Contamination and Impact

The Islamic Republic of Iran is contaminated by antivehicle and antipersonnel landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), mainly as a result of the 1980−1988 war with Iraq.

Mines

Mine contamination is heavily concentrated in five western provinces bordering Iraq. However, two antivehicle mine incidents in early 2014 confirmed reports of contamination in the Lut desert spanning central and eastern Iran where police reportedly placed mines as a measure against drug traffickers.[1] Scavenging for scrap metal has resulted in explosive items being sent to industrial facilities, causing fatal accidents in other provinces.[2]

Minister of Defence Hossein Dehghan said in 2014 that the 4,500km² of mine and ERW contamination left by the Iran-Iraq war in the five western provinces had been reduced to 280km².[3] In contrast, Iran’s mine action authorities have consistently reported the war left 4,200km², while in February 2014, the Iran Mine Action Center (IRMAC) reported the five Western provinces had contamination totaling 250km².^[4]

Table 1. Mine/ERW contamination in five western provinces (km²)

Estimates of contamination in Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan have fluctuated significantly in recent years. In 2011, IRMAC estimated contaminated area in Kurdistan at 1.2km² and in West Azerbaijan at 4.53km².^[5] In 2013, it estimated each province had 15km² of contaminated area. Most contaminated areas in Kurdistan are located in Baneh and Marivan regions,[6] and in West Azerbaijan in Oshnaviyeh, Piranshahr, Salmas, Sardasht, and Urmia regions.[7] Contamination in these areas is now believed to be larger than previously estimated.[8]

Some recently identified contamination has occurred as a result of heavy rainfall that washed mines down from military border posts located high in the mountains to land lower down and closer to inhabited areas.[9] Senior officials in some western regions also complain they continue to be affected by mines and are still experiencing casualties, including on cleared land.

Local authorities in Kermanshah were critical of an official ceremony staged in February 2013 to celebrate the end of clearance operations in the province. The interim governor of Kermanshah’s Qasr-e-Shirin county reported in January 2014 that 34 villages that were among the area’s most prosperous before the war remained unfit for habitation and difficult to access because of mines. A Kermanshah Member of Parliament (MP) identified 14 areas of Qasr-e-Shirin as still hazardous and called for continuing clearance to a depth of 80mm, reporting that mine accidents in the area between 21 March 2013 and the end of the year had killed three people and injured 11.[10]

In April 2013, the General Director of Border Management Department of the Governorate of Khuzestan stated it is difficult to determine precisely the extent of contamination in Khuzestan, since certain cleared areas need to be surveyed and cleared anew.[11] Kurdistan MP Omid Karimian, reacting to a mine incident in October 2013 that injured seven children in Marivan, called for survey and clearance of a wider area around military posts.[12]

The presence of antivehicle mines in eastern Iran is public knowledge but Iran’s National Police commander Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam denied that police lay mines, which would be against policy, but might use “mobile explosive traps” to interdict drug traffickers or armed groups crossing into eastern Iran.[13] Other media reports, however, have cited warnings by the police not to use certain routes because of the presence of landmines and that travellers should check with police or they would not be responsible for any accidents.[14]

In 2013, the Monitor recorded 69 mine/ERW incidents in Iran causing 104 casualties. These included 53 antipersonnel mine incidents in 2013, all in the five western provinces, which resulted in 64 casualties, and four antivehicle mine incidents that caused four casualties. Two other incidents by unidentified devices that killed 10 military personnel may have been caused by antivehicle mines.

Cluster munitions

Some contamination by cluster munitions remains from the Iran-Iraq war when they were widely used in Khuzestan and to a lesser extent in Kermanshah. Iraqi forces used mostly French- and Russian-made submunitions in attacks on oil facilities at Abadan and Mah-Shahr, and Spanish munitions in attacks on troop positions at Dasht-e-Azadegan. Air force explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) teams cleared much of the unexploded submunitions after attacks but some contamination remains around Mah-Shahr and the port of Bandar Imam Khomeini.[15]

Other explosive remnants of war

Other ERW continue to inflict casualties, particularly as a result of scavenging for scrap metal, but the extent of contamination is not clear. The unexploded ordnance (UXO) found include grenades, mortar and artillery shells, and aircraft delivered bombs. In 2013, the Monitor registered eight ERW incidents that caused 25 casualties, including at least 10 children. One further incident injuring a child might have been caused by an ERW.[16] An explosion by UXO that became mixed up with scrap metal killed two men at a scrap metal factory in Tabriz (East Azerbaijan).[17]

Mine Action Program

In December 2005, Iran’s Council of Ministers assigned the Minister of Defense as the president’s special representative for mine action, tasking him with organizing and accelerating the work of the sector, and specifying that his decisions would be tantamount to those of the president and Council of Ministers, and would be binding.[18]

IRMAC was also established in 2005, taking the place of a Mine Action Committee in the Ministry of Defense and made responsible for planning, data, managing survey, and procurement. It also sets standards, provides training for clearance operators, concludes contracts with demining operators (military or private), and ensures monitoring of their operations. It coordinates mine action with the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Interior, the Management and Planning Organization of Iran, and other relevant ministries and organizations, and handles international relations. IRMAC also oversees victim assistance and risk education but has partly delegated these roles to entities such as the Social Welfare Organization and the Iranian Red Crescent Society.[19]

Strategic planning

IRMAC drew up a five-year plan in 2006 that targeted clearance of some 1,775km² a year for the first two years, 1,674km² in the third year, and 2,528km² a year for the remaining two years. IRMAC said in February 2014 it is considering issuing an updated plan[20] but IRMAC’s director announced in April 2014 that clearance of all remaining mined areas would be completed in one year.[21]

Land Release

Comprehensive data on clearance and land release of mined areas in 2013 is not available. A summary of land release presented by IRMAC indicated Iran had released 41,750km² in the 25 years to 20 March 2013 (end of the Iranian year 1391) averaging 1,670km² a year but did not indicate how much was mined or battle area.

Table 2. Land release in 1988–2013 (km²)[22]

Safety of demining personnel

Demining incidents reported by Iranian media in 2013 killed one deminer and injured 27, which represented a spectacular improvement over previous years. In 2012, 29 deminers were killed and 42 injured.[23] IRMAC director Mohammad Hussein Amir-Ahmadi had reported in 2012 that 28 deminers were killed and 70 injured in the Iranian year 1390 (ending in March 2012).[24] The Army has reported 170 deminers killed and 735 injured in 21 years to March 2011.[25] Some observers attribute the improvement to greater use of mechanical assets in clearance operations.[26]

Companies that conduct industrial projects, notably in the oil and gas sectors, pay for clearance of their operations sites, as well as for risk education for their workers. These sites normally require clearance to a greater depth than standard demining operations and such higher-value contracts attract the best resourced demining/explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operators in the private sector and the military.

Private operators say IRMAC is seriously underfunded and pays such low rates for clearance that they cannot cover costs.[27] A private demining company chief executive said his company stopped working on demining projects in Iran because the compensation provided was so low that it made it impossible to perform the work according to standards the company considered acceptable.[28]

Support for Mine Action

IRMAC is financed by the Ministry of Defence under a budget item entitled “Clearance of minefields in coordination with the Ministry of Interior.” This amounted to 284,000 million Iranian rials (US$11.5 million)[29] in Iranian year 1392 (ending 20 March 2014) and in the following year.[30] The Ministry of Interior provides life and disability insurance for deminers.[31]

IRMAC director Mohammad Hussein Amir-Ahmadi affirms that Iran has not received any international support of any kind for its mine action program.[32]