Key
developments since May 2001: The Lebanese Army reported that the number of
identified mined areas was 2,146 as of February 2002, nearly double the number
reported in May 2001. In November 2001, an International Support Group was
established to coordinate mine action donor support in Lebanon. The United Arab
Emirates has begun awarding mine action contracts with the $50 million pledged
to Lebanon in May 2001. Other donors contributed more than $12 million to mine
action in 2001. In 2001, the Lebanese Army cleared more than 1.5 million square
meters of land; NGOs and foreign armies cleared additional land. UNIFIL
completed a technical survey in South Lebanon in 2002. Mines Advisory Group
began a national Landmine Impact Survey in March 2002. In 2001, 90 new mine/UXO
casualties were recorded, a decrease from 113 casualties in 2000.
MINE BAN POLICY
Lebanon has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty and
has indicated it will not until Israel has done
so.[1] Many government
officials are supportive of the ban, and one has told Landmine Monitor,
“No one believes that antipersonnel mines are vital to the defense or
security of the state. They were abrasively used during the Lebanese war with
no control.”[2] In March
2001, a joint mission by Canada and Norway declared that Lebanon is in principle
abiding by the treaty without formally joining
it.[3]
Lebanon did not attend the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban
Treaty in Nicaragua in September 2001. It did not participate in either the
January or May 2002 meetings of the intersessional Standing Committees, though
its Geneva-based representatives registered for May. Lebanon did not attend any
of the meetings related to the Convention on Conventional Weapons or Amended
Protocol II (on landmines) in 2001.
Lebanon was one of 19 countries that abstained from voting on UN General
Assembly Resolution 56/24M in November 2001, which called for universalization
of the Mine Ban Treaty.
PRODUCTION, TRANSFER, STOCKPILING, USE
Lebanon is not known to have ever produced or
exported antipersonnel mines. The Lebanese Army stockpiles an unknown number of
antipersonnel mines. It is likely that Syrian forces based in Lebanon stockpile
antipersonnel mines. After the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000, Lebanese media
documented the presence of large numbers of landmines, bombs, and shells in the
abandoned South Lebanon Army bases.
There have been no confirmed reports of antipersonnel mine use in Lebanon
since May 2001, by any party including non-state actors such as Hezbollah.
LANDMINE PROBLEM
There is no single, agreed-on estimate of the area
of mined land in Lebanon. The Lebanese Army reported that the number of
identified mined areas was 2,146 as of February
2002.[4] This
represented more than twice the 1,019 mined areas reported by the Army in May
2001.[5] In South Lebanon
alone, the number of reported mined areas rose from 508 to 1,617. While the
Army has not offered an official explanation for the increase, it apparently at
least in part reflects the ongoing information-gathering efforts. According to
the Army’s statistics, the number of cleared areas increased from 369 in
May 2001 to 445 in February
2002.[6]
UNIFIL completed a technical Level 2 survey of
border minefields in South Lebanon in
mid-2002.[9] The Mines Advisory
Group (MAG) is conducting a technical survey in the UNIFIL area of operation.
Field operations had been delayed due to the security situation, poor weather,
and the terrain. MAG is tasked with assessing marking and fencing requirements
as part of this technical survey. If required, MAG technical survey teams also
clear small areas. For example, in Bint Jbeil, MAG cleared an area to give
villagers safe access to their
fields.[10]
A nationwide Landmine Impact Survey, implemented by MAG in collaboration with
the National Demining Office, began in March 2002. Technical support and advice
for the survey is coming from the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF).
The survey will gather comprehensive information on the socio-economic impact of
landmines by carrying out community interviews nationwide. This process will
result in a country-wide description of the landmine problem, including complete
lists of affected communities. In addition, this information will facilitate the
planning, prioritization and implementation of mine action programs in Lebanon.
The data will be entered into the NDO’s Information Management System for
Mine Action (IMSMA) database. A major part of the survey will be the support
and development of the information management systems located at the NDO. The
survey is funded by the European Union (€1.6 million, or US$1,436,800).
