Death serenades of mined valleys

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International organizations need more professionalism and attention when carrying out mine clearance works in Georgia.

On January 22, a contract was signed at the Embassy of Japan granting Georgia $652,835 to clear Mtskheta and Sagarejo of landmines.

The works are commissioned by the Georgian Defense Ministry and will be executed by the international humanitarian organization The HALO Trust.

Mine clearance works in the Mtskheta district are scheduled to start next week and last for five months. As for Sagarejo, clearing the territory of explosive items will start in March 2010 and last for a year.

Why did it become possible to conduct mine clearance works in Mtskheta and Sagarejo districts when there have been no battles on the territories? In both cases first Soviet, then Russian military units were located in the regions.

On the left bank of the intersection of the Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, right below the Jvari Monastery, a Soviet military engineering unit was located for decades and its main purpose was building pontoon bridges.

From1991-1992 the Mtskheta base area, just like territories around other Russian military units, was mined with anti-infantry landmines. Later, Russian generals explained the necessity of these measures with the fear that Georgian armed groupings would attack Russian military units and take weapons.

Further, Russian military units left the area without leaving the landmine location maps and as a consequence, several people fell victim to landmine explosions, including an officer of the Georgian military unit that settled there after the withdrawal of Russians.

The Sagarejo case is even more complicated. Since the 1930s, an engineering base of regional importance was situated there. Over 600 conditional cars of landmines and trotyl were kept there. Its territory was mined several times. If in Mtskheta’s case Russian militants used PMN-2 type landmines, in Sagarejo they used distance control mines along with PMN-2 landmines. The distance control mines contain almost no metal details and it is very difficult to detect them with mine-searchers.

The author of the article along with a Georgian miner upon his personal initiative discovered and destroyed several type-2 mines on the Sagerejo unit territory. However, this is a drop in the sea as the territory of this former Russian military base is stretched over tens of hectares.

Before leaving the base, Russian militants destroyed barbwire and cut the upper surface of the land with bulldozers in order to clear the area of mines. But their action had bad outcomes. First, after removing the barbwire, the local population started visiting the territory of the remote military base more often with the purpose of collecting scrap-iron and remnants of construction materials. Second, Russian bulldozers rolled the cut land into hills and landmines were mixed within those hills making it more complicated to discover them. On the territory of the former Russian military engineering base of Sagarejo, many local residents fell victim to the mines. The place still remains dangerous.

It is a welcome fact that the Japanese government is providing a grant for making Georgian land safer; however, one serious problem needs to be underlined. After the August 2008 War, many unexploded cassette bombs and rockets were left in Shida Kartli, in areas where military actions took place.

According to the 2009 report of the international company banning landmines, Landmine Monitor, several countries and international organizations funded mine clearance works in Georgia in 2008 with $8,705,885.

The HALO Trust received the largest part – 75.8 percent – of the amount. According to the existing data, however incomplete, this organization cleared 3400 ha land of mines and discovered 1700 cassette elements and over 2000 other explosives. In comparison, from August 2008 to September 2009, up to 40 Georgian military mine-clearers without additional funding defused 1900 cassette elements, 600 bombers, 1500 hand-bombs, 16 items of 500 kg and 12 items of 250 kg aviation bombs.

On Jan. 10, 2010 in the village of Meghvrikisi, next to Tskhinvali, local resident Temur Inauri discovered a cassette bomb in his garden 5-10 cm deep in the land. This garden was already cleared of mines by The HALO Trust workers and the owners of the territory had signed the document on the area being cleared and safe.

The case is not unique. Unfortunately, explosive items are found on territories cleared of mines by international organizations. This is why the Information Management and Mine Action Programs (IMMAP) organization, which monitors the quality of humanitarian mine clearance in Georgia, will have to pay more attention to the mine clearance works that will be conducted in Mtskheta and Sagarejo districts, on the territories of former Russian military bases.

Story by Irakli Aladashvili, Editor-in-chief of the military analytical magazine “Arsenali”

29.01.2010