Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Peace Building And Conflict Transformation, Kevin Clements

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The world clearly needs some new ways of thinking about old problems and new ways of acting if we are going to survive into the 21st century. It is vital, therefore, that students of peace and conflict work out ways of harnessing the creative imagination of everyone so that all peoples can envisage a positive future and ways of realizing that future. This imagining cannot be narrow. It has to be broad, inclusive, interdisciplinary and systemic but it has to begin if we are to have a viable future.

Nonviolent Interposition In Armed Conflicts, Alberto L'Abate

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

In 1931 Gandhi spoke of the possibility of overcoming violent conflicts with "a living wall of men and women" who would interpose themselves between conflicting parties without any other weapons than themselves (Weber, 1988). Some students of nonviolent intervention have written histories of interpositionary experiences from Gandhi's first idea until recent years (Keyes, 1978; Weber, 1988; Walker, 1981; L'Abate, 1993a). Maybe it is time to try an evaluation of these types of interventions.1

Introduction, Elise Boulding

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The papers brought together here represent a part of the work of the IPRA (International Peace Research Association) Commission on Conflict Resolution and Peace Building that met during the 1994 Conference of the International Peace Research Association at Malta to address the issues of peace building in crisis areas. The focus here is particularly on new approaches to peace building, including United Nations reform and civil society innovation. After fifty years of UN peace building efforts, it is clear that the UN cannot function effectively without the involvement of civil society in each conflict region. How the UN, member …

Ddasaccident094, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was working in an area with barbed wire obstacles (that should have been cut and removed). After going around the wire and detecting again he got a reading. He did not mark the reading but squatted and started to prod with his bayonet, and detonated the mine (which was identified as a PMN from "found fragments".

The System-Change In Europe: Theoretical And Political Consequences For The Future Role Of Nato. A Comprehensive Evaluation Of Theoretical Propositions, Empirical Evidence And Possible Political Guidelines, Alexander Siedschlag

Publications

In its consequences for the future role of the Atlantic Alliance, the system-change in Europe means more than what it is commonly conceived of to be. Much of the political and scholarly debates about NATO's future embrace military conflict management and Alliance enlargement as crucial factors. Yet another set of decisive factors determining NATO's future lies in the intra-Alliance political and military relationships. The immediate challenges in the first place stem from conflicts of internal origin, such as reconciling divergent interests and approaches among its members.

Ddasaccident095, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim did not centralise the reading point from his detector and "did not follow the marking procedures properly". He prodded while in a squatting position. They noted that the device was identified as a PMN (from "found fragments") and that the victim's helmet and bayonet were "destroyed".

Ddasaccident097, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim got a detector reading and started prodding in a prone position. As he removed loose soil he pulled a tripwire with his hand. A POMZ six metres away was initiated. The device was identified as a POMZ from "found fragments".

Ddasaccident096, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was checking the boundary land and got a reading with his detector and investigated it with his prodder. He prodded in the squatting position but found nothing. As he stood up to recheck the position with his detector the device went off in front of him.

Ddasaccident098, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the two victims found a "UXO" fuze while working in a bushy area.

Ddasaccident099, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was marking the cleared area up to a mine he had uncovered and which was awaiting detonation. It was near the end of the day so he wanted to go off duty after the found mine was destroyed. He dropped a stone close (25cm) to the found mine and the impact detonated another mine close by. His visor was up at the time, so his face was unprotected. The mine was identified as a PMN [presumably by inference].

Ddasaccident232, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The document states that the demining team were working in a gulley in a wooded area. "They had used prodders to prove the ground from which they were lifting mines. They also used detectors to sweep the area to 15m beyond the area which had been prodded". A member of the demining team who had been involved in laying the mines during the war "walked into the area which had been swept by detectors and detonated a PMA-3".

Ddasaccident100, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the minefield was old and the mines had fallen and become buried. The victim did not mark the detector reading point before investigating with a pick, so triggered the mine which was identified as a POMZ from "fragments found". The victim's pick and helmet were damaged.

Ddasaccident102, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was clearing the dry bed of a lake [this appears to conflict with "hillside"] and prodded to investigate an area that the dog had indicated. He used his detector then investigated the reading with a pick. The mine was identified as a PMN (from "found fragments"). The victim's pick handle and his visor were damaged. The victim walked out of mined area unaided.