Senior field staff training started in July 2002, with recruitment and training
of data collectors to start in August. The first fieldwork will start in early
September. Data entry, analysis and a final national report should be completed
by April 2003.[11]
COORDINATION AND PLANNING
The National Demining Office (NDO) of the Lebanese
Army is the official body in charge of the national mine action plan and it
undertakes coordination and planning efforts. The NDO has two committees, one
for mine risk education and the other for survivor assistance (see following
sections). The NDO works with the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Cell
(UN-MACC) in Tyre. In January 2002, UN-MACC started holding weekly meetings
with the demining NGOs and companies working in the South.
Questions have been raised about priority setting and the degree to which
clearance operations are aimed at meeting the needs of local communities. In
2001 and 2002, the focus of mine action in Lebanon was in the South and west
Bekaa despite formal requests and complaints filed numerous times by
municipalities and communities of the North and Mountain Lebanon
governorates.[12] One source
noted, “In Lebanon, the lack of coordination in humanitarian demining
operations is explained by the lack of institutional capacity and resources
necessary in
decision-making.”[13]
Efforts are underway to improve the situation. Many donor countries are
offering training to officers of the Lebanese Army to establish a better
understanding of the humanitarian mine action process. For example, in December
2001 the Information Management System for Mine Action database was installed at
the NDO to standardize information collected on the mine problem and mine action
results.[14] The NDO IMSMA
system became operational 20 March 2002, at a cost of approximately $75,000,
with funds provided by the US. The UN Mine Action Coordination Cell also has an
IMSMA system which is intended for the South only, while the NDO system will
cover the whole country.[15]
In November 2001, an International Support Group for Mine Action in Lebanon
(ISG) was established to coordinate mine action donor support. The Minister of
National Defense is the chair; donors and potential donors form the membership
of the ISG. As of May 2002, there were 27 donor members, as well as Lebanese
government representatives and the UN agencies operating in the country. The
ISG has met on 29 November 2001, 13 December 2001, 7 February 2002, 24 April
2002 and 28 May 2002. Concerned local NGOs were invited to the February
meeting. The ISG has established four working groups on: Mine Awareness, Victim
Assistance, Humanitarian and Operational Demining (including data collection and
surveys), and Socio-economic Development and
Rehabilitation.[16] These
working groups are tasked with identifying needs and developing funding
proposals for consideration by the ISG.
In January 2002, the Mine Action Coordination Cell of UNIFIL ceased to exist
and the Mine Action Coordination Center for South Lebanon (MACC-SL) was
established, with components from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
the United Nations. It employs 46 staff, with plans to expand to
56.[17] As of June 2002, seven
international staff members and fourteen Lebanese made up the UN component.
There are also fifteen Lebanese Army Officers and five military from the UAE.
In addition, the Landmines Resource Center (a Lebanese NGO at the Faculty of
Health Sciences of the University of Balamand) maintains an office at the
MACC-SL that includes a community liaison team of five members.
MINE ACTION FUNDING
On 21 May 2001, the United Arab Emirates formally
announced that it would engage in a demining project in South Lebanon with a
grant up to $50 million. Lebanon and the UAE signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on 25 October 2001. The total area to be cleared by the UAE
demining project in South Lebanon is approximately 472 square kilometers
containing 306 known minefields and a large number of unknown mined
areas.[18] On 4-5 March 2002
the UAE organized a briefing for commercial companies interested in contracts
for this program named “Operation Emirates Solidarity in South
Lebanon.”[19] On 2 April
2002 the tender was opened in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Two commercial companies were
awarded contracts to execute “Operation Emirates Solidarity:”
Zimbabwe-based MineTech and UK-based BACTEC. The amount of the contracts is not
known. The first phase of the project (18 December 2001–8 May 2002) was
awarded to BACTEC. BACTEC should be responsible for clearance of an area
covering 227 square kilometers and including 136 minefields, while MineTech
should be responsible for clearance of an area covering 245 square kilometers
and including 170
minefields.[20]
The UAE funding also covers the expenses of MACC SL, including all its
components. The UAE also awarded a grant of $200,000 to the Landmines Resource
Center at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Balamand to
execute an integrated mine awareness and risk reduction education program in
South Lebanon and community liaison work.
