Funding shortage scales back U.N. Afghan anti-mine program

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -- The United Nations said on Friday its program to remove land mines from Afghanistan was being cut back because donor money had run short, raising the possibility of more casualties.

A statement by the Islamabad-based office of the U.N. Coordinator for Afghanistan said the programme would reduce costs by sending team members on unpaid leave, trimming or freezing salaries and putting operations on hold for a month.

RESOURCES Background on Afghanistan

"This cutback means that mine survey, clearance and mine awareness will be substantially reduced during the last third of the year, on top of previous reductions earlier this year when the funding shortfall started to become apparent," it said.

"Any reduction in mine action automatically has severe repercussions for communities," it quoted programme adviser Polly Brennan as saying about clearing unexploded mines and other ordnance and making people aware of the dangers.

"Civilian mine and unexploded ordnance casualties, already estimated as at least 300 per month, can be expected to increase," she added.

The U.N. statement said that in the longer term, the inability of people to use land because of mine contamination during two decades of the Afghan conflict would have "a negative impact on reconstruction and rehabilitation, the return of refugees, agricultural output, and the broader economy."

Brennan attributed the reduced availability of funds to donor fatigue with Afghanistan, where millions of mines and other unexploded ordnance were scattered during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and factional fighting afterwards.

"The international community does not always understand that despite the conflict we have been able to conduct successful mine action operations for the past decade."

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United Nations Mine Action Service
UNICEF, Land-mines: A deadly inheritance
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Land Mines Conference
Remarks by Pres. Clinton on Land Mines
Canadian Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Safelane Project
Taleban home page
Afghan Info Center

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