POVERTY: Bacteria, plants tested in landmine deactivation method

Hazem Badr : 24 February 2012
 Flickr/aquafornia
Plants such as sugar beet would absorb the TNT seeping from the landmines

Egyptian researchers claim to have found a cheap, easy method for detecting and clearing landmines, using plants and bacteria.
However, some experts are sceptical about the method, which they say faces major practical obstacles.
The three-stage process for deactivating anti-personnel mines — landmines designed for use against humans — first detects the mine before corroding its cast-iron body and, finally, neutralising it.
The Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT), the government body responsible for funding research in Egypt, announced last month (18 January) that it will fund large-scale trials on the north coast of Egypt, after the technique proved successful in laboratory tests. It is awaiting approval from the armed forces to do so.
"We investigated the technique for almost a year before approving large-scale experiments," Abdelsalam Gomaa, a member of the ASRT committee responsible for approving funds for agricultural research, told SciDev.Net.
A.M. Abou-Dahab, professor of ornamental horticulture at Cairo University and lead researcher, said that the first step of the method was developed in March 2004 by Aresa Biodetection, Danish biotechnology company.
The company created a strain of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana — a member of the mustard family — that turns from green to red only in the presence of the nitrogen oxide that leaks from landmines.
The researchers plan to enlist the help of the airforce to sow these plant seeds on around 700 acres of land infested with landmines.
The next two steps in the deactivation method are based on new findings.
Once the plants have indicated the presence of landmines, the researchers propose introducing iron-loving bacteria that will make small holes in the iron body of the landmines, allowing gas from the degrading trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosive to be released.
The final step is to plant either Vinca rosea (rose periwinkle), sugar beet, or tobacco plants in the area. The roots of all three contain enzymes that absorb nitrogen, which is a component of the TNT. This absorption should deactivate the landmine.
Richard Boulter, programme manager in Cambodia for the Halo Trust — a charity specialising in the removal of hazardous war debris — was critical of the method.
"Birds will eat the seeds … even if germination occurs, how do you stop animals from eating the plants? The method also makes the assumption that TNT seeps out. It doesn't."
But Abou-Dahab said there are few birds in the area where they are testing their method and it is guarded so animals cannot enter.
Sean Sutton, a spokesperson for the UK-based Mines Advisory Group, said: "I wouldn't want to discount this new idea, but we just don't know until we've tried it. It does sound far-fetched."
http://www.scidev.net/en/middle-east-and-north-africa/news/bacteria-plants-tested-in-landmine-deactivation-method.html

POVERTY: MYANMAR: Landmine survivor needs outstrip aid

BANGKOK, 7 December 2011 (IRIN) -

 Photo: Zin Win/IRIN
Zaw Lwin, 42, lost his leg to a landmine 12 years ago in the eastern part of Myanmar's Bago Region

Myanmar has one of the world's highest casualty tolls by landmines, but for years the country has received little international aid for survivor assistance, risk education and other mine action. The numbers are changing, however.
"Myanmar gets very, very little funding compared to any other country that has a landmine victim population of its size," said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, with the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).
While international donations for mine action worldwide have doubled over the past decade, contributions have remained low in Myanmar because the government has refused humanitarian groups access to mine-affected areas, and the country has not signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, according to NGOs.
Of the 4,191 recorded landmine casualties in 2010, 274 occurred in Myanmar - the fifth highest in the world after Afghanistan (1,211), Colombia (512), Pakistan (394), and Cambodia (286).
Those countries, respectively, received US$102.6 million, $12.1 million, $3.4 million, and $24.3 million in 2010 from international donors - versus Myanmar's $36,000 from Norway's government, according to ICBL's 2011 Landmine Monitor.
This figure excludes monies not reported to ICBL, which for Myanmar included funds from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said Moser-Puangsuwan.
The Norwegian government backed a study in 2010 on the humanitarian impact of landmines and has increased its contribution to about $500,000, said Arne Jan Flølo, the Myanmar desk officer at the Norwegian embassy in Bangkok.
The US government has pledged $200,000 to help survivors.

