Related: Fencing in Afghanistan
"18 Afghans taken in kidnappings" by Reuters | July 6, 2009
GARDEZ, Afghanistan - Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 Afghans working for a UN-sponsored de-mining agency in eastern Afghanistan, UN officials and police said yesterday.
In a separate kidnapping, two Afghan employees working for a Dutch aid agency were abducted in a neighboring province in the east Saturday, the Afghan Health Ministry said.
The Afghan de-miners work for the Mine Detection and Dog Center, part of the overall United Nations mine-clearing agency in Afghanistan....
HealthNet TPO, the Dutch aid agency which specializes in rehabilitating healthcare systems in war zones and disaster areas, has projects in nine districts in Khost Province, Raaid said.
No group has claimed responsibility for either of the abductions, the latest in a surge of attacks and kidnappings by Taliban insurgents and criminal gangs....
And CUI BONO, 'eh? I'll bet it was "Al-CIA-Duh!"
--more--"
Btw, Globe, WHAT HAPPENED to OUR SOLDIER that was CAPTURED by TALIBAN?
Hey, what is ONE MORE OMISSION in a "paper" full of 'em!?
Related:
We leave the stuff everywhere we go, don't we?
"Iraq far behind in mine clearance; Weapons remain buried, scattered" by Patrick Quinn, Associated Press | July 2, 2009
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government’s failure to grasp the scope of its land mine and bomb problem has derailed efforts to clear what is considered one of the world’s most contaminated countries, two United Nations agencies said yesterday.
A government decision to ban all civilian land mine clearance because of military fears that the old weapons will wind up in the hands of militants has threatened Iraq’s chances of meeting its internationally mandated obligation to clear the country of land mines and unexploded remnants of war by 2018.
“They are in the same league as Afghanistan in terms of saturation,’’ said Kent Paulusson, the United Nations Development Fund’s senior mine action adviser for Iraq during a presentation yesterday. “The government needs to recognize the size of the problem and deal with it.’’
Iraq’s land mine problem is a result of the war with Iran in the 1980’s, Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and the 2003 invasion, Paulusson said. While the problem has been overshadowed by the internal strife and near civil war that broke out three years ago, the deadly weapons remain buried and scattered across the country and along its borders. The UN said they affect the lives of 1.6 million Iraqis.
The problem areas are spread across the country, and a partial survey published in a report jointly presented in Baghdad by the UN Development Program and UNICEF indicates that so far they have identified 4,000 contaminated hazard areas totaling 670 square miles. Although the number of remaining mines is unclear, an Iraqi report submitted to the UN last year said that 20 million anti-personnel mines were sown by Iraq’s military alone on the borders and the southern oil fields during the various wars.
The two wars against the United States also littered many parts of the southern desert along the borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with cluster bombs, in addition to the mines laid by Saddam Hussein’s forces. The UN overview cited a report that 50 million cluster sub-munitions were used in Iraq from 1991 to 2006.
The number of victims from land mines and other unexploded remnants of war was also unclear because of a lack of an adequate reporting mechanism in Iraq in recent years. According to the UN report, land mines and unexploded remnants of war have also prevented economic development of some areas, including potential oil fields....
Paulusson said that to clear the areas that have already been identified, Iraq needs 19,000 de-miners working for the next 10 years. But it has only 300 for the whole country, excluding the Kurdish north, and they have been banned by the government from operating. Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government has been running its own de-mining program since 1993.
Yeah, we only start wars; we don't clean them up.
The government banned civilian de-miners because of security concerns, as mines and unexploded ordnance are the primary materials for the manufacture of car and roadside bombs, and is relying instead on the military....
The Iraqi military has said it can do the job. It does not want civilian involvement and says that private companies in the past have proven questionable - a veiled reference to private security firms.
And they called it liberation.
