Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Volume 6 Issue 2 The Journal of Mine Action Article 9

August 2002

Community Liaison in Mine Action: Partnerships for Growth

Tim Carstairs MAG (Mines Advisory Group)

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Recommended Citation Carstairs, Tim (2002) "Community Liaison in Mine Action: Partnerships for Growth," Journal of Mine Action : Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 9. Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol6/iss2/9

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Published by JMU Scholarly Commons, 2002 1 Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2002], Art. 9

real element in the ability and capacity interventions, MAG cleared the road of communities to help lessen the risk. The Water Supply in Luena The Community Liaison Process to appropriately prioritise, organise and mines that had cur off the village since reams provide appropriate safety and Water and access are as much immediate and ur­ A MA~ office or a MAG team is usually contacted by a village coordinate the various elements of mine 1993. LWF started rebuilding basic in­ avoidance messages and discussion. At the gent concerns for a beleaguered community and an leader and tnformed of problems relating to mines or UXO or asked to action for development. Partnerships en­ frastructure, IDPs began arriving, and a same rime, they garber information about clear a particular area. It is true to say that MAG's flexible, mobile IDP population as they are development needs in the able us to bring to bear the most relevant new community is building itself once mines and ordnance to pass on swiftly to teams (MATs) facilitate and longer term. In 1993, mines were laid to protect the expertise-which may not always be a more. CL plays a key role in creating the rhe Mine Action Team's (MAT's) rapid strengthen this process as they water treatment and pumping station against attack mine action solution. MAG's CL teams means on the ground to build commu­ response reams to clear the danger. MAG are accessible to the local people by rebels of the will regularly provide information about nity and economy. is currently seeking funds to create more and are already skilled inCL. The Capitalist Na­ request will be recorded, and a other needs to appropriate partners. If we Rebuilding is not enough in itself: such reams to "accompany" rhe peace and tional Union for community liaison team will visit can nor fix it, someone else will be able to. as the IDPs find their feet and expand renewed confidence that is breaking our in the Independence the village and assess local In Angola, MAG works with a vari­ their activities from their new base, rhey the province. of Angola (UN ITA). needs, discuss village mapping, ery of other partners in such fields as: begin to find landmines and UXO. Despite rhe conflict situation, MAG However, the collect village history, identify the • Water and Food Distribution MAG's CL reams work within the IDP reams have continued to work in Moxico mines did not beneficiaries of clearance tasks o Action Against Hunger and ro conduct mine awareness and data and prioritise the minefields to stop the station Community Liaison: o World Food Programme (WFP) gathering work even when clearance was be cleared. from being dam­ An Academic View • Refugee/TDP matters Development writers also argue no longer possible in the lare 1990s. This MAG will also coordinate Village mapping being conducted by MAG's CL aged in fighting, with local authorities and NGOs - o Ministry for Reconstruction for approaches like CL. "[A]s develop­ work was supported by Save US and by team in Lumege, Moxico province. Stones The water station, Luena, Angola. and since then, and Social Affairs mentis an essentially human ising pro­ MI. Over the years, donors have been en­ to make sure that the agreed represent mines and mangos represent UXO. fresh water has been in short supply. Deprived of run­ prioritisation meets with na­ o United Nations High Com­ cess, participatory development must couraged to set aside their reluC[ance to ning water, most townspeople would come to wash tional or provincial clearance and development pions. The CL teams mission fo r RefUgees (UNHCR) be consciously based on people, their fund mine action work in co nflict areas clothes, bathe and collect water using a well-worn path needs, their analysis of issues and their will if necessary negotiate land ownership and the use to which the o Lutheran World Federation and tO support humanitarian operations beside the pumping station. There is a market garden decisions," writes Peter Oakley. There land will be put post-clearance. In some countries where MAG works (LWF) on behalf of populations beleaguered by land ownership is handed down through families and knowledge of area just near the river. Three people have been in­ is a strong body of opinion that argues i~ • Medical Care and Prosthetics; Social the war. We wish to rhank the donors that is carried with tribal and village chiefs. In other areas, ownership is jured in the area. that participation, the basis for CL, Reinsertion have "kept the faith" and continue to sup­ recorded and registered with local authorities. The local community asked MAG to help with this brings the following benefits: o CAPDC port MAG's mine action work in Angola If required, the CL team will conduct mine risk reduction educa­ situation. The area was cleared. In all, 17 mines were re­ • Enables development practitio­ 0 Vietnam Veterans