For Immediate Release

 

Desert Convoy Leads The Way For A New Humanitarian Project

 

In July 2006, a volunteer-driven convoy of specially armoured vehicles and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance equipment will begin a journey covering 2,000 kilometres across the West African desert, marking the start of a new humanitarian initiative to address the problem of UXO contamination in the Western Sahara and its impact on the civilian population.

 

The Western Sahara, a territory the size of France on the Atlantic coast of North Africa, was the focus of intense conflict between Morocco and Polisario, the Saharawi resistance movement.

 

The most heavily mined areas of the country are alongside the berm, a 2,400km long earthwork fortification that runs the length of the Western Sahara dividing the Moroccan and Polisario controlled zones. However, the fighting has also left the wider region littered with explosive debris, including cluster munitions, and has made travelling in the territory a lethal proposition.

 

Although 160,000 displaced Saharawis occupy refugee camps in the south of Algeria awaiting an opportunity to return home, many people have maintained their traditional nomadic lifestyles which place them at risk from the unexploded ordnance. An eventual repatriation of refugees in such conditions would increase the humanitarian problem.

 

Landmine Action's survey and clearance initiative is the first such project in the Western Sahara and, working with Polisario and the UN Mission for the Referendum in the Western Sahara (MINURSO), aims to build local capacity for swift response and clearance into the future. Results of this project will include:

 

·        Building confidence amongst the civilian population, in particular nomadic pastoralists.

·        Ensuring peacekeeping forces and NGOs have free access to all areas.

·        Demonstrating serious planning for movement towards a settlement of the sovereignty issue in the Western Sahara.

 

During the initial stages of the project, two teams of six demobilised Polisario army engineers will be trained by Bosnian, British and Russian experts to map minefields and destroy cluster munitions.

 

The long term plan will see the formation of a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) to take responsibility for the continuation of the project.

 

A spokesperson for Landmine Action said,

 

"Landmine Action is committed to protecting vulnerable civilians from the effects of conflict.

The people of the Western Sahara are taking a proactive approach to post conflict issues as well as addressing the present humanitarian impact of the ongoing dispute on the people of the region. Landmine Action will do what it can to support such endeavours to protect civilians from the impact of conflict."

 

Notes for Editors:

 

 

·        The vehicles and specialist equipment will be shipped from the UK to the Algerian port of Oran from where they will be driven over three days, through Algeria before arriving in Tifariti, Western Sahara.

 

·        Initial funding for this project has been provided by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

 

·        In November 2005, the Polisario Front, signed a Deed of Commitment to the Ottawa Treaty, agreeing to abide by a complete ban on the use of anti personnel mines. They subsequently met their obligation to destroy all stockpiles of the weapons in February 2006, assisted by Landmine Action and witnessed by a number of foreign government officials and international organisations.

 

·        Landmine Action works to protect non-combatants from weapon-specific threats both during and after conflict. Protection is developed both through practical action and through development of improved international law to cover the use, manufacture, stockpiling and transfer of weapons.

 

·        Landmine Action is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee

 

·        As the UK arm of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Landmine Action was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

 

For more information on the Western Sahara project or the work of Landmine Action, contact Therese Lyras on 020 7820 0222 or email tlyras@....