Demining

The concept of 'humanitarian mine clearance' - where an entire area is completely demined in order to rehabilitate it - as opposed to 'military mine clearance', with its more limited objectives, is a post-Cold War notion. As such, existing technology is both primitive and inadequately designed when it comes to meeting the expanded needs and pressures of humanitarian clearance.

Humanitarian clearance is essentially about clearing up the 'war junk' left behind after any armed conflict. To clear any site, be it farmland, road, or urban area, every inch of ground must be carefully probed by hand and guaranteed to be mine-free, before it can be returned to the community. For safety reasons, mines destroyed in-situ, rather than being lifted. This also removes the possibility of the mines being sold for re-deployment elsewhere.

Currently the majority of methods use for mine detection are extremely basic. Before clearance can begin, any foliage present must first be cleared by hand and the terrain checked for trip-wires which may be hidden in the undergrowth. Working in teams of two, one man will then sweep a small area with a hand-held mine detection unit which records an audible signature indicating the presence of metal in the ground. His colleague will then gently slice away the turf with a bayonet-like instrument until he unearths the object.

Since the detection units cannot distinguish between one piece of metal and another, it may also unearth spent cartridges, rusty nails and old tin cans, as well as mines. Further complications have been encountered with the advent of predominately plastic landmines which have increased the problems of detection.

Most mine clearing is done by hand and is a painstakingly slow and expensive business, requiring iron discipline, concentration and courage. Until a technical breakthrough in demining technology occurs, many more civilians will clear mines - with their lives and limbs rather than machines.

Mechanical mine clearing equipments is not yet capable of clearing over 99 % of mines. Military flailing machines and rollers are not appropriate for the majority of demining tasks as the machines destroy valuable top soil and thus the land’s fertility.