Humanitarian Mine Action in Northern Iraq
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sustained efforts, the Mines Advisory Group has made significant
progress in the demining of war-torn Northern Iraq. Cooperation
with local villagers has been a key to their success.
by Tim Carstairs, Mine Advisory
History of Mine Laying
There have been three
main eras of mine laying in the region over the last 30 years.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, regular fighting between Iraqi forces
and Kurdish mountain fighters, the Peshmerga, gave rise to the extensive
use of landmines by the Iraqi army to protect military positions and
close footpaths in an attempt to prevent military action by the
Peshmerga. The first Gulf War fought between Iran and Iraq during the
1980s was fought over large parts of what is currently known as Iraqi
Kurdistan. Large "traditional" mine fields were laid as well
as smaller "nuisance" mine fields. The conflict raged back and
forth across the strategic bordering areas of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran.
As the conflict ebbed and flowed, mine laying followed a similar
pattern. In 1990 and early 1991, Iraq launched the "Anfal"
operations against the Kurdish community, driving hundreds of thousands
into the mountainous refuge of southeastern Turkey and Iran.
Iraq had already destroyed many
Kurdish settlements within 15 km of the border with Iran and relocated
much of the population in collective towns lower down on the plains. The
"Anfal" campaign saw all remaining Kurdish villages razed to
the ground; further quantities of mines were laid in the rubble and
remain in order to prohibit re-settlement by the original villagers.
In 1991, the second Gulf War saw Iraqi
forces defeated by the "coalition." Simultaneously, the
Kurdish north and the Shia south rose up against Iraq. The brutal
backlash against the Kurds following the uprising brought about massive
movements of refugees to the mountainous areas of Turkey and Iran.
Following the conclusion of the second Gulf War in 1991 and the
withdrawal of Iraqi forces from the Kurdish area, Kurdish villagers
began to return home to rebuild their lives.
Casualties mounted daily from mines and unexploded
ordnance (UXO): planting crops,
collecting wood, and other normal tasks had become deadly activities.
The Mines Advisory Group’s (MAG) Data Co-ordination Unit recorded 932
deaths and 1,512 injuries as a result of mine and UXO accidents in 1991
MAG’s worldwide aims can be summed
up in the following brief words: Clear mines, save lives, and build
futures. In northern Iraq, MAG created the first ever—and until
1996, the only— mine action program in the region.
Following an initial assessment in
1991, MAG started planning and recruitment for a mine action program.
With initial funding from the European Community, demining courses at
Diana in Erbil governorate and Penjwen in Sulaimanya governorate began
in summer 1992 to train an initial 72 local deminers. Difficulties in
importing the necessary equipment delayed the first demining operations
until April 1993. The first demining started at Rawgan village in
Penjwen District (one of the most heavily-mined areas in the world) and
in the Diana sub-district of Erbil governorate.
In the same year, MAG began to train
local staff in EOD to respond primarily to the tons of ordnance left
over from the 1980s war. A Mine Awareness Program was begun in order to
help minimize the risks as longer-term clearance was undertaken.
Since first arriving in the region,
MAG knew that the appropriate response to the mine and UXO problem would
be a long-term mission. Thus MAG’s policy was to create a local
MAG has aimed to enhance the skills
and abilities of both its local and expatriate staff to plan, implement,
monitor and evaluate. A huge amount of knowledge has passed from MAG
expatriate staff to the local staff in the form of on-the-job training
and formal training courses within and outside the region (management,
technical training, leadership, etc.).
In 1992, all management positions were
held by expatriate staff, and as the program expanded, the total number
of expatriate staff reached 14 persons in 1995, with about 200
Today, all management positions except
that of the program manager are held by national staff. One expatriate
technical adviser provides monitoring and other input. Three hundred
fifty deminers are currently operating in the program; some 45 staff
members manage and implement mine awareness, data gathering and
community liaison activities; over 100 other staff members are involved
in planning, supervision and management, mapping, logistics and repairs,
administration, transport, security and other support tasks. MAG’s
operation is managed by a "senior management team" made up of
senior local staff and the expatriate program manager. Locally, this
management structure works through branch management at each of its
operations centres across the region. This transformation has been
achieved by MAG’s vision of real national ownership and by the hard
work, commitment and dedication of all MAG’s staff and the firm
support of MAG’s donors.