Ddasaccident028, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred at 12:30 in a minefield laid by the Portuguese in the early 1970s. The mines were Italian AUPS mines, with and without fragmentation jackets. The demining group had been working in the area since 1996 and 234 AUPS mines had been destroyed. "The minefield crosses the road many times as it is linked as an obstacle with the river which is running along the valley. At the accident site, the minefield following the road alignment at a distance of about six metres on a rocky slope of approximately 35 degrees." Clearance of ten metres had occurred at …

Common Circle For Human Rights, Vol.1, No.4 (May 1997), M. Lichtman

Common Circle for Human Rights (1997-2000)

No abstract provided.

Ddasaccident233, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The document stated that the demining group were working in a wooded area known to be mined. The SFOR monitors offered to lend the group protective equipment but they declined the offer. They did accept the offer of prodders. While prodding a deminer detonated a PMA-3.

Ddasaccident103, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was clearing a breaching lane bordered by barbed wire. When the wire got in the way too much, he stopped work to pull it aside. In pulling it aside he stepped outside the cleared area and trod on the mine. The mine was believed to be a PMN (from "found fragments") but there was concern expressed that the mine was "an MS3 (anti-lift device)" at the time. The victim's visor was damaged.

Ddasaccident104, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim returned to his breaching lane after the short break and accidentally walked beyond the area he had cleared before the break, where he stepped on a mine. He may have not marked the end of his work properly. The device was identified as a PMN (from "found fragments").

Common Circle For Human Rights, Vol.1, No.3 (April 1997), M. Lichtman

Common Circle for Human Rights (1997-2000)

No abstract provided.

Busting Universal Truths, R Gopalakrishnan

IIMB Management Review

Former Chairman of Unilever Arabia faces the challenge of managing change in a multi-cultural environment. No truth, he discovers, is universal.

Ddasaccident105, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim had been a deminer for seven years. It was five months since his last revision course and 35 days since his last leave. The demining group reported that the victim was digging with a pick when suddenly a PMN mine exploded.

Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was part of an advance team which was defining the perimeter of a suspected mined area, with the help of a local guide. The victim was putting in metal markers about 3m away from the existing mined-area boundary stakes. At 09:20 the victim stepped on a mine about 8m away from the existing boundary stakes. He suffered " a cracked bone and bruising to his left foot".

Ddasaccident170, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was the vegetation cutter and prodder man. He cleared 50cm of vegetation at the end of the lane and then handed over to his partner, the detector man. The detector signalled so a marker was put down and the detector man returned to the umbrella. The prodder man investigated the source of the signal and then shouted that he had found a mine. He started to excavate around the mine in preparation for placing a TNT charge next to it. There were a lot of roots around the mine but the victim was not aware that there were …

Ddasaccident171, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A medical report indicated that the accident occurred at 11:50 and the victim was given first aid for 15 minutes. He arrived at Mongkul Borey Provincial Hospital at 12:40. He had suffered a traumatic amputation of his right foot above the ankle, minor fragment wounds along the length of his left leg and superficial wounds on the back of his left hand.

Ddasaccident229, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The team decided that the work had moved away from the direction of the path, so work would start three metres behind the end of the lane and go in a slightly different direction. This was in the area that had been probed, not checked by a dog. The deminers walked to the new start point, then began to return to the change-over point. Victim No.1 was behind Victim No.2 when he stepped on a PMA-2. He suffered a "traumatic amputation" below his right knee. Victim No.2 had "less serious" injuries.

Ddasaccident106, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The investigators determined that the victim was clearing inside a collapsed building. The mines were probably laid on the roof, which had fallen in, so may have been in any position in the ground. The mine was identified as a PMN-2 (from "found fragments"). The victim's visor shattered and a photograph showed jagged fractures and little evidence of blast impact. [This damage implies a twisting force on a brittle plastic, indicating that the visor was probably raised, so explaining the facial injuries.] The deminer's pick was also damaged.

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. …

Ddasaccident029, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause is listed as a "Management/control inadequacy" because it seems that the group's SOPs allowed the victim to be too close to detonations on too many occasions and so those responsible for devising the SOPs and training were at fault.

Common Circle For Human Rights, Vol.1, No.2 (March 1997), M. Lichtman

Common Circle for Human Rights (1997-2000)

No abstract provided.

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 …