In addition to the UAE project, Landmine Monitor estimates that approximately
$12.6 million was allocated to mine action projects in Lebanon in 2001, by the
following donors:
United States: $4.6 million in FY 2001. In 2001, this funding was used to
procure eighteen mine detecting dogs, support the NDO, validate a mechanical
vegetation removal and area reduction system, and for equipment (including six
field ambulances and five trauma kits, five transportation vehicles, 35 mine
detectors, five EOD protective suits, and five EOD reconnaissance suits). The
United States also provided $3 million to the World Rehabilitation Fund for an
income-generating program for landmine victims in Jezzine
area.[21] In FY 2000, the U.S.
provided $1.3 million in mine action assistance to Lebanon, not including victim
assistance funds.
Greece: $2.35 million (€2.4 million). For a three-year demining
project by a Greek NGO in South
Lebanon.[22]
European Union: $2.07 million. This includes $1.57 million (€1.6
million) for the Landmine Impact Survey and $500,000 to MAG for a demining
project in Nabatieh, South Lebanon in mid-2001, which included training of
fifteen civilian deminers.[23]
Norway: $910,000. This includes $250,000 to MAG for the technical survey in
South Lebanon, $10,000 to UNDP for NDO capacity building, and $320,000 to the
ICRC Beirut office that has yet to be
allocated.[24] A $330,000
victim assistance program by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) ended in
December 2001, and NPA has submitted a new proposal for 2002.
United Kingdom: $687,579. This includes a $38,315 (£25,000)
“bridging grant” to MAG, $450,000 to UNIFIL/MACC and $199,264
(€130,000) to
UNICEF-Lebanon.[25]
Japan: $593,000. This consists of $250,000 to UNMAS for mine action in
Lebanon, $250,000 for the technical survey and $93,000 to MAG for equipment in
support of its operations.
Italy: $566,620. This includes $125,000 in equipment (23 mine detectors and
18 protective suits), $250,000 awarded in mid-2001 to an Italian NGO, Assobon,
and $191,620 to an Italian company named Sogelma for another 30-day demining
project that started in Khyam on 26 February
2002.[26]
Spain: $332,000 for demining training by Russia and Spain of 22 Lebanese
deminers.
Denmark: $127,000 (DKK1 million) to UNIFIL/MACC via UNMAS (Voluntary Trust
Fund).[27]
Germany: $60,500 (€61,500) in equipment, including ten Vallon VMH1
metal detectors, twelve protective suits including visors, two trauma kits, ten
demining tool kits and 100 mine
makers.[28]
Australia: $57,000 (Aus$100,000) for a quality assurance training
program.[29]
UNESCO: $30,000 for mine risk education from its own
budget.[30]
France: Seven metal detectors and one EOD set as well as a five-year
training program for twenty deminers annually.
Ukraine: twenty metal detectors.
Saudi Arabia: Demining equipment.
MINE CLEARANCE
In the reporting period (May 2001 to end May
2002), mine clearance operations in Lebanon were conducted by: the Engineering
Corps of the Lebanese Army; a group from the Syrian Army; a Ukrainian battalion
of UNIFIL; Mines Advisory Group; Assobon Italia; BACTEC; and MineTech. All
international NGOs sign a memorandum of understanding with the NDO to undertake
mine clearance in the country. The commercial firms MineTech and BACTEC signed
directly with the UAE, following the bilateral agreement reached between Lebanon
and the UAE.
The Army’s Engineering Corps has 280 deminers operating in four troops,
as well as one Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team consisting of 25 persons.
