No: 0 E- Newsletter January 2010
Foreword Foreword Foreword MRE training courses for Children
Siraj Barzani * Ako Aziz Hamad* he fact that the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is the T most heavily mine-contaminated region of Iraq is n August and October watchful eye of Spirit of Soc- the shepherds in those ar- beyond question. I 2009, the directorate cer* coaches. eas. Thus, this kind of activ- An Impact survey funded by the US Department of of Mine Risk Educa- In a similar activity in De- ity is very crucial for those State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement and tion conducted two training cember 2009, another train- families and especially for implemented by Information Management and Mine Ac- courses in two mine af- ing course was conducted their children, most of whom tion Programs (iMMAP) from 2004-2006 brought clearly fected villages (Soraban and for 60 nomadic children are illiterate and deprived to light the massive scale of mine contamination in the Kanilinj) of Erbil governorate in Bna noor location near from having access to media Kurdistan Region as compared with the rest of Iraq. Find- for 120 students between 6 Sreshma village in Khali- channels as they do not have and 15 years of age. Each of ings of the survey were compelling: the number of Sus- fan Sub-District. The nomad any source of electricity. pected Hazardous Areas (SHA) found in Duhok governo- the courses lasted for four families usually live in the days and covered a variety rate of the Kurdistan Region alone was more than SHAs tents and at the beginning of * Director / Directorate of Mine found in all other governorates of Iraq combined outside of subjects such as: “recog- summer they move to moun- Risk Education / IKMAA the Kurdistan Region! And yet, in terms of mine contami- nizing mines and Explosive tainous areas for grazing nation, Duhok ranks third behind Sulaimanyah and Erbil remnants of war, recogniz- their animals. Unfortunately considered the first and the second most contaminated ing mined areas, and how to most of the grazing lands Spirit of Soccer governorates of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. behave safely in mine affect- were heavily mined dur- Spirit of Soccer is a grassroots The work accomplished to date in the Kurdistan Re- ed areas as well as lessons ing the 8 years of Iraq- Iran children’s charity and at present gion to save lives and limbs is invaluable both in terms of about hygiene and environ- war, therefore; those families operates two soccer coaching clearing minefields and conducting Mine Risk Education. ment protection. Picture sto- projects in Cambodia and Iraq. constantly face the danger of Spirit of Soccer uses soccer Clearance operations have been ongoing almost unin- ries about different subjects mines and ERW in general (football) as a medium to edu- terruptedly since 1993 and the Regions’ Prosthetic Limb were also delivered to the while they go about their dai- cate children in countries af- Centers continue offering high quality services indiscrim- participating children.. ly lives. Its worth mentioning fected by war of the dangers inately and free of charge to a great number of victims Children also practiced of landmines, ERW and unex- that in the past years many ploded ordnance (UXO). from all corners of Iraq. Football exercises under the accidents have happened to Yet, immense challenges lie ahead. Combined clear- ance efforts by government bodies, non-governmental or- ganizations and private sector companies during the last 17 years have only reduced overall contamination levels by less than 20 percent. And minefields in remote areas considered low priority only a few years ago have turned into medium and high priority due to infrastructure devel- opment projects reaching out to those areas. Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) is pleased to put this first issue of its monthly Electronic Newsletter at your disposal. This E-Newsletter, entitled “The Deminer Post” aims at initiating a more transparent, assertive and targeted public relations policy to highlight contamination and its consequences, communicate the latest achieve- ments in ridding the Region of mines and unexploded ord- nance and finally build up support for this primarily hu- manitarian but increasingly development related industry. Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency warmly welcomes your questions, suggestions and comments. Please in- form if you wish to add or remove a recipient from the distribution list. * Head of Agency IKMAA Female MRE Instructor delivering picture story lesson to children
[email protected] No: 0 E- Newsletter January 2010 2 Preliminary Technical Survey: An IKMAA Concept Siraj Barzani
ccording to IMAS 08.20, the no- A tion of Land Release comprises the three activities of Non-Tech- nical Survey, Technical Survey and Clearance. An Impact Survey is therefore by definition not intended directly for op- erations and planning staff in charge of actual Land Release. The Impact Survey is rather a social science research tool to evaluate the socio-economic impact of Suspect Hazardous Areas (SHA) on the lives and livelihood of communities. The introductory passage to the Iraq Landmine Survey (ILIS) implemented by iMMAP from 2004-2006 states that An IKMAA Survey Team gathering information about mInefields with the help of villagers this kind of survey is also supposed to: “dramatically improve the quality of process should produce non-evidence 3. Similarly to Non-Technical Survey, suspicion as possible into the national information available for decision mak- based figures of contamination at all? the PTS contamination data is recorded Database which is indeed a very legiti- ers at all levels”. It further states that the Is not there a way, from the outset, to as Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA). mate plea of the Mine Action Commu- Impact Survey “Defines the entire prob- account for Confirmed Hazardous Ar- B) PTS Particularity: nity. lem in terms of scale, type of location, eas (CHA) only, sparing the Mine Ac- 1. Team Structure: to maximize the C) PTS Methodology hazards, and socio-economic impacts tion Program the very costly and time use of all available human resources in The CHA polygon will be validated af- upon Communities” consuming effort of reevaluating mere the best interest of the survey accuracy ter shrinking the CHA size down to the We fully recognize the utility of this suspicion of contamination? and reliability, the PTS team structure is last possible safe limits as can be ob- type survey in terms of establishing In our specific case, there was even multi-disciplinary and is not composed tained from cross checking available in- baseline data which paves the ground for developing national and regional a more pressing question: is an SHA of staff with merely survey background. formation from the most knowledgeable plans and allows the donor community based type of survey appropriate in Staff with demining background are sources. And while the expert surveyor to rationalize their fund allocation as a Region where other more technical also part of the team and the Team will establish the CHA polygon with Ref- well as a great number of other advan- surveys had already been implemented Leader can be a senior Instructor, a erence Point (RP), Bench Mark (BM) and tages. However, an important question and where an active Mine Action Pro- senior planning or a senior operations Turning Points (TP) and will also fill in the may be legitimately posed: gram was already up and running with staff. survey forms and will record data on re- During the course of a Mine Action years of experience behind it? The so- 2. Training Course: the PTS training source allocation (e.g. what percentage of Program, it can always be expected cio-economic impact evaluation itself course covers survey, operations, plan- the total surface area of this CHA cannot that the Program may have to randomly will certainly be more accurate when ning and other relevant fields. All Sur- be accessed by mechanical assets be- deal with information originating from a based on refined and reliable contami- vey Team components receive a unique cause of being a very steep hill etc.), the variety of different sources pinpointing nation data. and general PTS survey training while demining professional will record other a given area as a Suspect Hazardous To avoid wasting valuable time and specific subjects will also be taught valuable information for instance on Area. However, In general terms and resources, to ensure that the most ac- separately to individual members in soil type and fragmentation level using in relation with the SHA based type of curate information is gathered from accordance to their professional back- a metal detector. The Preliminary Tech- surveys, the question is: Why an organ- the most knowledgeable and reliable ground and their respective role in the nical Survey is therefore a type of swift ized, academic and systematic survey sources by the most relevant Mine Ac- team. Technical Survey which gathers a multi- tion Program staff and to achieve the 3. PTS team members have differ- disciplinary team under one command best possible confidence level during ent but specific and defined responsi- and which is implemented without physi- the survey process, our local experi- bilities that are complementary to each cally entering the hazardous area. Our , ence here in the Kurdistan Region of other and serve the unique objective of experience has demonstrated that PTS Iraq has led us to elaborate a new form compiling accurate and relevant infor- fills in the vacuum between an Impact The Preliminary Tech- of survey entitled the Preliminary Tech- mation. Survey and the proper Technical Survey nical Survey is there- nical Survey (PTS). To better understand 4. Mine Action professionals who much better than the Non-Technical Sur- the PTS, a comparative study between are at the same time native inhabitants vey. The PTS, currently underway in Erbil fore a type of swift PTS and the Non-Technical Survey as of a given area are trained to conduct and Duhok governorates of the Kurdistan Technical Survey which defined by IMAS 08.21 will be useful: PTS in their own area. Extensive prior Region of Iraq has already successfully gathers a multi-disci- A) Similarities: knowledge of the surveyed area is in- removed suspicion from tens of millions plinary team under one 1. Similarly to Non-Technical Survey, deed an important criterion in the team of square meters of land categorized pre- PTS occurs previous to Technical Sur- selection mechanism. viously as SHA. In line with the principle command and which is vey and Clearance. While all Programs and specially the of “All Reasonable Effort” stressed very implemented without 2. Similarly to Non-Technical Survey, new ones may not be able to meet all much by IMAS as well, the PTS strives physically entering the no physical intrusive process is allowed above conditions, however, even a first to make the utmost use of all available and the surveyors do not enter into the time survey implemented anywhere resources to avoid deploying clearance hazardous area hazardous area during the process. can use PTS principles to let as little assets to uncontaminated land. [email protected] 3 No: 0 E- Newsletter January 2010 IKMAA introduces Dual Sensor Detection capability to Iraq’s Mine Action Program for the first time Jamal J. Hussein*