It is important to mention the local
staff’s willingness to accept responsibilities and to prepare
themselves for higher levels of responsibility. The role played by the
entire MAG expatriate staff in passing on their knowledge has made a
great contribution to the development of the necessary capacity and
The Situation Today
Over the years, MAG
has conducted a series of surveys throughout the region and has
established a vast database within its Data Coordination Unit. MAG
estimates that 760 villages are badly affected by mines, representing
over 15 percent of all villages in the region; this amounts to 220
million square meters of land suspected to be mined and consequently
MAG reports 6,250 injuries and 3,450
deaths as a result of mine and UXO explosions. These figures may
significantly underestimate the true casualty level due to
under-reporting, particularly of the number of deaths in the region. The
nature of rural life and the absolute need for grazing of animals
dictates that the number of livestock casualties is 10-15 times higher
than human casualties, with severe economic consequences.
vast majority of mines were laid during local fighting between the Kurds
and the Iraqi army, and during the Iran-Iraq war. They are already 15-20
years old. The age of the mine fields leads to a number of complicating
factors and difficulties in conducting demining operations. Most of the
mine fields have been badly disrupted; in some cases, local villagers
have attempted to clear their land by collecting or disarming visible
mines or by removing the mines from the mine field and stockpiling them
in another area. In the past, there was also an active trade in salvaged
mines and explosives to be used for fishing (this activity has now been
banned by the local authorities and the trade has diminished). Mine
fields were also disrupted during some of the heavy fighting. Nature
also played its part. Many mines were washed down from the hills and
mountains to the flat areas, thereby creating "new" mine
fields. The action of rain and snow over the years has also caused some
mines to become more deeply buried in the ground, making their
detection and destruction more difficult.
An additional difficulty in a number
of areas is the mineralized soil types that can affect the ability of
metal detectors to effectively and safely detect mines. Further
difficulties are caused by the minimum-metal content of some mines
found: VAR 40, TS 50, the Type 72, M14 anti-personnel blast mines and
VS2.2, VS 1.6 and TC 2.4 anti-tank mines.
MAG has conducted several studies to
minimize the effects of these problems. All types of mines in the region
were classified according to metal content: high, medium and minimum. A
number of trials were undertaken to enable MAG to adjust or re-calibrate
detector sensitivity accordingly. In order to address the problems
presented by the laterite soil, detector comparison trials are being
conducted in Schiebel’s ATMID, Guartel’s MD8 and the Minelab
detector. Further trials are continuing.
MAG’s Northern Iraq
program has developed a set of Standard Operating Procedures that is
well matched with international standards for humanitarian mine
clearance. All MAG technical staff are trained and monitored to achieve
Due to the vast number of mine fields
in the region, it is necessary to prioritize them so that scarce
resources are used in the most effective manner. The prioritization
process relies on the availability of high-quality data collected during
MAG’s various field activities. MAG’s prioritization system involves
two main assessments. The first is the level of risk as measured by
previous casualties (human life and livestock), the proximity of the
area to occupied houses and the presence of water sources or other
community resources that cause people to frequent the area. The second
assessment considers the level of benefits that can be expected to
result from clearance. This includes the community’s own assessment
and ranking of priorities. Factors include the economic uses of land
(e.g., for crops and pasture) and the number of families expected to
benefit from clearance. This means that community lands are often
prioritized over private lands.
Importantly, this process is conducted
together with the communities and their leaders to ensure a clear
understanding of MAG’s capacity and its aims in a given area or
village and to ensure that community members recognize the need to
"share" resources as fairly as possible according to a
commonly agreed prioritization system.
When mine fields were
first demarcated in the mid-90s, the perimeters established were larger
than they should have been —no maps were available, and local
knowledge was limited and tended to err on the side of greater safety.
When MAG re-checks survey results and confirms the initial information,
it is sometimes found that some of the land is already in use. Due to
accidents to themselves and to animals, villagers have gained a better
knowledge of the mined areas and their perimeters. This information is
passed on to MAG.