of America ners, government officials and local (Moxico and Cunene provinces): the gov­ tion in the community prior to completion of the mine clearance. Once moved and destroyed from along the perimeter of the Foundation (VVAF) people to work together to plan con­ ernment of Germany (Foreign Affairs), clearance has been undertaken, the CL teams will continue to liase pumping station, including several just inches from the with authorities locally to ensure that agreed development of the land o Trauma Care Foundation text-appropriate programmes (World LWF, Misereor, Brot fur die Welt, path. Clearance has enabled repairs to the pumping sta­ goes ahead smoothly, and that the identified beneficiaries are indeed 0 Medico International (MI) Bank Sourcebook). UNOCHA, Anri-Landmijn Stichting tion to be carried out, and in April 2002, the water benefiting. As in many other areas of the globe, • Ensures greater efficiency of taps of luena ran with fresh water again for the first resources. STOP PRESS: relative peace and stability bring with it time in eight years. Just 17 AP mines had impacted on • Improves cost effectiveness. Community Liaison Assists added dangers. Luena, the capital city of and the U.S. Stare Department. We be­ Contact Information some 300,000 people. • Makes projects more effective Demobillsation lieve that this continued funding has saved Moxico province has been home to over as instruments of rural development. In the Cunene province of south­ many lives and contributed to growing Rob White where possible within national and pro­ 300,000 people. Many of these people • Helps to break the mentality of ern Angola, MAG was recently re­ confidence in Angola. • Head of Operations, MAG vincial development parameters. fn an were displaced in 1998 when conflict dependence that characterises so quested by the provincial authori­ flared again after the elections of that year. Tel: +44 (0)161 236 4311 emergency and emerging situation­ much of development work. ties to help with the establishment • Promotes self-awareness and About MAG E-mail: [email protected] Luena in eastern Angola is a good ex­ Almost under siege for several years, of resettlement camps for former confidence. Website: www.magclearsmines.org ample-CL skills as developed by MAG movements were restricted and the UNITA soldiers and their families in • Has a much wider coverage MAG has 12 years experience implcmeming can be a good way to fulfill this function population became reliant on WFP food than government- participation Lande. The actual quartering area mine action around rhe world. The agency currently at reasonable cost. CL enables us ro carry deliveries. Mines ringed the town. Mine increases peoples' control over the is­ is reported free of mines, but the conducts a varicryofinregrarcd mechanical, manual action became impossible between 1998 out emergency mine and UXO clearance sues which affect their lives; they learn roads and towns in the area are and dog clearance program mes, as well as CL, train­ ing and development and at the same rime build up a commu­ and 2000; in fact, mine clearance was not how to plan and implement develop­ heavily mined. Working with the UN nity-based picture of the wider develop­ permitted during that time. Security has programmes in a num­ ment projects. Office for the Coordination of Hu­ ber of areas including improved since 2000, and people are menr needs within society. • Ensures sustainability as people manitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Angola, Cambodia, again able to think longer-term. maintain a project's dynamism (Paulo MAG's CL team has been gathering Laos, Lebanon, north­ Freire). ern Iraq, Somaliland, Partnership: Mine Action Today, the M inistry for Social Assis­ data a nd has conducted initial vis­ tance and Reimegrarion (MINARS)­ • Stresses the importance of southern Sud an, Sri for Development in its, locating eight minefields to Lanka and Vietnam. rhe government authority charged with so­ community participation during data­ Angola gathering, shared analysis, and trans­ date. cial and refugee matters-is gradually re­ parent negotiation of priorities to the The soldiers' families are ex­ 'All photos courtesy of locating internally displaced persons Sean Sutto11/MAG. No single agency or person has all development of national Poverty Re­ pected to join them, and as many the answers. No single agency or NGO (IDPs) in different and previously unused duction Strategy Papers (World Bank/ as 300,000 people may be involved. areas to relieve pressure on space and re­ can provide all services or help with the IMF). ~s of m id-May 2002, 697 soldiers sources. M INARS consults with MAG post-conflict rehabilitation of every aspect Applied to mine action, MAG be­ In the camps were accompanied by • Cultivating land in of community development; that is why before planning new refugee and IDP lieves that these approaches make 633 marr ied women, 373 male chil­ sense. After five years of practice, we Luena that was partnership is so important. Our experi­ camps. The Muachimbo camp is just one dren (10- 16), 441 male children (un­ can say that they do indeed work. previously a ence points to partnership as being a very such example. In 2001, in response to CL der 9), 41 female children (10- 16), minefield. 5~ 0 female children (under 9), 56 Wtdows, 47 male orphans and 54 • 30 • • 31 • https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol6/iss2/9 female orphans. 2 Carstairs: Community Liaison in Mine Action: Partnerships for Growth

