Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Volume 11 Issue 2 The Journal of Mine Action Article 27 April 2008 Operating with UXO Containing White Phosphorus Ilham Azizov Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal Part of the Defense and Security Studies Commons, Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Azizov, Ilham (2008) "Operating with UXO Containing White Phosphorus," Journal of Mine Action : Vol. 11 : Iss. 2 , Article 27. Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol11/iss2/27 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction by an authorized editor of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Azizov: Operating with UXO Containing White Phosphorus JRC INT Jesuit Refugee Service 451 victim-assistance activities coordination. Once signed, this statement will become the base HOPE ‘87 AT Hundreds of Original Project for Employment 1193 point for further building of coordinated activ- Operating with UXO Containing Stop Mine BA 2386 ities for Bosnia and Herzegovina. LSN INT Landmine Survivors Network 1711 In order to assure that all the data gath- ered is processed in timely manner, BHMAC, White Phosphorus ICRC INT International committee of the Red Cross 4880 together with HOPE’87, an Austrian non- BHMAC BA 1474 governmental organisation, will open a data This article provides a brief account of the unexploded ordnance problem in Azerbaijan and describes the LIS UN/SAC For BA 131 entry office that will employ four landmine Total 12,226 victims as data-entry personnel. particular hazards of dealing with UXO containing white phosphorus. Drawing from the experience of the Table 1 Conclusion Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action’s work at Saloglu, guidelines for handling WP UXO are discussed. Effective landmine victim assistance is a Number of Appearance Number of Victims Remark difficult task under the best of conditions and 1 5224 depends greatly on the efficient flow of infor- by Ilham Azizov [ Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action ] 2 2178 mation. To achieve coordination through data exchange, BHMAC undertook the tre- 3 475 he efforts of the government of Azerbaijan and NATO to elimi- mendous task of compiling and organizing nate the country’s UXO problem resulted in an agreement 4 115 information on mine victims to better assess between the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency and the 5 23 their needs. Getting numerous agencies and AzerbaijanT National Agency for Mine Action. The agreement launched governments to cooperate and contribute 6 5 a joint project on clearing UXO and explosive hazards in the former was not easy, but the results of BHMAC’s military base at Saloglu in the Agstafa district of Azerbaijan in January 7 1 efforts will have positive effects on all parts 2006. The Saloglu Project was the first result of cooperation between 595 1 Unknown of the mine victim-assistance chain—from Azerbaijan and NATO within the Partnership for Peace program. The Total 8023 victim to donor to care providers, the new Table 2 information system works to assure effective coordination of assistance. See Endnotes, page 112 Of course, the information system will be fully integrated into the Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Information System and organised in a way to offer information to all interested par- ties. BHMAC will coordinate delivering and updating the data. The Solution The BHMAC information system was created to inform and start the information gathering and retrieval process needed by BiH rather than to pass judgment on previous systems. Taking all of the above into consideration, the guidelines for the system’s creation were to: • Cover all data gathered by all organizations is currently the Chief of • Avoid gathering medical treatment and other data that may be considered a privacy Zoran Grujić Information Technology at BHMAC. He violation by the victims first became involved with mine action • Provide a system with enough information to make it a valid target-group assessment tool in 1996 as Data Management Officer • Provide initial information on mine-incident locations to improve mine-action planning. of the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Destruction of WP UXO with explosives underneath. • Provide landmine victim-assistance projects a planning tool with full transparency and ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANAMA EOD TEAM He is the originator and head program traceability for landmine victim-assistance projects designer of the BHMAIS (Bosnia and • Create a basic LMV questionnaire form Herzegovina Mine Action Information • Create reporting forms in order to assure regular information flow from all stakehold- System). From 1998 to 2002 he held containing white phosphorous, were scattered over 4,400 hectares (17 ers into the system the position as the Assistant Director square miles), posing a serious humanitarian, socioeconomic and envi- of Information for BHMAC. He holds The Central Database Elaboration Project for the support and coordination of landmine victim- ronmental threat to the local population. Since the explosion, 152 UXO- a Master of Science in mechanical assistance activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina was created and had all of its data verified in 2006. engineering and is currently finishing related accidents have been reported, with 32 people killed. As a part of these activities, memoranda of cooperation were signed and data was acquired from his master’s thesis for postgraduate The project covers checking, clearance and removal of stock- various organizations. studies in strategic management at piled UXO located at the towns Agstafa and Poylu of Agstafa district. As shown in Table 1, the combined system includes 12,226 records; the oldest one lists an injury the European Centre for Peace and After the implementation of the project, it has become clear that the Development. He possesses in-depth from WWII dated 1941 and there are approximately 350 records without a date. Qualitatively, field experience in UXO removal and problem is more serious and more difficult to solve than was initially there are 133 fields describing a mine victim. Using all applied information systems, only 28 mine-action capacity building. thought by the international experts during their assessment missions entries were included more than 75 percent of the fields completed. During the process of data to Azerbaijan. Obtaining some experience from the on-site operations Dedicated PPE for WP operations. clarification, we determined the existence of a large number of records with the same name, but Zoran Grujić conducted in the frame of the project, the ANAMA UXO operations Chief of Information Technology with other information described in a way that does not confirm that the records refer to the same role of Turkey as a lead nation on the Saloglu Project should be particu- team implemented a few new techniques for handling fuze-free UXO Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action person. These records were considered as unique. Consequently, the database contains 8,023 of larly emphasized—its experts have largely contributed to the project’s and devices containing explosives of various types, including those with Center Tvorni�ka 3 71000 these unique records as shown in Table 2. Sarajevo / Bosnia and Herzegovina implementation through monitoring and technical supervision. WP. The following paragraphs present ANAMA’s experience garnered Tel: +387 33 253 858 The military ammunition warehouse located in Agstafa region, con- from operating with WP-containing devices. The Way Forward Cell: + 387 65 404 314 sisting of 138 bunkers, was the largest of the Soviet warehouses in the Fax: + 387 33 464 565 Operating With UXO Containing WP (White Phosphorous) Having the information system software in place, the next task is to create and ensure the infor- E-mail: [email protected] South Caucasus region. In 1991, when Azerbaijan regained its indepen- mation-flow channels. In order to achieve this objective, BHMAC will create a working group with Web site: http://www.bhmac.org dence, the Soviet Army destroyed the warehouse before departing. As There are few countries in the world affected by WP UXO stockpile all the relevant ministries represented with the aim to produce a joint statement related to landmine the result of the explosion, thousands of pieces of UXO, including those contamination similar to what Azerbajan encountered during operations; | notes from the field | journal of mine action | spring 2008 | 11.2 Published by JMU Scholarly Commons, 2008 11.2 | spring 2008 | journal of mine action | notes from the field | 1 Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 11, Iss. 2 [2008], Art. 27 therefore, the ANAMA team would like to share with the WP are recovered, they are immedi- some critical safety guidelines obtained from its ately placed into the tub to prevent burning. explosive ordnance disposal team’s experience. If the tub is too far from the operation point, Mine Action Support Group Update Up to the end of 2006 there were approxi- then ordinary metal buckets of water may be mately 15,000 pieces of Russian-produced utilized for collecting the fragments. A team of This article contains excerpts from the United Nations’ third quarterly newsletter in 2007, which highlights the WP UXO found during ANAMA operations. four or five people should be able to move the The demolition of these UXO items entails tubs to the demolition area safely. activities of the Mine Action Support Group from July to September 2007, including updates from the United filling the WP compound in vacuum condi- During the demolition preparation the served as Training and tions.