British Forces Network reports how a specialist de-mining team is clearing and exploding a hoard of land mines from the Falkland Islands landscape – out of more than 30,000 laid the Argentine forces during the 1982 conflict.
Falkland Islands former minefields that have been cleared by BACTEC International’s (*) deminers are, “cleared to a higher quality than the areas that are outside the fences,” assured Project Manager Julius Unsing, speaking to Penguin News this week.
The United States said Tuesday it halting the use of anti-personnel mines apart from in the tense No Man's Land between the Koreas, a step closer to compliance with a global convention.
On the International Mine Awareness Day (April 4), the Organization of American States highlighted the successful humanitarian demining efforts throughout the Americas. National authorities in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are to be commended for increasing awareness of the dangers posed by landmines, for reducing the number of landmine victims, and for assuming responsibility for their national programs, said OAS.
Colombia, only second to Afghanistan as to the country most punished by antipersonnel mines held several ceremonies on Wednesday to remember and honour its 9.755 victims of which 2.044 have died.
Next March 26 the Falkland Islands will be holding an ‘opening’ ceremony to celebrate the release of another 3.5 square kilometres which have been cleared from mines and other explosives planted by Argentine forces during the 1982 invasion.
A main border pass between Chile and Peru remains closed to all traffic because recent heavy rainfall and flooding have swept antipersonnel and anti-tank mines in the region, in some cases all the way to the Pacific, where beaches have been put out of limits.
The team from BACTEC International Ltd that will be carrying out the second phase of the demining pilot project is in the Falklands are in the Islands and will look to release significant areas of land behind the Stanley Common fence to the South-west of the capital.
Chile formally requested Monday an extension until March 2020 to complete antipersonnel mines clearance particularly to the north and south of the country, during the meeting of the signatories and observers of the Ottawa Convention taking place in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.
Falkland Islands students were reminded this week of the dangers of the 30 year old minefields, laid by the Argentines, surrounding the capital Stanley, when British forces’ experts visited the Infant and Junior School and the Community School.