rechecked with the detector. The reading was still there so he started excavating again without placing any markers. He hit a mine at 07:45.

Ddasaccident243, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that at around 11:00 the Section Leader instructed the deminers to pack up and rest until the end of the day. While they were resting Victim No.1 went into the uncleared area for no known reason. When he was 15m into the mined area he noticed a tripwire and "started wrapping it into the stick of a POMZ". A POMZ detonated at 11:30.

Ddasaccident051, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At 07:30, [or 08:15 elsewhere] having only cleared a meter, the victim noticed that the marking stakes ahead of him were out of alignment so went into the adjoining exploratory lane to reposition them. He pushed a stake onto a mine that was on the border of the lane. He suffered light injuries on both arms. A quantity of earth was thrown up into his eyes, the skin of his face was lacerated and his right hand became inflamed. He was not wearing a visor. No one else was injured.

Ddasaccident242, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators decided that the victim was working with a detector beside a stream when he got a signal. He marked it with two marks, one at the centre and one 15cm behind it, then he squatted to prod with his bayonet. He detonated a mine and received injuries to his face and chest.

Ddasaccident241, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators decided that the victim was working with a detector when he got a signal from a fragment that was visible, half buried. He squatted to remove it with his bayonet but as he did so initiated a mine that was under the fragment. His visor "was not properly down" and he failed to centre the reading point and approach it at the angle dictated by the SOPs. The victim suffered injuries to his hands and his face, the latter including a lacerated lip and damaged teeth. The victim walked to the safe area.

Common Circle For Human Rights, Vol.2, No.3 (August- September 1998), M. Lichtman

Common Circle for Human Rights (1997-2000)

No abstract provided.

Uganda Prosthetic/Orthotic Needs Assessment - Leahy War Victims Fund Report, Usaid-Leahy

Global CWD Repository

This report (1) assessed the present state of prosthetic and orthotic services in Uganda and what is needed to improve the quality, quantity, and sustainability of those prosthetic and orthotic services and (2) evaluated an unsolicited proposal submitted by the World Rehabilitation Fund Inc. (WRF).

Peace Psychologists: Necessarily Complicit In Political Violence?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article presents an argument that the basic and applied research of peace psychologists does not attenuate but contributes to violent political conflict.

Ddasaccident049, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The report recorded that the victim "accidentally detonated an anti-tank mine while preparing for the testing of the newly purchased Hydrema mine clearance machines". The victim was "deploying and arming" mines in a marked test ground and wore a "ballistic jacket and visor". He worked alone arming the mines at a distance of 300 metres from the nearest person (a medic). It is not recorded whether this mine was the first to be armed. He stood and looked down at the mine for 20 seconds, then knelt beside it for a second time. 25-30 seconds later the mine detonated. "It …

Ddasaccident239, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the ditch had contained many mines thought to have been brought into it by heavy rains in the past. The victim found a detector reading. He put on his helmet and started to prod in a squatting position. He detonated the mine with his bayonet at 09:15 (started work at 06:00).

Ddasaccident050, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim said that he had cleared a 30cm section ahead of him and then moved the end-of-lane marker. He suddenly felt dizzy and accidentally put his hand into an uncleared area. The next thing he knew he was being attended by paramedics in the rest area. The victim also mentioned he had seen the tripwire "and had been picking up the pieces left" from former clearance. [An accompanying sketch map showed that another mine had been removed close to the accident site. It is possible that the victim notified his superiors of a tripwire and was told that it …

Ddasaccident214, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The team started work at 06:00 the victim's partner located a PMA-3 and the Team Leader "dealt with this". At 07:00 the victim began his shift. After five minutes he located a PMA-3 and the Team Leader "dealt with this". At approximately 07:15 the victim stepped on a PMA-3 and it exploded. The victim's statement says that he was "in a position half on a knee of ground" with his prod when the mine exploded.

Ddasaccident115, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A preliminary accident report from the demining group simply recorded that "while prodding he was injured due to a PMN mine explosion". The victim suffered an amputated thumb with other severe hand injuries, also minor arm, legs, chest, and face injuries.

Trials Of The Ced Air-Spade, Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 1998, Andy Smith, U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research And Development

Global CWD Repository

This document summarizes the field trials of the CEG AIR-SPADE held in Kandahar, Afghanistan in July 1998.

Ddasaccident215, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim's partner found two PMA-3 mines and the Team Leader disarmed them and put them in a "mine storage area". The victim took over demining and after 4 minutes detonated a mine. He was squatting or kneeling and prodding at the time. He remained conscious but he had suffered damage to his eyes "due mostly to dirt coming up under his visor". He was evacuated to hospital "immediately", arriving after 18 minutes.

Ddasaccident360, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Whilst [the Victim] was clearing the pit area of unburned WP with a shovel, something in the shovel-load exploded on hitting the ground causing a small metal fragment to puncture his left thigh.

Ddasaccident119, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The deminer and his partner were unable to use detectors (because they were "reading continuously" and so were prodding and excavating the area. Photographs of the area showed flat, dry, agricultural land. The victim located a PMN and reported it to his Section Leader" who told him to prepare a charge for its destruction. He lit the safety fuse and "rushed towards the safe area". As he did so he stepped into an uncleared area. A mine detonated and "the victim lost his right foot and got serious injuries to his left foot" at 11:10.

