Contamination and Impact

Nepal has been affected by antipersonnel mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of a decade of conflict that ended with a peace agreement in November 2006. In 2011, it completed clearance of all known mined areas.

Mines

Mine contamination when the conflict ended consisted of 53 fields of antipersonnel mines laid by the Nepal Army around military posts. By the end of 2010, clearance had reduced contamination to 17 minefields covering some 80,000m².[1] In June 2011, Nepal and a senior UN official declared that the last known mined area had been cleared.[2]

Other explosive remnants of war

The decade of conflict also resulted in a problem of ERW, mainly abandoned explosive ordnance and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Nepal Army, police, and Armed Police Force placed explosive devices, including command-detonated IEDs, as defensive perimeters around military installations. The police and armed police force have already cleared their IED fields. Of 273 IED fields laid by the Nepalese Army that remained at the end of the conflict, six had not been cleared at the end of 2011. These were due for completion in 2012.[3]

Continuing violence in the Terai region of southern Nepal has led to additional IED use and new victims. Humanitarian agencies reported 31 IED casualties in 2011 and estimated that half the casualties were from new devices as distinct from devices left behind by the earlier conflict.[4]

Nepal also has a continuing problem with “socket bombs” (improvised hand-grenades), produced in large quantities by Maoist supporters during the conflict and left over in people’s houses after the conflict ended. Socket bombs accounted for seven of 22 incidents in 2010; these incidents occurred in seven different locations. Other small improvised devices known as “Sutali bombs” and “tiffin box bombs” also cause casualties but there are no records of where they were used.[5]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The Steering Committee for Mine Action and its Mine Action Technical Committee (MATC) serve as the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA). It created a mine action task force chaired by an Undersecretary at the Ministry of Peace & Reconstruction (MoPR) in October 2009 to make recommendations for future mine action. The MoPR issued a draft national mine action plan which received the approval of the MATC, but as of April 2012 it had not been adopted by the Steering Committee. An external evaluation of UN support for mine action in Nepal found that the Steering Committee appeared “moribund.”[6]

The MoPR, on the recommendation of the task force, set up a Mine Action Office in October 2009 to act as a mine action center and government focal point for mine action. The MoPR acts as a conduit for government financing of mine action but its ability to fulfill a wider role has been constrained by lack of capacity.[7] The Nepal Army Mine Action Coordination Center (NAMACC), set up in 2006, fulfills many of the functions of a mine action center, operating as a sub-unit command within the army and maintaining an Information Management System for Mine Action database recording contamination and mine action activities.[8]

Since August 2010, the MoPR has acted as chair of a Mine Action Joint Working Group (MAJWG) supporting operational coordination, especially of mine/ERW risk education (RE) and victim assistance.[9] It includes representatives of the government, security forces, UN agencies, and the ICRC. In April 2012, however, the government official fulfilling that role transferred to another ministry, creating a vacuum in government engagement with mine action.[10]

The UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) coordinated mine action through MAJWG until August 2010 and later focused on quality assurance. UNMAT ended its activities in July 2011 after the completion of mine clearance.[11]

An evaluation of UN involvement in mine action in Nepal found the mine action activities undertaken by UNMAT and UNICEF were relevant and, in relation to destruction of ordnance stockpiles, “went very well.” It observed that UNMAS support to capacity development of the Nepal Army’s Engineering Brigade was “extremely successful.” It noted the effectiveness of the program was assisted by funding that was both adequate in scale and approved for an extended period. It also found, however, that the UN program had not achieved one of its main aims: the MoPR’s Mine Action Office had not developed into a fully fledged mine action center. It noted the concern of many stakeholders that MoPR had not been sufficiently active in coordinating mine action and might not continue to convene the MAJWG.[12]

Land Release

Nepal started 2011 with 17 minefields to clear covering approximately 80,000m.[13] Nepal Army engineers formally completed the task on 14 June 2011 when Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal  triggered a controlled detonation of the last mines and the UN declared Nepal mine free.[14] No landmine incidents or discoveries have been reported since then.[15]

Five-year summary of clearance[16]

N/R = Not reported

Risk Education

The Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), the Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines (NCBL), the Informal Service Sector Center (INSEC), and other national NGOs are active delivering RE to at-risk communities across the country with support from UNICEF. A network of some 430 people acting as focal points providing RE support coordinated by the MAJWG is active in 68 of Nepal’s 75 districts.[17]

The Department of Education, with funding from the Nepal Peace Trust Fund and UNICEF support, trained trainers to provide training for school teachers in the 20 most-affected districts in 2009−2010. This has enabled teachers to deliver a one-class RE session in each school class, reaching over 1,000 schools in 2011. There are plans to broaden the area of RE delivery to include schools in the 30 most-affected districts in 2011−2012 and the 50 most-affected districts in 2012−2013. In addition to this “systematic” RE, NRCS has conducted emergency RE after accidents or where explosive devices have been found; NRCS is working with MoPR on community-based RE programs undertaken by Local Peace Committees in 43 districts.[18]