July 5, 2002: MAG Opens Main Road f r om Luena, Moxico Province, Angola Locating Land mines and UXO: Allowing Aid to be Distributed to Thousands of Star ving Families The Lucusse Road between and Re integration (M INARS) the immediate future. MAG has A Methodological Lesson from the Luena and Lucusse in Moxico and the Un ited Nations oil made it clear that all drivers province in eastern Angola has agreed that the major demining intending to use the route must Ethiopian Landmine Impact Survey been the scene of heavy fighting priority in the province was this first attend a mine safety road. briefing conducted by MAG. for decades. There was fighting One of the most important parts about implementing effective Landmine Although it can be safe to use many years ago between Cuban Due to the grave Impact Surveys is first identifying which communities have a landmine/ UXO the road, there is a very good and South African forces and humanitarian situation, MAG problem. The author describes how Expert Opinion Collection (EOC) is used over much of the last decade undertook an emergency survey chance that any deviation from in Ethiopia to overcome the obstacles survey teams face when gathering between the government and of the road immediately tracks of the previous vehicle their information. forces of the National Union for following the request from may lead to a fatal mine the Total Independence of UTCAH to see how much the accident. It is hoped thot by Michael L. Fleisher, Ph.D., • Hand-g renade victims in Kobo woreda. Angola (UNITA). The road is situation had changed since funding can be raised to enable Deputy Team Leader/ littered with the wrecks of 1997/ 98. Previously, during this complete clearance of the Operations Manager, trucks and armored vehicles brief period of peace, MAG had verges and other suspect areas Ethiopian Landmine Impact destroyed in anti-tank mine surveyed and cleared 92 along the route. Survey blasts and ambushes. It is said kilometers of the 148-kilometer On July 6th, MAG escorted that over 6,000 soldiers died route. After re-survey on J uly 3, Medecins sans Frontieres­ Introduction here trying to get convoys of 2002, it was clear that there Doctors Without Borders (MSF) supplies in and out of Luena. had been no new vehicle wrecks to Lucusse so that medical In every country where a Landmine Impact Survey is being implemented, those The road itself serves thousands since that time; however, using assistance would be made the route still requires extreme available to the UN ITA charged with conducting it are faced with of people living in its vicinity. rhe challenge of compili ng a reliable list care. The survey teom was able quartering areas. MAG has also Opening it up can dramatically of the communities that need surveying­ facilitated the access of Dom change the socio-economic to travel to Lucusse where they because before a community can be sur­ Bosco, a respected Angolan situation in the province. met with the Police veyed to assess the landmine/UXO impact, On July 3,2002, Mines Commandant and UNITA non-governmental organization it musr frrst be accurately identified as a com­ Advisory Group (MAG) staff met officials who explained they (NGO) to the quartering area. munity having a landmine/UXO problem. with the Angolan Technical Unit were desperate for food and Dom Bosco has already begun Owing to irs vast size and irs ongo­ for Coordination of other emergency a id. registration and identification ing, highly variegated conflict history, Humanitarian Assistance MAG teams returned July of needs. It is hoped that WFP Ethiopia presents Landmine Impact the long rainy season, all but impossible. communities from the non-affected com­ surveyors with particularly daunting munities as quickly and as efficiently as (UTCAH). Lucusse will be used 4th to clear and destroy severa l deliveries will be authorized Even in salubrious weather, many Eth io­ items of UXO seen on the road. within the next week. These are difficulties. The Italian invasion of the pian communities are accessible only by possible. To accomplish chis, they must as a quartering area for 4,000 1930s; Eritrea's protracted, and ultimately first devise a straregy rhar will enable rhem UNITA soldiers being disarmed Areas where vehicles will have all vital elements in the peace foot or by mule. The task of determining successful, war for independence; rh e where the landmines/UXO are, so as to to derermine where rhe most thorough, and demobilised under the new to travel off the edge of the and confidence-building, 1990s Ogaden war with Somalia; the be able to fo rmulate a complete, reliable most reliable information regarding rhe road to get around mine craters demobilization and peace agreement. While the Ethiopian People's Revolu tionary D emo­ list oflandmine/UX:O-affecred communi­ locatio ns of la ndm ines/UXO may be normalization process. MAG is Lucusse Road has been closed, or vehicle wrecks will also be cratic From's (£PROF's) successful revo­ ties fo r impact surveying, is nor an easy one. obtained and how to acquire this imelligencc thousands of families have not checked for mines. MAG has proud that mine action can play lution ro topple the Marxist Dergue re­ T he technique developed for sur­ as swiftly, sysremarically and cosr-effecrively received aid of any sort. It is a lready identified several its role and is grateful to a ll gime; the recently concluded trench war mounting this problem, EOC, entails as possible. reported that 38 percent of the suspect mined areas on the those parties in Angola and to with Eritrea; and the still-simmering in­ gathering information from all available This articl e aims to facilitate this children in the area are severely roadsides that will be marked. its donors for enabling such ternal conAicrs with the Oromo Lbera­ sources-civil ian governmem adminis­ information-gathering process for all rion From (OLF) and the Ogaden National countries undergoing Landmine Impact malnourished. The World Food Passing areas a re being progressive and positive trators, military authorities, UN agencies, Liberation Front (ONLF)-any and all of Surveys by sharing some lessons learned Program (WFP), the Angolan targeted for special clearance outcomes. IGOs and NGOs, in-country scholars these muse be regarded as potential comribu­ and so on-and using chis info rmation by the Ethiopian Landmine Impact Survey Ministry of Social Assistance efforts to minimize the risk in For additional information, visit rors co Ethiopia's landmine/UXO legacy. to compile a gazetteer of the affected (ELlS), which is currently being carried our www.magclearsmines.org To make matters still more compli­ communities to be surveyed. However, be­ by Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), under cated, the country's arduous terrain and cause rime and resources are inevitably the auspices of the Survey Action Center poor-to-nonexistent roads make travel in limited, survey teams are pressed to de­ (SAC), in Washington, D.C., and in close the rural areas problematic in the best of vise methodologies that will enable them partnership with the Eth iopian Mine Ac­ rimes and, in innumerable areas during to separate the landmine/UX:O-affected tion Office (EMAO) in Addis Ababa.

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