Progress report
Campaigners against landmines point to recent developments in the country as signs the time has come to "be more brave" in fighting landmines in Myanmar, noting its participation in a recent gathering in Cambodia of signatories to the mine ban treaty.
"There seem to be openings," said Katherine Kramer, Asia's programme director for the NGO Geneva Call. "There are venues to start a dialogue with the government... by offering assistance for humanitarian mine action."
U Win Naing, Myanmar's deputy director-general in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said "careful consideration" was the most appropriate way forward on the issue of landmines, during an address at the annual Meeting of States Parties from 28 November to 2 December in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
"Myanmar also believes that the legitimate right of every state to self-defence in matters of its national security must be recognized and respected in considering this issue," he said, according to a transcript of the speech.
It was the first time a Myanmar official had addressed the gathering.
"I'm really hoping that, with the government's presence at this meeting, they [the government] might be more open to humanitarian mine activity, and then I'm sure funds will increase," said Kramer.
"If you can't do activities openly, then it becomes much more difficult to put large amounts of funds into projects."
An "extremely significant" development came in November when a government minister met five major armed groups to discuss a ceasefire, said Moser-Puangsuwan. Since then, the government has signed a formal ceasefire agreement with the Shan State Army-South, according to local media.
Any ceasefire agreement must prohibit landmine use and allow NGOs access to mine-affected communities, said Moser-Puangsuwan.

Non-state armed groups must sign on, too.
"For the people living in the conflict areas, not much has changed," Moser-Puangsuwan said. "Until there's an end to armed conflict in that country, there's still going to be mine use."
Myanmar was one of four countries worldwide where government forces used anti-personnel landmines in 2011 and the only country where both state and non-state armed groups used them in 2010-2011, according to ICBL.
Since 1999, at least 2,861 people in Myanmar have been injured or killed by landmines but the actual figure is believed to be much higher, campaigners say.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94417

POVERTY: LAOS: Female deminers attract fans but little funding

 Photo: Phuong Tran/ IRIN : Female deminers -- lots of photos, but not so much funding

XIENGKHUANG, 4 January 2011 (IRIN) - In the two years since the Laos government set up the first team of women clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO), they have had lots of attention, but this has not translated into increased funding, says the UN, which is supporting government programmes.
"It was quite in vogue with donors to have all-female teams," said John Dingley, the UN's senior technical adviser working with the government's UXO Lao clearance programme. "But more than that, these are good jobs and we want to create as many opportunities as possible for women in post-conflict settings."
However, UXO Lao faces a US$1.4 million funding shortfall.
Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, after more than two million tons of UXO - mostly cluster bomblets - were dropped between 1964 and 1973, according to the government's National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action.
While there have been women working in the government's clearance operation since it began in 1996, the government only started grouping all-female teams (albeit with a male mechanic/driver) in 2008, following the lead of the British demining NGO, Mines Advisory Group (MAG), which has worked in the country since 1994 and launched all-female UXO clearance teams in Laos in 2007.
Lou McGrath, MAG's chief executive, described MAG's "ladies first" initiative as a "genuine move to redress gender balance in the UXO sector".
Priorities
Women can more easily relate to other women when assessing priorities for demining, said UN adviser Dingley. Whereas men may focus on fields, women might choose paths to water wells.
In the 17 countries where MAG operates, 13 percent of its 2,526 staff are women. It has only tried all-female teams in Sri Lanka, Laos and Cambodia, which no longer has any because of funding cuts, a point not lost on Saisamon Noonthasin, 35, who has been clearing UXOs in Laos since leaving school 15 years ago.
"There were no other women who went into it [at the time], but I wanted to help my country and besides, I could not find any other jobs out of school," said the mother of two, who earns $200 per month.
In 2009, she was one of 166 women clearing UXOs out of 1,039 government-funded staff. (Only male soldiers demine, which is more dangerous and potentially deadlier than working with UXOs.)
Since Noonthasin moved from a mixed team to an all-female UXO clearance team in 2008, however, she has noticed a significant increase in the number of visits from curious foreigners (18 field visits in the first 11 months of 2010).
Noonthasin hosted two visiting delegations while clearing UXOs in Pek District in Xiengkhuang Province, one of the country's most heavily mined areas. She led a team of 12 who cleared 14,550 sqm of land in an area of 164,804 sqm where 282 residents live. They found 183 UXOs and finished clearing the plot in mid-December.
Female members of UXO Lao do most of what men do, other than fix cars, detonate phosphorous, cut down trees or move big bombs.
But while the women have helped more than double press coverage of demining and UXO clearance activities in Laos, there has actually been a reduction in funding, said Dingley. For example, Ireland, suffering economic troubles at home, cut its funding to $500,000 from $1 million in 2006-2009.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91526

