Letter from NPA to Loch Harris regarding ELF
ON NPA LETTERHEAD
Loch Harris, Inc.
14205 Burnet Road, Suite 640
Austin, TX 78728
Fax: 1 (512) 341-7721
(via post and fax)
re Eliminate Landmines Forever
Date: 22.03.00
Dear Sirs/Madams
I write you on behalf of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), an NGO that since 1992 have been operating major humanitarian Mine Clearance Projects in Africa, Asia and Europe. NPA is also actively engaged in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in the effort to eradicate the threat from landmines. I write in reference to your initiative, ELF (Eliminate Landmines Forever). In a press statement released on 14 February, you claimed that Loch Harris had successfully tested a new landmine detector that detected 100% of the mines in a test field in Croatia. This was hailed, by your own press statement, as a "revolutionary breakthrough in the struggle against landmines".
Subsequently, a number of individuals, journalists and institutions contacted NPA, other mine action agencies as well as the ICBL. These communications all suggested that the ICBL and its member organisations endorse the Loch Harris’s ELF clearance device.
NPA welcomes all new developments that can help to solve the global landmine problem. However, following consultations with our own, as well as external technical, experts, I must convey our deepest scepticism that this product will "solve" the global landmine crisis, for the following reasons:
The global landmine crisis cannot be solved by new detection technology alone. A decade of experience in humanitarian landmine clearance has taught us that the only way to tackle the crisis is by creating sustainable clearance capacity and competence in the mine affected areas. To achieve this, efficient detection technology is a necessary, but not sufficient factor alone. All serious actors within the global mine action community recognise this, and we find it directly irresponsible that Loch Harris create expectations among the general public, eager to solve the problem landmines pose against peoples and communities, that cannot be met by your detection device in itself.
It is generally acknowledged by the mine action community that we need better systems to detect mines. However, all actors involved in field work, also know that area reduction, verifying whether an area is contaminated by landmines or not, is even more vital. This is due to the fact that 90% of suspected mined areas often turn out to be free of mines after clearance. Hence we need area reduction technology that quickly tells us whether there are mines or not within a certain area. One example of this is the EVD- (Explosive Vapour Detection) concept currently being used in Southern Africa. From the material presented at your website, we can conclude that the ELF technology may represent an improved method to detect mines, but one still has to get to each mine safely, often through thick vegetation, and one still has to treat those 90% that contain no mines as mine-contaminated areas, until the opposite is verified.
Your self-claimed 100 percent success rate is solely based on your own test-results. In the material you have released, there is no indication that independent tests have taken place, except for the reference on your web-pages to a laboratory test undertaken in Texas in 1999, and that the Rusker Boskovic Institute in had dictated the conditions for the Croatia test. There is however little documentation on what these conditions was about, i.e. the testing protocol. In overall, the information released by you is far too scarce to evaluate the test results.
Successful tests in controlled environments, like the one described in the Loch Harris publicity materials are no guarantee of performance in the variety of scenarios that comprise the mine affected areas on the world. To have a true impact on the landmine problem, detection technology must be relevant to the actual situation in the field. For example, the technology used by Loch Harris for this device is very sensitive to naturally occurring nitrates and nitrogen emissions. From the sparse information on your web-site, it seems that the tests conducted so far have taken place in environments with minimal occurrence of the emissions, hence creating little interference for detection. Such circumstances are unlikely to occur in the field. The mine action community has repeatedly experienced how detection technology, after initial positive tests, later fails to function properly when put to use outside of the controlled test fields.
To claim to have developed a product that will solve the global humanitarian crisis created by landmines is a pretty tall order. Even a technical device that can detect all explosives buried in the ground is only one out a number of variables that need to successfully be working in order to solve the landmine problem. Some of these factors include funding for the infrastructure that will put the technology to work, logistical back-up for the efficient use of the technology, salaries for the deminers, political will to solve the problem, and knowledge about the impact and magnitude of the problem. The simplified view of the global landmine problem you put forward in your presentation material is far from the complex reality in the mine-affected areas we have experienced during nearly a decade of mine clearance programs. We are concerned that your promotion activities may mislead the interested public on the issue.
However, NPA does recognise the need for better detection technology, and we will encourage Loch Harris to share all their testing material with us and other field organisations. Further, NPA is always open to co-operate on testing new technology in the variety of scenarios we are working in, in order to facilitate the development of the best tools for mine clearance. A first step from Loch Harris could be to make your test protocols and procedures open for scrutiny by all competent parties.
Only in this manner will it be possible to determine whether new technology represents true breakthroughs in the battle against landmines and not yet another drawing-board exercise that looks great in the media but which has no impact on the ground.
Finally, NPA would like to invite Loch Harris and any companies engaged in mine detection technology development to fully endorse the goal of a total ban on antipersonnel landmines. The best way to end the global humanitarian landmine crisis is to stop this insidious weapon from being planted. We urge you to join us in this goal by endorsing the ban now.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Christian H. Ruge,
Landmine Policy Adviser
Norwegian People’s Aid
cc: ICBL