It works in West Bekaa, Jezzine, and Nabatieh and the fourth troop is divided
between Batroun (in North Lebanon) and Souk El Gharb (in Mount Lebanon). From
May 2001-March 2002, the Army cleared 11,474 antipersonnel mines, 1,425
antivehicle mines, 4,173 UXO and 1,422 cluster bombs from South Lebanon and West
Bekaa, as well as other
ordnance.[31] The NDO reported
clearing 672,415 square meters of land in 2000, and 1.5 million square meters of
land in 2001, as of 2
November.[32]
The Syrian Army contributes a demining team of 16 officers and 146 soldiers
with manual equipment and four mechanical rollers (two in West Bekaa, one each
in Jezzine and Nabatieh). In 2001, the Syrian Army cleared 1,422 antipersonnel
mines, 10,295 antivehicle mines, and 1,125 cluster bombs in addition to
UXO.[33]
A Ukrainian Army Engineering Battalion consisting of 76 people in three
demining platoons and three reconnaissance platoons conducts mine clearance in
the UNIFIL area of operations in South Lebanon around UN positions and patrol
routes, as well as surveying of mined areas within two kilometers of UN
positions and the Blue Line, and emergency mine clearance. In 2001, it
reportedly cleared 320,171 square meters of mine-affected territory, including
3,673 antipersonnel mines, 24 antivehicle mines and 668
UXO.[34]
The Mines Advisory Group employed one team of 12 deminers and in 2001 cleared
an area of 2,080 square meters, including 173 antipersonnel mines and 27 items
of UXO.[35]
In May and June 2001, Assobon Italia employed two teams of ten deminers each
on a 33-day demining project in Tayr Harfa, south of Tyre. They cleared 200
antipersonnel mines.[36]
In 2001, BACTEC employed eleven EOD specialists who cleared booby-traps from
areas south of the Litani river. In 2002, the MACC and the NDO assigned BACTEC
to work in Bayt Yahoon, and in a village in Bint Jbeil where BACTEC cleared 288
booby-traps, 58 antipersonnel mines, eight antivehicle mines and 240 UXO. Some
89 booby-trap locations still need to be checked north of the Litani
river.[37] BACTEC has 62
international staff and 48 national staff deployed in four manual clearance
teams, two Mine Detection Dog teams, three Level 1 survey teams as well as in
mechanical Demining teams using an armored dozer 977 L, two Bozena, and three
flails (MMCM).
MineTech has 214 employees in Lebanon, including 152 international staff, 40
Lebanese and 22 Lebanese deminers in training deployed in ten manual clearance
teams, ten Mine Detection Dog teams (using a total of twenty dogs), one training
and quality assurance team, one EOD Team, one survey team and two mechanical
demining teams. From 6 May to 3 July 2002, MineTech cleared the following: 4,762
antipersonnel mines, three antivehicle mines and 81 UXO, in an area of 438,992
square meters.
MINE RISK EDUCATION
In April 2001, the NDO established a National Mine
Risk Education Committee which includes the major actors in mine risk education
in Lebanon.[38] The committee
is headed by the officer in charge of the mine awareness section at the NDO.
Between 11 April 2001 and 21 February 2002, mine risk education was conducted by
NGO volunteers (trained by Landmine Resource Center) in 150 schools (out of a
total of 548) in South Lebanon. They reached an estimated 50,000 students (out
of 180,000 total) in 140 villages (out of 602 total) in South Lebanon. Funding
for these activities was provided by UNICEF Lebanon, which also donated
materials to be used in the mine awareness
sessions.[39]
The ICRC continues to support the mine awareness program run by the Lebanese
Red Cross, including in the production of new mine risk education materials.
Twelve instructors gave 216 mine awareness presentations and distributed
information in schools in the south, organized a two-day workshop, with ICRC
support, for students from the Public Health Faculty of the Lebanese University,
and introduced mine/UXO awareness into the program of three summer camps in
southern Lebanon for 390
children.[40]
UNIFIL is producing 3,500 mine awareness booklets for UNIFIL
personnel.[41]
Mine risk education operators do not generate clearance requests in Lebanon
and no systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of the programs have taken
place. A joint UN Mine Action Service/UNIFIL visit took place in February 2002
and a Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining evaluation mission
took place in March 2002. Both missions were done at the request of the MACC.
