Two million mines still pose threat under Kurdistan Region's land

Kurdistan Region is one of the regions most affected with landmines and a large remnant of explosives remains in its land due to many bloody wars which constitute a big threat to the people's lives.

Following the 1991 uprising, the Kurdish people along with many foreign organizations in the Kurdistan Region have dismantled and extracted millions of mines. 

In 2004, the Mine Action Agency was established in the Kurdistan Region, which is an institution of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and has made a lot of efforts to clear the land of Kurdistan from mines, but the danger still remains in the region.

Regarding the matter, Jabar Mustafa Rasul, the head of the Mine Action Agency in the Kurdistan Region, said in an interview with the Kurdish Kurdistani Nwe newspaper that the history of planting mines and the remains of war in the Kurdistan Region goes back to the 60s of the last decade during the struggle of the Kurdish liberation movement,  the Iraq- Iran was in the 80s, and the recent ISIS war. 

According to Rasul, most of the mines planted in Iraq date back to the era of the former Ba'ath regime where 90% of the mines are anti-personnel while the other 10% are anti-tank mines.

According to the data of the Mine Action Agency, 776 square kilometers of the Kurdistan Region's land were planted with mines as well as the remains of the war in the past, but following the uprising, the KRG, international organizations, and mine companies were able to clear 516 square kilometers so far and 260 kilometers remain planted with mines and explosives.

The agency's data indicate that 20 million mines were planted all over Iraq, 7 million of which were planted in the Kurdistan region, where 65% (about 5 million) of them were extracted or destroyed meaning and 2 million remain in the Kurdistan Region's land.

Regarding maps of lands planted with mines, the head of the Mine Action Agency said: "After the fall of the Ba'ath regime, there was no mine map, but even if we do have them, it will only include Iraqi lands (not the Kurdistan Region), and how can we get the Iranian mine map? We asked the Iraqi government for it, but they don't have it either."

According to available information, from 1991 to now, 13,500 people of Kurdistan region died or were injured from mine explosion. Separately, 38 employees of the KRG's Mine Action Agency and International Organizations died from mine explosion while 78 others became amputees.

Regarding international mine organizations, the head of the Mine Action Agency said that because of the political and financial situation of the world, granting permission to international organizations has reduced and they are currently working directly with the Iraqi government, but some of them are working with us and Iraq as well such as FSD, UN MAS and I MAP organizations that previously worked directly with us.

Rasul also pointed out that there are some obstacles facing their agency which are the outbreak of coronavirus and also these financial crises that KRG faced. 

The Mine Action Agency has many types of teams for their work which are 38 mine extracting teams with mechanical teams and some EOD teams that explode the mines along with the QA team who gives assurance to the landowners after clearing the mines. 

The mines are brought out from the soil in two ways. One is extracting the mine by hands or mechanically with large vehicles that have sieving machines attached to them which separate the dust from the mine. 

According to Rasul, there are more than 3,000 minefields in the Kurdistan Region, 60% of which are in the Slemani Governorate as it was the most affected by the Iran-Iraq war in the past.

Rasul also said that the collected mines will be destroyed by special teams in pits and that the Peshmerga forces can't reuse those mines for war according to the Ottawa international agreement. Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are both members of the agreement and according to which we are not allowed to use nor ship anti-personnel mines. 

The agreement gave Iraq and the Kurdistan Region 10 years (from 2007 to 2018) to clear their lands from min, but because of the political situation, military, and financial crisis, both governments could not implement this agreement, so they demanded an extension of the time period for another 10 years. By 2028 the land of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region should be cleared of mines.



Reported by Rawast Nawzad
PUKmedia