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KARABAKH NEARLY CLEARED OF LANDMINES; HALO TO WIDEN DEMINING OPERATIONS
Asbarez
Monday, June 7th, 2010
HALO Trust conducts mine clearance activities only 800 meters from
a school in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo by: Boris Heger/ICRC, 3 March 2005.
STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL)-A British humanitarian organization said on
Monday that it has cleared the bulk of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's
war-affected territory of landmines and unexploded ordnance and will
soon start demining the remaining territories liberated from Azeri
rule in the early 1990s.
Representatives of the HALO Trust made the announcement as they
marked the 10th anniversary of its permanent presence in Karabakh at
an official ceremony attended by the Karabakh Republic's leadership.
Karabakh President Bako Sahakian praised the group's decade-long
demining efforts in his republic that have been financed by the U.S.
government and non-governmental Western charities. "We regard saved
lives as the biggest result and value of the work done by them,"
he said in a speech at the ceremony held in Khachen, a village in
Karabakh's eastern Askeran district.
The HALO Trust says that ever since 2000 it has destroyed over 50,000
landmines, cluster munitions and other items of unexploded ordnance
in 125 square kilometers of land. According to its regional director,
Andrew Moore, that means more than 80 percent of Karabakh territory
mined by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces during the 1991-1994 is now
considered safe.
Aknaghbyur, a village in southern Karabakh has been one of the biggest
beneficiaries of HALO's demining efforts. "Six hundred hectares of
our agricultural land have been cleared," Artur Babayan, the village
mayor also attending the ceremony, told RFE/RL's Armenian service. "We
had suffered many casualties until then. Thank God, our people are
now able to safely cultivate the land."
Karabakh has continued to regularly report civilian casualties even
after 2000. According to government data, 74 local residents have
been killed and 254 others wounded in landmine explosions over the
past decade.
Landmines and unexploded ordnance unearthed by HALO Trust workers.
"The most typical result of a mine explosion is limb amputation," said
Vartan Tadevosian, director of the Stepanakert-based Rehabilitation
Center for landmine victims. The center's main objective is to
make the maimed victims "as independent as possible in their life,"
Tadevosian told RFE/RL.
Moore revealed that HALO, which operates in nine countries and has
nearly 8,000 mine-clearers, now plans to expand its operations into
some of the remaining districts of Karabakh that were fully or partly
liberated from Azerbaijan by Karabakh Armenian forces during the war.
He said that work will be financed by a fresh grant from the Julia
Burke Foundation, a California-based charity that has already supported
HALO's activities in Karabakh since 2007.
"We are extremely grateful for the support of the Julia Burke
Foundation and their funding our clearance in the green areas,"
Moore told RFE/RL.
"I hope very much that Azerbaijan will not try to influence
other potential donors willing to support demining efforts in
Nagorno-Karabakh," said Caroline Cox, a vice-speaker of the British
House of Lords who has frequently visited Karabakh since the early
1990s. She argued that those efforts have a "humanitarian, rather
than political" character.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly condemned HALO for engaging in landmine
clearance in Karabakh without its permission. Its reaction to the
charity's continued operations there will likely remain the same.
From: A. Papazian
Asbarez
Monday, June 7th, 2010
HALO Trust conducts mine clearance activities only 800 meters from
a school in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo by: Boris Heger/ICRC, 3 March 2005.
STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL)-A British humanitarian organization said on
Monday that it has cleared the bulk of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's
war-affected territory of landmines and unexploded ordnance and will
soon start demining the remaining territories liberated from Azeri
rule in the early 1990s.
Representatives of the HALO Trust made the announcement as they
marked the 10th anniversary of its permanent presence in Karabakh at
an official ceremony attended by the Karabakh Republic's leadership.
Karabakh President Bako Sahakian praised the group's decade-long
demining efforts in his republic that have been financed by the U.S.
government and non-governmental Western charities. "We regard saved
lives as the biggest result and value of the work done by them,"
he said in a speech at the ceremony held in Khachen, a village in
Karabakh's eastern Askeran district.
The HALO Trust says that ever since 2000 it has destroyed over 50,000
landmines, cluster munitions and other items of unexploded ordnance
in 125 square kilometers of land. According to its regional director,
Andrew Moore, that means more than 80 percent of Karabakh territory
mined by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces during the 1991-1994 is now
considered safe.
Aknaghbyur, a village in southern Karabakh has been one of the biggest
beneficiaries of HALO's demining efforts. "Six hundred hectares of
our agricultural land have been cleared," Artur Babayan, the village
mayor also attending the ceremony, told RFE/RL's Armenian service. "We
had suffered many casualties until then. Thank God, our people are
now able to safely cultivate the land."
Karabakh has continued to regularly report civilian casualties even
after 2000. According to government data, 74 local residents have
been killed and 254 others wounded in landmine explosions over the
past decade.
Landmines and unexploded ordnance unearthed by HALO Trust workers.
"The most typical result of a mine explosion is limb amputation," said
Vartan Tadevosian, director of the Stepanakert-based Rehabilitation
Center for landmine victims. The center's main objective is to
make the maimed victims "as independent as possible in their life,"
Tadevosian told RFE/RL.
Moore revealed that HALO, which operates in nine countries and has
nearly 8,000 mine-clearers, now plans to expand its operations into
some of the remaining districts of Karabakh that were fully or partly
liberated from Azerbaijan by Karabakh Armenian forces during the war.
He said that work will be financed by a fresh grant from the Julia
Burke Foundation, a California-based charity that has already supported
HALO's activities in Karabakh since 2007.
"We are extremely grateful for the support of the Julia Burke
Foundation and their funding our clearance in the green areas,"
Moore told RFE/RL.
"I hope very much that Azerbaijan will not try to influence
other potential donors willing to support demining efforts in
Nagorno-Karabakh," said Caroline Cox, a vice-speaker of the British
House of Lords who has frequently visited Karabakh since the early
1990s. She argued that those efforts have a "humanitarian, rather
than political" character.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly condemned HALO for engaging in landmine
clearance in Karabakh without its permission. Its reaction to the
charity's continued operations there will likely remain the same.
From: A. Papazian