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.