(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Neil Watson I The European Azerbaijan
Society
The biggest danger that civilians face from mines today is not
along the frontlines in Ukraine or inside Libya, but on the edge of
Europe itself. Azerbaijan faces the huge task of cleaning up an
estimated 1.5 million landmines that were indiscriminately laid in
the territory of Garabagh that it recently recovered from its
neighbor Armenia.
The mines make it difficult to rebuild communities and resettle
civilians in an area of 7,000 sq km, almost three times the size of
Luxembourg. Azerbaijani's internally displaced persons (IDPs), who
had been driven off their land in Garabagh by Armenian forces in
the 1990s, number 650,000. They are understandably keen to return
now that Azerbaijan has recovered its territory. But mine
explosions are killing and injuring people who venture back before
the areas are ready.
"The fact that these mines were planted by Armenia
indiscriminately and sometimes without any military necessity, with
neither markings nor fencing, this makes de-mining more difficult
and it continues to claim lives and poses a major threat to
innocent civilians," said Elchin Amirbayov, Azerbaijan's
Representative to the President for Special Assignments, in a
telephone interview.
For all the hand-wringing in the West about the urgent need for
de-mining and making civilians safe, there has been little actual
assistance from the West to help Azerbaijan in this gigantic task,
apart from help in training from the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).
Since a ceasefire agreement was signed in November 2020, the
West has provided only $12.5 million to Azerbaijan's National
Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), a drop in the ocean compared to the
$25 billion that the de-mining is estimated to cost. Azerbaijan
itself has allocated over $11 billion for reconstruction for 2022-
2026.
In Garabagh, 147,988 hectares are still classed as highly
contaminated areas, while 675,570 hectares are considered medium
and low threat areas.
In November, Vugar Suleymanov, Chairperson of AN AMA, reported
that 111,207 hectares of contaminated land had been cleared since
2020. This represents only 10.5% of the total contaminated
territory.
During Armenia's three decades' occupation of Garabagh, neither
Armenia nor Azerbaijan clearly fenced off the minefields nor marked
where they laid the mines, including on the front lines. Azerbaijan
has reached out to Armenia for maps of the formerly occupied
territories, but Armenian officials initially denied having such
maps, then agreed to exchange some maps for detained soldiers. The
maps they eventually gave Azerbaijan reportedly cover only 5% of
the areas recovered by Azerbaijan, and of these maps only 25% are
accurate.
Armenia, on its part, claims it has provided all the maps in its
possession.
One of the biggest hurdles to de-mining is cost. While producing
a landmine is relatively cheap from $3 to $75 dollars, according to
the International Red Cross, the cost of removing a single mine can
range from $300 to
$1,000 dollars. Even for Azerbaijan, a relatively affluent country
owing to its abundant natural gas resources, this poses a major
challenge.
Internationally, mine clearance appears to have dropped down the
priority list for donors. It may rise again due to the war in
Ukraine, which will also be grappling with a vast landmine and
unexploded ordnance problem.
But considering the importance Western countries have given to
Ukraine makes it more likely that demining in Azerbaijan will
become an afterthought for donors.
Yet there are signs of hope. On February 7, the European Union,
the UNDP and the Azerbaijani government launched a demining project
funded with €4.25 million from the European Union. The project will
cover 20 villages and benefit 33,604 families.
It is expected to enhance the capacity of local institutions and
foster a partnership between local and international NGOs. It will
also strengthen ANAMA in information management and the application
of innovative solutions in de-mining operations.
"Mines and other explosive ordnance hinder the safe return of
internally displaced people, blocking them from accessing their
homes and agricultural fields, hence depriving them of
opportunities to rebuild their lives," said Nuno Queir6s, the
UNDP's Representative in Azerbaijan.
UNDP says it will support ANAMA in training, equipping, and
deploying emergency response teams to detect and destroy mines and
unexploded ordnance. In addition, UNDP will develop maps for mine
detection and will help in procuring special equipment.
The UNDP has also established the first female teams in
Azerbaijan to carry out demining operations, which is traditionally
considered a male occupation.
"Involvement of women in such an important activity as
humanitarian demining is especially essential and will make many
contributions towards the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals," said Alessandra Roccasalvo of the UNDP.
Azerbaijan's first state programme to resettle its IDPs, called
the 'Great Return', aims to resettle 140,000 people in Garabagh by
2026. The first pilot project began in July 2022: ten families
arrived in the relatively uncontaminated village of Aghali in the
remote south-western Zangilan district, the vanguard of some 1,350
people expected to repopulate the village.
Such projects put pressure on de-miners to ensure that
everything is ready on time. The government is expanding pilot
projects to Fizuli and other regions, as it tries to accelerate
returns to less contaminated areas.
With its deminers having to innovate in a challenging
environment, Azerbaijan is now ready to share its growing expertise
with other countries, so that its lessons and approaches can feed
in to other efforts around the world.
This would not only set a commendable example, but could also
persuade more international donors to contribute.
"We are ready to share our own experience. In size, our country is
not huge, but one-tenth of our population has been affected by
mines contamination. There are another 30 countries in the world
that are effected by regional and ethnic conflicts. And landmines
are the most treacherous warfare tools. You have millions of people
affected and this has still somehow not caught the attention of
those formulating the Sustainable Development Goals," pointed out
Amirbayov via telephone.
A Ukrainian mission recently visited Azerbaijan to better
understand Azerbaijan's approach to de-mining. A joint
Saudi-Azerbaijani company has also been formed to apply
Azerbaijan's know-how and technologies in other P-arts of the
world.
With many Asian and African countries still contaminated with
landmines, mostly from wars that ended years ago, the lessons being
learnt by Azerbaijan today could help to improve the safety of
civilians around the world. And with landmines often placed in
prime agricultural land, this sharing of expertise could help boost
international food security too.
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