In order to increase productivity
without affecting safety, the practice of area reduction has been
MAG ensures full involvement of local
villagers in all stages of the process:
1. Before Clearance: If MAG and
the villagers agree on the redefined area of the mine field following
new information from the villagers and the "guide-men" (local
people assigned by the village as having particular knowledge of certain
areas of land), area reduction is conducted immediately and markers are
placed at the commonly-agreed perimeter and the previous markers are
2. During Clearance: Following
confirmatory breaches (a minimum of three breaches of at least 10 meters
each in breadth) through the mine field, MAG gains further information
about the mined area, the types of mines and how they were laid, and the
nature of the ground. MAG re-assesses at this stage. The local guide-men
are then again involved in deciding which land is to be considered mined
and which areas are to be considered mine-free. At this point, other
guide-men may be brought in and consulted in order to test the knowledge
gained. The guide-men are required to take some of the responsibility
together with MAG for the choices made.
3. As Clearance Continues: MAG
re-assesses the situation continually. For instance, if it appears
likely that no more mines are present in an area, further village-level
discussion takes place. Again, MAG takes joint responsibility for the
decisions made. Responsibility in decisions made on area reduction is
taken by MAG’s Technical Operations Manager and the appropriate
representatives of the community.
There are a number of situations where
this type of area reduction is not possible: for example, minimum-metal
and blast mines might be buried too deep for detection or are not
visible to surface search. Such smaller mines also tend to roll downhill
after flooding into areas outside originally-established perimeters.
Disruption of mine-laying patterns can also be caused by villagers who
might pick up and dispose of surface mines or animals may tread on mines
or knock them downhill. In these cases and where possible, MAG’s new
mechanical device (see after) will save time in safely checking such
The program deploys multi-skilled mine
action teams to respond in a flexible and comprehensive manner. From MAG’s
experience, smaller, more flexible teams are more appropriate to the
terrain and nature of the taskings in Northern Iraq. The Mine Action
Team (MAT) includes demining, demarcation, EOD and community liaison
skills to allow the teams to respond to the priorities identified by
target villages. MAG’s dedicated EOD Teams were incorporated into the
MATs now that all large concentrations of UXO have been destroyed
following MAG’s previous program to eradicate all major stockpiles,
ammunition dumps and arms caches.
Since 1992, the
following quantifiable outputs have been achieved:
square meters of land have been cleared of mines/UXO and officially
returned to the communities safely.
mines were destroyed.
items of unexploded ordnance destroyed; this equates to 3,105 tons.
deminers have been successfully trained and deployed.
square meters of land have been demarcated.
people have directly benefited from MAG’s clearance, EOD and other
emergency tasks. Direct benefit is derived by those who own or use the
land that has been handed over as safe to the community.
1999 to date, 1,095,543 m2
have been reduced and handed over as safe to the community.
The rate of human
casualties during the year 2000 has fallen to little more than 10
percent of the 1991 rate. In the year 2000, MAG also successfully
introduced a region-wide mine awareness education program for primary
school children with the support of the local Ministries of Education
and UNICEF. Mine awareness has now been made a part of the school
curriculum. MAG has also set up an education system for parts of the
male population through the Mullahs. This program is supported by the Awqaf
(Ministry of Endowments or Religious Affairs).
In 2001, MAG
manufactured a "mini-rotovator" in Suleimaniya. This machine
is currently under field trials and hopefully will be deployed in area
reduction and limited mechanical clearance roles in the coming months.
Further plans to examine additional tools and systems (mini-flail
systems, rollers, magnets, etc.) will also be assessed during the year.
Given the difficulty
of importing such equipment into the region, MAG is working with the
Development Technology Workshop (DTW), the UK charity responsible for
developing the locally-produced "Tempest" vegetation cutter
used today in Cambodia and Thailand, to consider local design and
manufacture capacities in this area. MAG and DTW will also examine the
potential for the local manufacture of PPE. These developments will
further increase the local sustainability and independence of mine
has been made in addressing the problem posed by mines and UXO in the
region; much still remains to be done. The combination of initiatives
and methods from MAG’s toolbox of mine action is a fruitful one, and
continues to stand the test of the most difficult operating
This has been MAG’s
longest-running operation, and has been the source of many successes and
lessons that have enabled improvements and innovations in many of MAG’s
other initiatives. MAG is grateful to all its donors—these include the
UK (DFID), the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden (SIDA), SPAS
(Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society), Laing Family Trusts, Radda
Barnen (Sweden) and Trocaire (Ireland). MAG hopes that these donors will
continue to support the project into the future. At the same time, MAG
is seeking further individual, corporate and institutional donors to
MAG Northern Iraq Program
Tel: 00873 761 576 191
Fax: 00873 761 576 192