{"id":2527,"date":"2017-08-31T10:29:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T10:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2527"},"modified":"2017-09-01T10:37:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T10:37:43","slug":"karabakh-de-mining-continues-amid-rising-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2527","title":{"rendered":"Karabakh: De-mining Continues Amid Rising Tension"},"content":{"rendered":"

By STEPHEN M. BLAND*
\nEurasiaNet<\/em><\/p>\n

At 7 AM on a recent Monday morning, the staff of the HALO Trust gathered at their compound in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. This summer, tension has been running high amid frequent exchanges of gunfire<\/a> along the line of contact separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This deminer is part of a team clearing the last known minefield in Myurishen in Nagorno Karabakh (photo: twitter.com\/TheHALOTrust<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid the constant chatter of the rising risk of a resumption of all-out warfare in Karabakh, HALO Trust staffers are continuing their work of trying to eradicate a pernicious legacy of the conflict. As the world\u2019s largest humanitarian mine clearance organization, the HALO Trust<\/a> has had a permanent presence in Karabakh since 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are currently 210 staff working at 15 sites,\u201d Amasia Zargarian, the Caucasus Program Support Officer, told EurasiaNet.org.<\/p>\n

Since 1995, landmines have caused 370 civilian casualties in Karabakh, one of the highest per capita rates in the world. At its peak in 2004, 43 casualties involving mines and unexploded ordnance were recorded. By 2016, that figure fell to just a single incident.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest issues facing the HALO Trust is that the bulk of mined areas are located beyond the Soviet-era boundaries of Karabakh, creating problems in terms of funding and accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest donor, USAID, and other bilateral donors aren\u2019t willing to fund clearance conducted beyond the Soviet-era boundaries,\u201d Zargarian explained. \u201cA couple of years ago, though, we had a private family foundation based in the US who pledged up to $4M in matched funding to clear Karabakh by 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political sensitivities complicate HALO\u2019s work, according to Zargarian. \u201cAzerbaijan doesn\u2019t like the fact that we work here,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey lobby very actively to stop what we\u2019re doing \u2013 especially in the US Congress \u2013 saying we work with the [Armenian] military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zargarian rejected the accusation of bias. \u201cWe\u2019re very careful in maintaining ourselves as a non-political organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The flare-up of fighting in April 2016 marked a setback for the HALO Trust\u2019s efforts. After the heavy fighting died down between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, HALO representatives discovered new areas of \u201ccontamination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are large swathes in the Lachin Corridor and the south-east we\u2019re not clearing at the moment because they\u2019re very close to the line of contact,\u201d he said, adding that the organization is conducting an awareness campaign to teach children to stay away from ordnance that litters the area.<\/p>\n

De-mining is a painstaking process. A crowdfunding campaign in 2016 raised $30,000 towards clearance efforts of a minefield just beyond the Soviet-era boundary near Myurishen (Miru\u015fen), a village in the Khojavend Region of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenian forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mines here were laid by Armenians to protect the village,\u201d area supervisor Arkadi Zakharyan explained. \u201cOne of the deminers was posted here during the war, so he knows where some are planted.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a second site near the village of Harav, in Azerbaijan\u2019s Khojaly Region, the stillness was broken by the hammering of markers into the ground; red sticks demarcated the limits of a cleared area, yellow \u2013 the site of destroyed mines. \u201cIn Harav, mines were planted close to the footpaths, but they\u2019re long since overgrown,\u201d Zakharyan said. \u201cWhen we surveyed this area, we found a 320 centimeter-long Grad missile still live and being used as part of a fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zargarian, the program officer, said that despite the rising risk of conflict, HALO Trust remains hopeful that it can have all currently known minefields cleared by 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, we\u2019ve cleared approximately 90 percent of known mined areas,\u201d Zargarian said. \u201cWe know it\u2019s a really ambitious goal, but we think it\u2019s achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Stephen M. Bland is a freelance journalist who covers the Caucasus and Central Asia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published by EurasiaNet.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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