In March 2012 Ambassador Halvorsen and intern Gjørven visited NPA’s mine clearance project on the Afghan border, together with Country Manager for the project Jonas Zachrisson. In addition to 9 million NOK (1.6 million USD) from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the project in Tajikistan received 6 million NOK after the big Norwegian television charity event “Tv-aksjonen” in 2011. The event raised money for Norwegian People’s Aid’s mine clearance programs in six countries, including Tajikistan. It was broadcasted on the main national TV channel, and a large number of the population went from door to door collecting money for a good cause.
NPA’s work in Tajikistan started in 2010 when the Tajik government requested the organization for assistance in fulfilling the requirements following Tajikistan’s signing of the UN Convention on Land Mines in April 2000. The mine clearance team is clearing an area of 9 km² for mines in the Khatlon Province on the border with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Until now, 2 km² has been cleared, and 1 km² has been declared belonging to the Uzbek side of the border and therefore not within the project. The area is defined as a relatively safe and easy site for mine clearing, and NPA believes the project will be finished in 2014/2015. NPA is trying to build up local capacity so that the project becomes sustainable. “In order for Tajikistan to be able to handle this issue, NPA’s building of local capacity is very important,” said Ambassador Halvorsen to Country Manager Zachrisson. He also commended NPA’s efforts in recruiting female Tajik mine clearers in order to have a good gender balance in the country team.
Ambassador Halvorsen and intern Gjørven received a briefing from two NPA experts who had been employed in Tajikistan after gaining many years of experience in the Western Balkans. They showed how they perform their searches first manually, by mine detectors, to open secure paths to the fields. Then they train dogs to search for mines between these paths. These dogs are also brought from NPA’s training centre in the Western Balkans. They seemed to enjoy their work; looking for mines is easily triggered by their hunter’s instinct. Zachrisson explained how working with dogs is much faster than working manually.
The visit ended with Ambassador Halvorsen himself securely detonating a mine, followed by a sharp noise and a small explosion. It was a rather thrilling experience all under the safe control of NPA experts.
Read more (lim url’ane inn som hyperlinks):
Fact sheet about the UN Convention on Land Mines: http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/selected-topics/humanitarian-efforts/mineban.html?id=467182
NPA Tajikistan: http://www.npaid.org/en/countries/asia/tajikistan/
NPA Tajikistan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/NPA-Tajikistan/237973266241075
Ambassadør Halvorsen getting a briefing from NPA staff with years of mine clearing experience from the West Balkans