Minefield, Askeran, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

To continue on the theme of landmines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), it’s perhaps only right to look at the situation where the problem is likely to be most acute — in Nagorno Karabakh itself. Although the number of casualties is actually quite low in comparison to other zones of conflict, plans to increase the territory’s population and to farm land cause some concern that the number of incidents will increase over time.

In Nagorno Karabakh defensive minefields were laid by both Azeri and pro-Karabakhi forces. Moves in the front lines resulted in minefields and significant quantities of UXO being left in peaceful areas needed for agriculture. In many areas access to prime land is denied and the steady stream of casualties indicates the requirement for widespread mineclearance ahead of cultivation. Aid organisations in the region have had to restrict their operations due to fears of landmines on or just beside roads Naand the presence of unexploded ordnance in and around many villages.

In fact, as any visitor to Karabakh will tell you, it is often hard to imagine that war ever took place in what is otherwise a scenic and mountainous location. Unless you visit the “mini-Hiroshimas” of Aghdam and Fizulu or villages close to the frontline in Mardakert, only the occasional warning signs alerting people to the danger of landmines and UXO indicate that any conflict might of occured at all.

As you can guess, appearances can be deceptive.

For example, in 2001 while returning from Mardakert with Tom de Waal, Caucasus Editor at the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), it was only on our return to Stepanakert that we learned that a tractor had hit a landmine on the very same bridge we had travelled over less than an hour earlier. I’m sure others still don’t realize how lucky they’ve been.

The International Committee to Ban Landmines has some interesting background information on the problem in its 2005 Landmine Monitor report.

The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which battle lines changed frequently and were loosely defined, left Nagorno-Karabakh contaminated with landmines. An estimated 50,000 landmines remain on the former front lines.[3 ] There is also a considerable amount of unexploded ordnance (UXO), as well as some abandoned ammunition.

[…]

A Working Group on Mine Problems, established by the Nagorno-Karabakh government in 1993, was renamed the Mine Action Coordination Committee (MACC).[4 ] The committee has no formal membership, but most of the relevant actors and ministries attend meetings.[5 ] HALO Trust, the only international organization carrying out mine clearance in Nagorno-Karabakh, reports that the working relationship with the committee is good, with coordination meetings held regularly.[6 ]

[…]

According to HALO, priority for clearance is given to areas where the majority of mine incidents occur, or where development activities are planned and decided in consultation with the authorities. There is no overall mine clearance plan, as survey is ongoing to establish the areas and extent of contamination. Due to higher mine casualty rates in 2004, HALO aimed to raise more funding and train and deploy more manual deminers during 2005. This would allow clearance efforts to match expanding agricultural activities.[8]

HALO Trust Battle Area Clearance (BAC), Fizuli, [Armenian-controlled] Republic of Azerbaijan © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

According to the report, incidents with landmines and UXO resulted in 10 deaths and 24 injuries in 2004, although only 1 death was registered in the first half of 2005. However, in an article I wrote for Transitions Online in 2002, the need to farm unused agricultural land, and the return of IDPs to their abandoned villages, makes it likely that more casualties would occur in the event of a peace deal.

That is, unless demining continues at a greater pace than before.

A few kilometers from the border of the officially unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a shepherd sits with his grazing cattle in the lush pastures of Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan. The scene could grace the front of any postcard from the scenic Caucasus. The twisted carcasses of rusting vehicles along the roadside tell a different story, though. The shepherd is sitting in a minefield.

A blast resonates in the distance as a newly discovered, booby-trapped TM-57 anti-tank mine is detonated, but it doesn’t seem to rattle the shepherd or his herd. Along the road, a mine-clearance team from the HALO Trust has already uncovered 17 anti-personnel and three anti-tank mines. Armen Harutyunyan, assistant operations manager for the British charity, says that as many as 200 mines still remain in an area covering just 500 square meters.

[…]

Beyond the threat they pose to human life, landmines and UXO damage people’s livelihood. Between the towns of Askeran and Aghdam, the discovery of a minefield has frustrated plans to construct a water pipeline to the nearby village of Khrmort and the HALO Trust has been called in to clear the area. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 50 million square meters of arable land and more than 80,000 square meters of vineyards are unusable.

