Kosovo : The threat of mines, which gets confirmed with the growing population movements, should be take more seriously

" On certain roads, the columns of Serb and Albanian refugees are mixed together - sometimes going in opposite directions, sometimes going in the same direction. It's a surreal situation ", said Ben LARK, Field Project Coordinator of the Handicap International Mines Department, on his return today from Kosovo. This massive and virtually uncontrolled movement of populations in their thousands not only risks the creation of a logistical chaos for the deployment of NATO troops, the intensification of tensions between communities, and the slow down of humanitarian aid, but also may expose all of them to a greater risk of mine accidents.

An advance team from Handicap International arrived in Pristina, KOSOVO on Tuesday. Where Mr. LARK, in cooperation with representatives of the UN Mine Action Service and several other international NGO mine action organizations, began immediately making the first on-the-ground assessments of the mine and UXO threat that will be faced by returning Kosovars over the next months, if not years.

Although it will take some time to get a full picture of the situation, a sharp rise in mine and UXO related accidents is expected - and would correspond to past experience elsewhere - despite earlier perceptions that the landmine threat not be a crucial security factor. As people begin to move around again in the territory in the wake of the Serb forces withdrawal and the cessation of the war, accidents from landmines are already on the rise with the Handicap International team reporting up to seven persons already receiving care for mine related wounds in the Pristina hospital. Now deserted by its mostly Serb staff, the hospital needs urgent assistance and is currently supported by the French agency MSF. Two members of the Italian Kfor contingent were reported injured by landmines yesterday, near Pec.

Landmines, which by some early estimates were expected to play a lesser rôle than air-dropped and land service ammunition in terms of danger to the population, are now suspected to have been laid in significant numbers by Serb forces either during their occupation or just before their withdrawal. The degree to which KLA (UCK) forces may have used landmines must also urgently be established.

While some of landmines may have been laid according to military standard to provide protection for key installations or troop concentrations, the most recently reported accidents seem to indicate that mines have also been expressly laid so as to impact on the returning civilian refugee and the internally displaced population which came out of hiding. There are a number of unconfirmed reports of mines in and around civilian housing, mines laid on the verges of roads where people are most likely to walk, and booby traps in abandoned houses and buildings. These will be checked out as much as possible within the coming days, with such information being of vital importance for the safety of local populations and for the security of humanitarian assistance workers.

Although most Kfor contingents moving into Kosovo are expected to have an integral mine clearance capability, the rôle of the deminers in the various national contingencies will mostly likely be restricted to securing the routes, roads and sites necessary for their deployment. As in similar operations in the past, notably in Bosnia, the bulk of the necessary demining and EOD work beyond military deployment needs will fall to the humanitarian mine action organizations which are already beginning to develop plans in cooperation with the UN Mine Action Service.

Meanwhile, with a first look to define the problem as fully as possible, mine action organizations are already gathering the means and materials to begin the job of cleaning up and clearing away the threat on an emergency basis. Several mine action NGO's : Handicap International (France and Belgium), Norwegian People's Aid, and Mines Advisory Group (UK) have already issued a statement underscoring the need for close collaboration and cooperation, as well as funding, in developing a mine action response in Kosovo. However, the statement also expresses these agencies' concerns that the funding of the necessary efforts in Kosovo should not have the effect of penalizing already established mine action operations elsewhere.

In Kosovo, both NGO's and UN agencies are working together and hoping to apply the lessons learned in similar situations elsewhere in order for preventative actions - survey, marking, clearance and mine risk education - to achieve an immediate impact. According to Bill HOWELL, Director of the Handicap International Mines Department, " Under the circumstances, the Kosovo situation presents a chance for a model mine action operation where the right actors with adequate means can be assembled to do the job at the right time. We really do not have the right to let this opportunity pass." Handicap International expects to have a first ordnance disposal team operational by the first week of July, with a larger response to follow as soon as overall mine action planning allows. Premises for the housing of a demining office, which will have room for both HI and NPA contingents in the immediate term, have already been identified and rented in Pristina. A British charity, the HALO Trust will soon begin to undertake a province-wide village level survey. UNICEF, responsible within the UN for mine awareness and risk education is also already in place and will begin making education materials available.

Better coordination and more quickly available means may both contribute to the positive impact of preventative mine action over the next few months. One advantage in Kosovo is that a number of mine action agencies are able, at least temporarily, to call on their already established mine action programmes in Bosnia. For example Handicap International, the Norwegian agency NPA, and the German agency HELP are drawing equipment and personnel from Bosnia in order to be operational in Kosovo in a relatively short period of time. The build up to concrete mine action that has taken months to accomplish in other countries may thus be a matter of weeks in Kosovo, at the same time that these agencies begin the rather longer job of training and equipping the locally recruited Kosovar personnel who will eventually take over the job for the long term.

The swift development of positive and effective mine action in Kosovo is an urgent necessity if the inevitable toll of civilian deaths and accidents are to be minimized in the weeks to come. The counter pressures however are impressive. On the technical side, mine action agencies are likely to be faced with some rather sophisticated anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines and other armaments. These weapons come from both the Serb and NATO forces, each of which have had access to the latest technology in the waging of this war. On the human side, in addition to the desire to quit the less than salubrious environs of the Albanian and Macedonian refugee camps, Kosovar refugees will be anxious to return to their villages to reclaim their land and their homes, assess damages and begin repairs, and possibly attempt the planting of some late crops for harvest before winter comes to this largely agricultural province.

The Handicap International team also made an assessment of those elements that remained of its former programme of assistance to the disabled in Kosovo. The agency has been working in the province since 1994. In Pristina, its former premises were generally in good condition and that most of its stock of equipment and materials to support its assistance to disabled persons were still in place. In Prizren, the office was also relatively untouched, but the building which housed the former office and workshop in Jacovice was found razed to the ground. In addition, a number of former employees of HI in Kosovo have also been found and immediately re-employed. " Against all hope ", said Olivier François, Director Handicap International's Kosovo assistance programme, " we were able to recover our records of over 6 000 disabled individuals who have been assisted in Kosovo over the past several years. This is an enormous asset which will aid us in organizing for the return of these persons and, eventually, for establishing some idea of how many may have disappeared. "Contact presse : Agence Kaléïdoskop - Laure Cartillier et Maud Saheb - Tél. : 01 43 14 87 02 ou 06 60 46 58 00