Statement given by Guy Willoughby, HALO Trust, on behalf of the NGO
Perspective.
Mr. President,
It is over 16 years since I set up The Halo Trust in Afghanistan, and
globally we now have more than 6,000 deminers ? clearing more mines, more
hectares and using more equipment than any other demining agency. Perhaps this
is why I have been invited to speak on behalf of “The NGO Perspective” ? a
group of mine clearance NGOs. This month the international community and many
mine affected countries are reviewing the 10 year mine clearance programmes
launched through the Ottawa Treaty to eradicate landmines ? to create the first
mine free states by 2009. But I should not be here at Nairobi; in fact none of
us should be here at all. HALO believes that by now we should all have finished
mine clearance, or at least cleared the vast majority of mines that people and
livestock may tread on.
But have we finished ? No. And will you fulfil your 10-year obligations? In
most mine affected countries ? probably not. It is thoroughly depressing that
HALO will probably reach its 21st birthday in 5 years time and still be
clearing large numbers of mines along with our NGO Perspective partners and
other actors. It will not be a birthday to celebrate, more a recognition that
some thing, some plan, some how has gone terribly wrong and has resulted in the
deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of mine victims out in the communities,
who had been waiting for many years for the clearance teams to arrive and clear
their fields and homesteads.
Were these communities living in false hope? Yes ? they were. And in 1945
did Europeans in Narvik, Naples, Normandy and Nijmegen live in false hope that
the landmines in their fields would be cleared? We have been researching history
and talking to engineers, and we can tell you that the answer is NO ? because
they were cleared ? millions and millions of landmines were cleared and they
were cleared by 1950. One example, the Director of Handicap International
France was recently in Kosovo and accompanied Raymond Aubrac, a well known
resistance figure during World War II. In 1945, Aubrac was tasked by General de
Gaulle with the clearance of French soil under a civilian ministry, to allow
the quick resumption of desperately needed civilian activities. Despite a lack
of understanding of the problem and despite the scarce technical resources
available, the bulk of this immense task was actually completed within just a
few years. In Kosovo Raymond Aubrac met Endrit, a young boy of 8 who lost his
right leg in March 2004 less than 50 metres from his home. Commenting on this
appalling accident, Aubrac made an astonishing reflection: “Perhaps the
clearance of France was in fact so quickly implemented that the population
didn’t have to endure the permanence of a threat like this one. If it had been
more lasting and painful, my fellow citizens would better remember their ordeal
and subsequently their support for mine clearance projects would be more
forthcoming today.”
Although direct comparisons can be difficult to make, these many millions
of mines were cleared in France and elsewhere in Europe in 5 years, while it
has taken 10 years and more to clear far fewer numbers in post-conflict
countries such as Croatia, Bosnia, Angola, Mozambique, Cambodia, Vietnam and so
on. Some areas have had mine clearance interrupted by short outbreaks of
fighting such as in Afghanistan, northern Iraq or longer as in Chechnya. But
the vast majority of mine action programmes have kept going. So why is the work
not finished?
The answer is simple. It often boils down to a lack of determination to get
the job done ? and that means a lack of determination by some of the people who
run “Mine Action”. Instead managers, whether they be UN, government and even
non-government, seem content to encourage millions of dollars being spent NOT
on mineclearance, but yet more endless working groups, workshops, information
management systems, symposia, strategies, studies, standards, plans, policies,
portfolios, principled programming, processes, procedures, quality management,
mainstreaming, methodologies, measurables, monitoring, quality control,
consultations, consultants, courses, conferences, capacity building ? and the
full range of outreaches, outputs, inputs, indicators, impacts, intervention
logic, linkages, gendering, thematics, logical frameworks, normative
frameworks, blockages, goals and supergoals. Oh, of course, we accept that some
of these are important, but Europe was cleared with simple planning by
experienced practitioners, followed by action. It was “the product, not the
process” that was important. Mineclearance is not difficult ? it has been
described as a mix of gardening and archaeology ? in fact not really much more
difficult than digging up potatoes or cassava ? just more dangerous and
requiring strict but simple procedures.
So how has it got confused? Probably because the senior managers think landmines must be treated like other humanitarian disasters and need a full blown “multi-layered” response, like the responses for drought, flooding, hurricanes, locust or HIV AIDS. But these are all recurring ? mines are not. The lucky thing is that MINES DON’T HAVE SEX. Once cleared, mines are gone, finito, terminado, khallas.
So please everybody let's get the problem solved now. Let's stand by the
affected countries and concentrate on a tangible product and not a theoretical
process. Let's replace false hope with real hope, and not leave this conference
without a commitment to i
Guy Willoughby
Director, The HALO Trust
ntensify and accelerate our mine clearance efforts.
30 November 2004 SPAMFILTER@halotrust.org