One major result was an emphasis on the need to stop producing mine awareness
literature and start to introduce interactive and participatory mine risk
education.[42]
LANDMINE CASUALTIES
The Landmine Resource Center (LMRC) at the
University of Balamand continues to record landmine casualties in Lebanon
through its network of NGO contacts and focal points in the villages of the
South. In 2001, LMRC recorded 90 new mine/UXO casualties; 18 were killed and 72
injured. This is a decrease from 113 mine casualties for the year 2000, which
included 14 killed and 99 injured. In the first ten days following the Israeli
withdrawal there were seventeen mine injuries, but the casualty trend later
decreased as emergency mine risk education and mine clearance programs were
initiated. In the first half of 2002, LMRC recorded three people killed and 21
injured in landmine/UXO
incidents.[43]
In 2001, the majority of landmines incidents occurred in South Lebanon, where
people are often injured in areas already known or suspected to be mined, but
not fenced or marked. All casualties were male. Fifteen survivors required
amputations, while some others suffered serious head or abdominal injuries.
Landmines were the cause of the majority of casualties, followed by cluster
bombs and UXO. Twenty children (aged under 18 years) were injured and eight
killed, often while playing. Adults were injured while engaged in agricultural
work or while traveling in a vehicle.
Previously, the LMRC undertook a survey of casualties in South Lebanon in
July 2000, which identified 600 casualties in addition to 2,493 casualties
reported in a previous survey in
1998-1999.[44]
On 20 July 2002, a British deminer lost his leg in a landmine incident in
southern Lebanon.[45]
SURVIVOR ASSISTANCE
On 21 October 2001, the NDO established a National
Mine Victim Assistance Committee, which includes the major actors in survivor
assistance in Lebanon.[46]
In the South, the existing first aid structure is used for the evacuation of
landmine casualties, including ambulances and first aid care provided by the
Lebanese Red Cross, the Islamic Health Council and the Al Rissala First Aid
Service. Landmine casualties are driven to the nearest emergency room, usually
hospitals in Saida as the other four hospitals in the south are unable to
provide the necessary assistance. This initial hospital care is usually paid
for by the government, either through the Ministry of Health, the National
Social Security Fund, the Council of the South or the Military Hospital (for
military personnel only). Funding of long-term hospital care is not available.
In certain cases, landmine survivors are obliged to leave the hospital.
In addition to services provided by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of
Social Affairs, rehabilitation services are also provided through NGOs.
Usually, military casualties receive services from the Military Hospital. Three
NGOs service landmine survivors in the south and during the last quarter of
2001, a Beirut-based rehabilitation NGO established a new branch in Marjeyoun.
In February 2002, a West Bekaa-based rehabilitation NGO opened a branch in
Hasbaya. In 2002, the Ministry of Health again started providing prosthetic
services on a limited scale.
Norwegian People’s Aid continued to provide physical and psychological
rehabilitation services to the physically disabled, including landmine
survivors. At the beginning of 2001, NPA launched a new landmine survivor
assistance program in the south in cooperation with three local partners and in
consultation with the NDO.[47]
In 2001, 73 people received new prostheses and a further 51 had their artificial
limbs repaired. Renovations, to improve access for disabled persons, were
carried out in five schools, thirteen homes and two public places. A number of
patients also received prosthetic eyes, hearing aids, splints and silicon socks,
and psychological support. Forty health workers received first aid training.
NPA also provided rehabilitation equipment and therapeutic and technical tools
to the physiotherapy departments and prosthetic workshops of their local
partners. The annual budget for the program is NOK3,000,000 (US$333,333) with
funding provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.[48]
The World Rehabilitation Fund (WRF) continues its program of socio-economic
reintegration of landmine survivors. Components of the program include:
designing and implementing an approach to community based rehabilitation (CBR)
that meets the needs of persons residing in mine-affected areas; a project to
address the problems of war-related stress among young women through the
development of a mentoring program; creating sustainable income-generating
activities; and creating a mechanism in cooperation with the Ministry of Public
Health to standardize service for the provision of prostheses and orthoses for
landmine survivors, and other persons with disabilities. Approximately 50
people have benefited from the program. The WRF also supports the Landmine
Resource Center. The programs are funded by UNDP, USAID and the US Leahy War
Victims Fund.[49]
In December 2001, WHO joined the victim assistance committee and invited NGOs
to submit victim assistance funding proposals in a trial to find appropriate
funders.
The LMRC was contracted by the WRF-UNDP program to hold a training workshop
on 19-20 December 2001 on landmine victim assistance materials (documents
translated from English) as part of a mine awareness package. The workshop
examined translations of material in the Lebanese context and came up with
definitions for “landmine victim,” “landmine survivor,”
“victim assistance,” and “survivor assistance.” These
definitions fell within the definitions of the ICBL.