Ddasaccident238, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Victim No.1 found two PMN-2 mines while excavating and they were destroyed. At about 08:45 he paused to remove loose soil and removed his helmet and visor. He used a shovel to remove the loose soil and detonated a mine. As a "result he got serious injuries on his both eyes, face". His Section Leader was not maintaining the correct safety distance (4m away) and was also injured.

The Countermine Training Support Center, Dennis Barlow

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The U.S. Army Engineer School established the Countermine Training Support Center (CTSC) at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, in April, 1996. In the short amount of time in which it has been functioning, CTSC has carved out several unique and important roles relevant to humanitarian demining and is initiating activities that will be of great interest and value to the demining community. The new roles and enlargement of the mission that have occurred at the CTSC are in direct response to U.S. government policy guidelines that call for the expansion of humanitarian demining program. Activities underway–and planned–promise to aid in the …

Report On The Detec-2 Testing In Cambodia November 18-21, 1997, Jean-Daniel Nicoud, Frédéric Guerne, John Brooks

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The 2-year DeTec-2 project started at the end of 1995 as a continuation of our 1994-95 work on the Pemex demining robot to evaluate an antipersonnel mine sensor that is based on a combination of a metal detector (MD) and a ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The ERA radar was selected in early 1996, and we used the Schiebel, Förster and Ebinger metal detectors. We built a laboratory sandbox to evaluate the sensors under controlled conditions with the ultimate objective of conducting tests on a real minefield before the end of the project.

Anatomy Of A Program: Una-Usa Takes On Landmines, Melanie Velez, Bill Rigler

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

On December 3, 1997, over 100 countries convened in Ottawa, Canada to sign an historic landmine-ban treaty. The event marked the end of a six-year campaign by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines to end the scourge of these deadly antipersonnel weapons. Simultaneously, the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), a non-government organization (NGO), launched a program called Adopt-A-Minefield. Through this program, civic groups, corporations, and other organizations "adopt" a mine-strewn area pre-selected by the United Nations for demining. These private and public groups raise funds to clear their adopted minefields in order to return the …

Us Southern Command: Special Forces Lead U.S. Demining Efforts In Central America, Cisr Journal

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

High in the rugged mountains of Honduras, along its border with Nicaragua, clouds envelope a thick forest as a small group of soldiers move on paths outlined in bright yellow plastic tape. At the end of a trail, a soldier moves slowly with a metal detector sweeping back and forth across the ground. The tic-tic-tic sound in his headset changes pitch to a tac-tac-tac. He concentrates on a small area next to a tree. The sound changes again to a solid, dull tone.

Demining: Enhancing The Process, Colin King

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

There is a good deal of frustration surrounding the demining component of mine action; much stems from the sneaking suspicion that technology to improve the process already exists. Almost everybody recognises that humanitarian demining is slow and dangerous, and most see a need to enhance it. But despite years of research, little has changed in the field: what's going wrong?

"Demining 2010"–A Challenge To The Demining Community, Dennis Barlow

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

We applaud the innovative and aggressive policy initiative designed to eliminate the threat to civilians posed by landmines, which was unveiled last Fall by Secretary of State Albright and Secretary of Defense Cohen. The four elements of "Demining 2010" and their component parts constitute an ambitious, and in some ways, revolutionary strategy that deserves serious analysis; it should engender reasoned and energetic responses from members of the humanitarian demining community.

A Real Survivor: Ken Rutherford, David M. Ahearn

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Ken Rutherford did not choose to join the humanitarian demining community. Rather, fate intervened when a landmine blew up his car as he traveled along the Somalian border where he was working as a loan officer helping to rebuild the Somalian economy. The encounter with the mine forever changed Ken Rutherford's life, for at that moment, he suddenly became a landmine victim. More importantly, he became a landmine survivor.

Can There Be A Just Resolution Of Conflict?, Dov Ronen

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

I may have first thought about "just resolution of conflict" when I was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem many years ago. Those days I often heard on the radio--there was no TV in Israel at the time--and read about King Hussein's repeated calls for a "just and lasting Peace" in the Middle East. I have also noticed over the years that the same slogan has been repeated, not only by King Hussein, but also by other prominent and less prominent leaders in regard to other conflicts.⁽¹⁾ The notion of just resolution of conflict has attracted …

Ddasaccident118, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was working normally and got a reading from his detector which the investigators believe must have been from a fragment beyond the mine (they considered the mine undetectable with a Schiebel AN/19 detector). He marked the reading and while prodding towards it detonated the mine at 08:15. The victim received "superficial injuries on his right hand, forearm, fingers and neck".

What Of Chechnya?, Joe Lokey

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

There are too many Chechen mothers crying tonight. The scene is hauntingly familiar but the truth of this particular tragedy remains shrouded behind a wall of distortion and indifference. If the inordinate amount of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) were the only problems, simple magic and wizardry might be a realistic and reasonable solution to the devastation that has befallen this land that once was a beautifully scenic pocket of smiles nestled in the Caucasus.