Tajikistan
The Landmine Problem
Tajikistan has completed its transition to a peaceful nation since the civil war which stretched from 1992 to 1997 ended. But the war left an estimated 16,000 landmines in Tajikistan which cover 2,500 square kilometers of agricultural land and 600 kilometers of roads and paths. The vast majority of the mine fields are unmarked consequently injuring and even killing people while farming, hunting and tending livestock. The minefields prevent people from using the fertile ground which would otherwise be harvested for their valuable resources. As of 12 September 2004 the total number of casualties since collections of casualties numbers began in Tajikistan was 165 individuals.
Humanitarian Demining Programs
As
the poorest country in Central Asia, Tajikistan needs all the outside help
it can get in order to rid the land of mines. With the appointing of the Commission
on Implementation of International Humanitarian Law (CIIHL) as the legal authority
for mine action the Tajik government has laid a solid foundation with which
to build on. In 2003 the United Kingdom’s Department for International
Development (DFID) provided $250,000 to go towards the first ten month’s
operation of TMAC. The responsibilities of TMAC are to plan and coordinate
all mine action activities in Tajikistan including surveys, mine field clearance,
mine risk education and survivor assistance.
The Tajikistan government also signed an agreement with the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action in order to train survey and manual mine clearance teams using personnel from the Tajik Army Engineer Battalion. Mine clearance operations have since begun but progress is slow due to limited personnel. Regrettably, there are currently no mine detection dogs in Tajikistan.