POVERTY: Land Mine clearance gathering momentum

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN: A HALO Trust demining instructor teaches new recruits in Mozambique about the weapon
JOHANNESBURG, 26 November 2010 (IRIN) - Demining operations in 2009 cleared the largest area of land in a single year since the landmark 1999 Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) was implemented, and the lowest annual casualty rate was also recorded, said the 2010 Landmine Monitor report released on 24 November.
"In 2009, 3,956 new landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties were recorded, the lowest number for any year since the Monitor began reporting in 1999... [however,] because of incomplete data collection the actual number of casualties is certainly significantly higher," the Monitor said in a statement.
The Landmine Monitor, an oversight initiative by civil society, keeps a watchful eye on implementation of the MBT and compliance with its terms, which seek to end the use of antipersonnel mines by states and non-state armed groups, and destroy all stockpiles of the weapons. Its editorial board is drawn from five organizations: Mines Action Canada, Action On Armed Violence, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, and Norwegian People's Aid.
"Mine action programmes cleared at least 198 sq km of mined areas in 2009, by far the highest annual total ever recorded ... resulting in the destruction of more than 255,000 antipersonnel mines and 37,000 antivehicle mines. At least 359 sq km of former battle areas were cleared in 2009, disposing of 2.2 million ERW. Eighty percent of recorded clearance occurred in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka," the statement said.
The record clearance could be attributed to "momentum, political will and the stability of the funding mechanism [for mine action]”, Mark Hiznay, the final editor of Landmine Monitor 2010, told IRIN.
The Landmine Monitor noted that "International funding for mine action remained stable despite the global economic downturn. International support for mine action totalled US$449 million, the fourth consecutive year that funding has surpassed $400 million."
Ukraine joined Belarus, Greece and Turkey in failing to meet their treaty-mandated stockpile destruction deadlines, placing all four in serious violation of the Mine Ban Treat
The United States, although not a signatory to the treaty signed by 80 percent of the world's countries, provided $119 million of the total. Afghanistan was the single largest beneficiary of mine action funds, receiving $107 million.
Hiznay said most of the mine clearance in Afghanistan was humanitarian, with some demining occurring in areas where coalition forces were battling the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but "NATO forces are more concerned by IEDs [improvised explosive devices]."
The use of landmines is diminishing and the only government forces thought still to use them is Myanmar, although "there were disturbing allegations of use of mines by the armed forces of Turkey, a State Party [to the MBT], which the [Turkish] government is investigating," the Landmine Monitor said. For the first time, Russia dropped from the list of states using landmines.
Non-state armed groups in Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Yemen continued to employ the weapon.
The destruction of stockpiles in 86 states, numbering about 45 million antipersonnel mines, was completed, but "Ukraine joined Belarus, Greece and Turkey in failing to meet their treaty-mandated stockpile destruction deadlines, placing all four in serious violation of the Mine Ban Treaty," the Landmine Monitor noted.
Survivor assistance
Hiznay said victim assistance needed to improve, but acknowledged this was the hardest aspect of the MBT, as "it involves a lifetime of support and it is not just a question of handing someone a prosthetic." Nine percent of mine action funding in 2009 was dedicated to victim assistance.
"While survivors know their needs and rights best, it is disappointing that survivors or their representative organizations were involved in victim assistance implementation in less than half of affected countries," the Monitor's Casualties and Victim Assistance Editor, Katleen Maes of Handicap International, said in the statement.
The Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 29 November to 3 December 2010.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?Reportid=91204