DISABILITY POLICY AND PRACTICE
After a campaign by the National Council of the
Disabled and other concerned NGOs, the Parliament approved the “Access and
Rights of the Disabled” law on 25 May 2000. The law consists of 143
decrees asserting the rights of the disabled with respect to health care,
education, employment, recreational activities, independent life,
transportation, and exemption from taxation. Landmine survivors are included in
the disabled population protected by this law. The law is not yet in effect,
but Nabih Berri, the head of Lebanon’s parliamentary Council of Deputees,
has promised to activate it as soon as
possible.[50]
[1] Letter to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
of the United Nations, from Mahmoud Hammoud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Lebanon, Ref: No 11/C.M, 22 January
2001. [2] Interview with official at
Documentary Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beirut, 4 January
2001. [3] Declaration of the
Canada-Norway joint mission after their visit to the Lebanese Minister of
Foreign Affairs, 22 March 2001. [4]
Presentation by the Engineering Regiment of the Lebanese Army, to a symposium by
the Norwegian Demining Consortium/Minecat Demonstration, Nabatieh (South
Lebanon), 8 February 2002. [5] See
Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 1024; Presentation of the National Demining
Office at the UN House, 13 December
2001. [6] Presentation by the
Engineering Regiment of the Lebanese Army, to a symposium by the Norwegian
Demining Consortium/Minecat Demonstration, Nabatieh (South Lebanon), 8 February
2002; Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 1024; Presentation of the NDO at the UN
House, 13 December 2001. [7] Lebanon is
divided into six “mohafazat” or provinces (the South was recently
divided into two--South and Nabatieh) and 26 “cadaas” or districts.
Presentation by the Engineering Regiment of the Lebanese Army, to a symposium by
the Norwegian Demining Consortium/Minecat Demonstration, Nabatieh (South
Lebanon), 8 February 2002. [8]
“South Lebanon Demining Initiative,” Statement by UNIFIL Force
Commander, 4 February 2002. [9] UNIFIL
statement at MACC SL meeting, 6 June
2002. [10] Statement by Steve Priestley,
Mines Advisory Group (MAG), at International Support Group meeting, 7 February
2002; Email to Landmine Monitor (HRW) from Tim Carstairs, Director of Policy,
MAG, 22 July 2002. The survey is funded by Norway and the UN Voluntary Trust
Fund. [11] Email from Kim Spurway, MAG,
Lebanon, 22 July 2002; email from Tim Carstairs, MAG, 22 July
2002. [12] Reported in Annahar, Al
Safir, Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal (all daily newspapers), 7 August 2001, 12 December
2001, and 3 January 2002. Such requests are usually directed to the high
command office of the Lebanese Army through a bureaucratic channel of commands
that starts with the Army base nearest to the community. Sometimes the requests
are sent directly to the NDO or a higher commander
office. [13] Mohamed Abdelkadir Ahmed,
“The Impact of Landmines on the Socioeconomic Development Projects in
South Lebanon,” Mine Action Coordination Center – Tyre/Lebanon, p.
9, November 2001. [14] The Danish NGO
DanChurchAid provided support to NDO’s IMSMA operators and supplied one IT
consultant for the NDO in Beirut for two months. Email to Landmine Monitor
(NPA) from Sam Christensen, DanChurchAid, 3 July
2002. [15] Statements by operational
officers at MACC SL and NDO at weekly coordination
meetings. [16] Statement of Harald Wie,
Mine Action Advisor, UN Development Program Lebanon, to the Lebanese Parliament,
21 January 2002. [17] Presentation by
the Operation Officer, MACC SL, Tyre, 4 July
2002. [18]
Ibid. [19] Ten companies participated:
BACTEC, EMERCOM Demining, European Landmine Solutions, Frontier Works
Organization, MECHEM Consultants, Minetech International Limited, National
Demining Company-Jordan, RONCO, SOGELMA, and UK ROBORONS Service.