Much of this land used to be among the most fertile acreage in the republic–now, much of it has turned fallow. In all, 150 million square meters of land, roads, and forests need to be surveyed for mine clearance operations in Karabakh. Mels Hakobjanian, head of the Mine Awareness Working Group (MAWG), which coordinates mine and UXO activities for the Nagorno-Karabakh government, agrees that the problem is serious.

The map on his desk identifies regional centres such as Askeran, Mardakert, Martuni, and Hadrout as most at risk, but these are only the areas authorities know about. “There are over 15,000 hectares of minefields in Karabakh,” Hakobjanian says from his dilapidated government office overlooking the central square in the capital, Stepanakert. “Only 500 hectares have been cleared.”

“It’s very difficult to figure out where the rest of the mines are,” he continues. “Even around Shushi, which is supposed to be clear, a car was recently blown up by an anti-tank mine.”

Incidently, this article was extensively referenced in the ICBL’s 2002 Landmine Monitor Report on Karabakh, and followed one written a year earlier. Then, my focus was on the largely overlooked problem of UXO, and mine awareness programmes in the unrecognized Republic.

Fifty kilometers north of Stepanakert, the wreckage of an Azerbaijani Mil-Mi 24 Hind B lies strewn across wet and muddy farmland. Armenian forces shot down the helicopter several years earlier, and local residents have since sold much of the rusting, metal carcass as scrap. Ammunition, and the huge, main gun, still cocked and ready to fire, remains however, alongside a rocket pod containing nineteen missiles.

After a cordon is posted to prevent civilians from wandering into the area, the rockets are disposed of immediately. Propellant ignites with the warheads, and smoke and debris reaches seventy meters into the air. Even if the HALO Trust [Hazardous Areas Life-Support Organization] has become synonymous with mine clearance the world over, it considers the problem of unexploded ordnance [UXO] just as seriously.

[…]

In particular, the ICRC Mine Awareness Campaign targets the two groups most at risk - children and agricultural workers. Posters distributed to local authorities, hospitals and schools warn of the danger of landmines and UXO, and the program has since been incorporated into the national curriculum, including schools in Lachin and Kelbajar, as well as in Karabagh proper.

Through games, exercises, illustrations on notebooks, and puppet shows, the program has been particularly successful. Seventeen children were killed or injured in 1999, but only two were among casualty figures last year. Puppeteers from Armenia help school children produce their own localized scenarios, and over seven thousand have attended performances.

Community-based programs target the general population through films shown on television and notices placed in the print-based media, but warning signs are the most noticeable aspect of the campaign while traveling through Karabagh. White signs warn of the danger of landmines and UXO, while red marks known mine fields.

HALO Trust Demining, Askeran, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

HALO Trust Battle Area Clearance (BAC), Fizuli, [Armenian-controlled] Republic of Azerbaijan © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

Since then, however, some progress does appear to have been made, but much work still remains. At a recent Mine Action Workshop held in Tbilisi, Georgia, the problem in Karabakh was specifically singled out for further attention.

Inclusion of mine action on the Minsk Agenda for the peaceful settlement of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories in Azerbaijan.

For more information on the work of the HALO Trust in Nagorno Karabakh, access their website at http://www.halotrust.org. The ICBL has a website at http://www.icbl.org, and its annual Landmine Monitor report can be found here. There’s also an interesting photo essay on the dangers of landmines outside of Karabakh proper in Azerbaijan on the Eurasianet website.

Gourban’s eyes shine angrily as he tells the story of the day he had his arm ripped off by a rocket he found while collecting scrap metal on a former battlefield in the Fizuli region of southern Azerbaijan. Like other villagers’ stories, it starts simply: “I found a piece of metal in the fields.” And then veers into tragedy. Later that same day, Gourban woke up at a hospital missing his left arm from the elbow down.

Gourban’s village of Gazakhlar lies two kilometers from the Iranian border and 800 meters from the frontlines of the Azerbaijani regions occupied by Armenian forces during the 1988-1994 war over the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno Karabakh.

For these shepherds and subsistence farmers, the loss of land has brought suffering and poverty. Armenian patrols now guard the foothills that once provided valuable grazing land for village livestock. With no chance of working the mine-seeded earth, villagers like 27-year-old Gourban have instead been forced to collect and sell as scrap metal the burnt-out anti-tank mines, AK-47 clips and other detritus of war that litter surrounding fields.

Obviously, while the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh remains unresolved, the problem of landmines and UXO in all three Republics will remain.

Minefield and UXO, Askeran, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002