igh fragmentation level is one H of the common phenomena in most of Kurdistan minefields due to long term wars and conflicts in the area. Utilization of normal metal detectors for manual demining runs into great difficulty and different types of clutter slow down clearance pace considerably. As is known to Mine Action specialists, very often in such cases, the operations staff has to resort to the most basic clearance technique which is manual full exca- vation method. No detector is used in this method wasting resources and time in the process. The need to deploy dual sensor detectors was seriously felt by IK- MAA and the decision was made to join HSTAMIDS (Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System), to IKMAA demining toolbox. The system is ca- HSTAMIDS Dual sensor is being tested by an accredited deminer pable of locating both metallic and low-metallic buried landmines, as in terms of soil type, fragmentation on December 23, 2009. As per the local scale compared with traditional it utilizes combined technology of contamination and type of terrain system’s manual, operators used the output using the classical detectors, Metal Detection (MD) to detect the using both training target simulators system for 30 minutes followed by a Duhok results were also very prom- metallic part of the landmine and and real mines. , 15 minutes rest per each working shift. ising too. Based on the sound trial Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Two different methods were tested: Below tables show the trial results: results obtained on the ground and which provides a detection capability one operator one lane method (one As can be deduced from above high clutter rejection rates reached, to the body of landmines. Multiple de- man drill) or one operator supported table, despite the very high rate of the IKMAA Technical Board conclud- tection technologies will thus ensure by a deminer number two (two man fragmentation contamination, the ed that the usage of this system will a higher level of detection probability drill)The first trial was carried out in systems were particularly efficient of suspected subsurface mine char- increases the clearance production Gre Tiya Merziak minefield (IK-10629) in Erbil border minefields both in acteristics and help reduce the false rate within the framework of safety in Zaweta/Dahuk over the period of terms of square meters processed alarm rate (FAR). and quality regulations established December 15-16, 2009,, while the sec- and clutter rejection rate. Regarding Five HSTAMIDS mine detecting by IKMAA demining SOPs. systems with their accessories were ond trial was conducted in Bari Khize Duhok governorate, although the re- * Deputy Director / Diretorate General purchased by IKMAA and the ship- minefield (IK-10217) in Choman/Erbil sults were more modest, but on the of Technical Affairs / IKMAA ment was delivered in mid- October Date & Operating Sq. m Mine / No. of No. of Clutter Remark 2009. Two international trainers ar- Location Duration Processed Target Clutter False Rejection rived in the Region to train ten IKMAA in Min Found items Alarms Rate personnel on how to operate the sys- Rejected 15/12/2009 180 50 2 36 15 70.6% tems. The two week operator training Gre Tiya was followed by a one week train the Merziak MF trainer course during which three lo- 16/12/2009 125 28 6 23 10 69.7% Two Man cal instructors were also trained to Gre Tiya Drill Merziak MF Method become IKMAA instructors on the 16/12/2009 125 29 2 16 7 69.6% Applied systems. Gre Tiya Following the writing of the dual Merziak MF 23/12/2009 180 70 6 120 16 88.2% sensor SOP in Kurdish language, a Bari Khize Technical Board was formed by IK- 23/12/2009 180 71 4 236 10 95.9% MAA/DGTA to conduct two trials on Bari Khize the grounds similar to the minefields Total 790 248 20 431 58 88.1%
[email protected] No: 0 E- Newsletter January 2010 4 IKMAA supports Merty Energy company n support of Merty Energy, a Turkish Petroleum Exploration Com- I pany, four IKMAA survey teams visually checked 372,925 Sqm in Batifa and Bamarny Sub-districts, two UXO’s were found and de- stroyed during the process. The task started on October 29th and ended on December 10th 2009. • Director / Directorate of Implementation - Duhok / IKMAA
Mr. Niazi Argoshi, the DG of technical affairs handing over official documents to the landowner. Handover Ceremony
Owenan Yousif* n the 11th of November 2009, in the presence of Head of Iraqi O Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA), representatives from the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Director of IKMAA Duhok Office and other Local Authorities nine minefields located near Siyaratika, Bade, Spindare, Sargale and Amedi villages of Duhok Governorate totaling an area of 220,462 sqm were handed over to their owners. The Handover ceremony was organized by IKMAA near Siyaratika collective village. Five minefields were cleared by IKMAA and the re- maining four by MAG. A total of 345 Anti-Personnel (AP) mines and 32 Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) were destroyed.
Mines and Unexploded Ordnance removed IKMAA Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team from the historical Hamilton Road visits Archeological Site
Rafat Babakir*
Iran via the Haj Omran Border fter receiving a formal Gate and is used by a growing A request from both the number of business people as Mayor of Rawanduz the trade exchange level between and the Soran Archeologi- the two countries is on the rise. cal Directorate on the 15th On 31December 2009, villagers of December, 2009 to re- and businessmen informed IK- move Unexploded Ordnance MAA’s Erbil Implementation di- spreading in a wide area rectorate that a number of Mines around Ich Qala Fort, the EOD and UXO had been spotted on team was immediately dis- the Hamilton road. These Mines patched to this historical site. and UXO had migrated down on Ich Qala is an ancient histori- the road side from the minefield located on steep hills above the cal Fort built by the famous road due to heavy downpours Kurdish Prince, Mir Mohamad of rain. The road was temporar- Bag who became Prince in ily closed while the IKMAA EOD 1813 with the city of Rawan- team deployed to the location re- duz as his capital. The site is amilton road is an interna- moved the threat. The items were visited by many tourists and H tional transit road between their task and removed the later demolished. the threat to visitors was very Islamic Republic of Iran and UXO with complementary high. Iraq which connects the city of visual checks to ensure safe- • Director / Directorate of Implemen- The EOD team accomplished Erbil, the Regional Capital, to I.R. tation - Erbil / IKMAA ty of all visitors.