[20] Presentation by the Operation
Officer, MACC SL, Tyre, 4 July 2002 [21]
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, “To Walk
the Earth in Safety: The United States Commitment to Humanitarian
Demining,” November 2001, p.
42. [22] Conversion to US dollars made
by Landmine Monitor on 2 July 2002. [23]
Ibid. [24] Statement by a representative
of Norway to the National Demining Office, 28 January
2002. [25] Conversion to US dollars made
by Landmine Monitor on 2 July 2002. [26]
Letter to Landmine Monitor from the Embassy of Italy to Lebanon, 8 April 2002;
Documents distributed during ISG meeting, 13 December
2001. [27] Email to Landmine Monitor
from Walid Hajjaj, Embassy of Denmark to Syria, 2 April
2002. [28] Conversion to US dollars made
by Landmine Monitor on 2 July 2002. Letter from Claudia Rohde, Embassy of
Germany to Lebanon, 28 March 2002. [29]
As reported by Harald Wie, Mine Action Advisor, UNDP Lebanon. Notes taken by
Landmine Monitor during ISG meeting, 13 December
2001. [30] Documents distributed during
ISG meeting, 13 December 2001. [31] NDO
presentation to Landmines Survivors Network, Beirut, 19 March
2002. [32] NDO presentation at the UN
House, Beirut, 13 December 2001. [33]
NDO presentation to Parliament, 21 January
2002. [34] UN-MACC IMSMA database,
Tyre-Lebanon, September 2001; Mohamed Abdelkadir Ahmed, “The Impact of
Landmines on the Socioeconomic Development Projects in South Lebanon,”
Mine Action Coordination Center – Tyre/Lebanon, November 2001, p.
6. [35] Email to Landmine Monitor (HRW)
from Tim Carstairs, MAG, 22 July
2002. [36] Interview with Fabrizio
Gensini, Program Manager, Assobon, Beirut, 28 June
2001. [37] Presentation by the Operation
Officer, MACC SL, Tyre, 4 July
2002. [38] Members include: Landmine
Resource Center at the University of Balamand, ICRC, Lebanese Red Cross, UNICEF,
Rädda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden), World Rehabilitation Fund, Islamic
Health Council, Islamic Al Rissala Scouts Association, Lebanese Welfare
Association for the Handicapped, Welfare Association for the Handicap in
Nabatieh, Vision Association for Development, Rehabilitation and Care in Bekaa,
NPA, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of
Education. [39] Statement by Lt. Colonel
Takkieddine Taneer, Mine Risk Education Officer, National Demining Office, 21
February 2002. [40] See ICRC chapter in
the Appendices section of this
report. [41] Statement by Ukraine
representative on behalf of UNIFIL during a coordination meeting at the MACC, 6
April 2002. Notes taken by Landmine
Monitor. [42] Report on Assessment of
Mine Risk Education in Lebanon, GICHD, April
2002. [43] LMRC has a month-by-month
breakdown of casualties from January 2001-June 2002. The worst month was August
2001, with 21 casualties; the following month, there were none. In the most
recent month, June 2002, there were nine injuries and zero
deaths. [44] The 1998-1999 survey
excluded the occupied territories at the
time. [45] Rodeina Kenaan,
“British sapper loses leg in southern Lebanon land mine explosion,”
AP, 20 July 2002. [46] Members include:
WHO, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Council of the
South, the Landmine Resource Center at the University of Balamand, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the Lebanese Red Cross, UNICEF, the
World Rehabilitation Fund, the Islamic Health Council, the Islamic Al Rissala
Scouts Association, the Lebanese Welfare Association for the Disabled, the
Welfare Association for the Disabled in Nabatieh, the Vision Association for
Development, Rehabilitation & Care in Bekaa, the Welfare Association for the
Care of the Injured and Disabled of War in Lebanon and Norwegian People’s
Aid. [47] See Landmine Monitor Report
2001, pp. 1030-1031. [48] Interview with
Ketil Volden, Advisor for Middle East, Norwegian People’s Aid, Oslo, 4
July 2002. [49] Email from Jack Victor,
WRF, to Landmine Monitor, June
2002. [50] Annahar and Al Mustakbal
(daily newspapers), 25 January 2002.
About Us
Our Research Products