MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Deminers recover over a thousand mines in Falklands

De-mining expert working in Falklands’ peaty soil in search of minimum metal mines (Photo by Kev Bryant.)

MORE than a thousand mines have been recovered and destroyed by deminers working in the Falkland Islands. The Falkland Island Demining Programme Office (FIDPO) was established in Stanley in early October 2009.

Roger Gagen of British demining company BACTEC International  told Mercopress that in the Sapper Hill Mine Field behind Stanley, 190 Spanish P4B Anti Personnel Mines, two BL 755 Cluster Bombs and one Rifle Grenade have been recovered. All ordnance has now been accounted for in this area.

The Surf Bay minefields to the East of Stanley, a favorite leisure area of residents, has been cleared of 454 Italian SB81 Anti Vehicle Mines, 414 Italian SB33 Anti Personnel Mines and five M67 Hand Grenades. Less than 250 mines remain in this area.

Along with the success in the Stanley area of the primarily Zimbabwean team of workers, the sixteen men deployed to a Goose Green minefield, “…are making good progress,” said Roger.
He added, “We shall then have a small team deployed to Fox Bay (West Falklands) in early April.”

Asked if the Falklands environment was a particularly difficult one to work in, he said, “Once you have the right balance of clothing, such as waterproofs and thermals working in minefields is similar wherever you deploy.

Speaking of the work he explained that mining in the Falklands was very similar to anywhere else in the world, “Mining is a standardized process wherever you are, you clear a little move forward a little and so on.

He added that in the Falkland, however, “The main difficulty is the quantities of items available here on the Islands and the re-supply of specialized equipment items which break when you least expect them to.”

Although it was thought that very poor records exist showing the location of the Argentine laid mines, Roger explained that in the Stanley area records are very good. He said later in the Falklands Conflict when the Argentine authorities realized that the British troops were not planning to land in the Stanley area the placement of mines outside of Stanley became much more haphazard and less well recorded.

Demining in the Islands primarily utilizes metal detectors to locate the ordnance, “…and then we excavate them using a wide range of excavation tools similar to those used by ordinary gardeners; once we have exposed and identified the mines we simply place a donor charge next to them and destroy them where they are located.

The deminers are a popular group in the Falklands, one Islander said, “They are great guys and very respected for the work they do; they’re good fun too and when they have the time they join in with many aspects of the social life and sport.”

BACTEC hope to complete planned operations by May 2010.

By Lisa Watson – SeAledPR – Stanley