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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Mine-hunters of Iraq slowly clear Saddam's legacy |
| 2005-04-22 |
| We need to be reminded of this. The mountains and plains of Iraqi Kurdistan compete with Afghanistan for the title of the most mine-ridden country in the world. By one calculation, there are four or five mines for every one of the four million Kurds in northern Iraq. Even in comparison with other landmines, the Valmara 69 is a menacing object. Five horns stick out of its head making it look like a miniature Dalek. Touch any of them and, propelled by a small charge, the device jumps into the air to waist height and explodes, spraying 1,200 lethal metal fragments 50 yards in all directions. "The Valmara is one of the most dangerous of the mines and difficult to defuse," said Gafar Gafor Abbas Wariyah, a veteran Kurdish peshmerga, famous in northern Iraq for defusing 107,000 mines, before a premature explosion tore off his hands. The mountains and plains of Iraqi Kurdistan compete with Afghanistan for the title of the most mine-ridden country in the world. By one calculation, there are four or five mines for every one of the four million Kurds in northern Iraq. Mine clearance has been agonisingly slow. Under Saddam Hussein, mine detectors were often banned from entering areas where they were most needed. After the US invasion in March 2003 the campaign to clear Kurdistan of mines should have speeded up. Instead it has slowed down as the US, in effect, took over responsibility from the United Nations for funding mine clearance. Only some of the money needed for clearing mines in Kurdistan has materialised, although the State Department has contributed $9m to the demining activities of a British-based organisation, the Mines Advisory Group in northern Iraq over the last two years. In an old Iraqi army fortress overlooking a green plain outside Sulaymaniyah in eastern Kurdistan, Twana Bashir, the operations head of the General Directorate of Mine Action said he had been forced to stop operations for four months because of lack of money. This time, he was back in business, having just procured enough money to issue tenders for clearing 50 minefields out of an estimated 4,000. The oldest active minefields date from 1974 and were laid by the Iraqi army suppressing the Kurdish rebellion. Mines protected every Iraqi army post. During the eight-year war with Iran, Saddam, short of troops, tried to defend his northern front with great belts of minefields. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #12 hey.. they use poison gas to make sterile ground to grow strawberrys in so what's the diff? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-04-22 3:58:14 PM |
| #11 Anonymoose / tw - Cool - it just struck me that, because you don't know where the mines actually are the area zapped would be large, and the goodies in our symbiotic existence would be smacked - an out of balance situation that I didn't see being rectified so easily. Glad it's not nearly as dire as my first thoughts implied. Thx! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-22 12:52:49 PM |
| #10 Anonymoose is right. Sterile soil is pretty quickly recolonized by the organisms in the encircling, uncooked soil. If you feel bad about it, though, just culture a batch from the nearby soil ahead of time, attach to a hose, and spray as soon as the popcorn sound stops. You can even include fertilizers and legume seeds (eg. peas, alfalfa or clover, depending on whether you wish to provide food, feed goats or attract bees) to improve over the original condition. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-22 12:39:12 PM |
| #9 ...we freeze to clear mines. The weight 'o bergs do the trick. |
| Posted by: Gleremping Igloos 2005-04-22 12:13:49 PM |
| #8 pretty funny Tkat |
| Posted by: Cool Hand Luke 2005-04-22 11:52:28 AM |
| #7 The ecological effects are very limited. First of all, the largest of minefields is tiny compared to the land around it. Second, while it would, indeed, sterilize the ground, the ground wouldn't stay that way very long. Third, and this is an interesting effect, the moisture in the soil would be turned to steam, strongly churning the soil. This would be much like plowing it, making it more fit for either agriculture or to return to its natural state. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-04-22 11:51:36 AM |
| #6 I have got a simple idea that is relatively inexpensive and enviornmentally sound. Let them take their convicted thugs and allow them volunteer for chain gangs (with long segments between them of course) to clear by hand! As an incentive give them a target amount for clearing and provide a reduced sentence for work completed. Have them walk the cleared areas afterward just to be careful though. |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-04-22 11:38:32 AM |
| #5 This is nuts. What I don't get is why they don't fire up a thousand fuel-air explosive bombs and just clear the area. A cheaper way would be to use flail tanks, as in Normandy. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-04-22 11:22:07 AM |
| #4 Hmmm. This might be as effective as sewing salt or soaking in oil, heh. Think of all the critters, insects and worms and nematodes - etc, that would be baked. I'm thinking heat to a 1 ft depth over broad swaths sounds like a major ecologicial FUBAR... Hey, I'm just sayin... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-22 10:50:40 AM |
| #3 Eventually, there needs to be deployed a directed energy weapon that can clear a large area. Since line-of-sight is important, it should be elevated; and since time-over-target is also a consideration, it should be a dirigible. The large amount of energy would almost have to be generated by a small, 2-5 ton nuclear reactor. Something like a powerful microwave dish that would heat the soil to a temperature hot enough to detonate the mine, to a depth of one foot. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-04-22 10:44:18 AM |
| #2 Excellent article, Phil. We should funding mine-clearing as much as possible. There should be a dozen Mr. Zangana's clearing the country. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-04-22 9:00:03 AM |
| #1 Yes, indeed. Thanks for finding this, phil_b. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-22 7:44:04 AM |