Farming Mines in Armenia

In times of war, mines are placed to trap the enemy. But what happens in times of peace, when those mines remain?

"I have a pear orchard of seven thousand square metres on the border," said local farmer Vachagan Simonian. "Every year this orchard could bring in a crop of around seven thousand tonnes and I could sell it for around two thousand dollars - but I can’t."

"People cannot till their land, they have no income, which is why they have to leave to work in Russia," said Aharon Asilbekian, deputy head of the village administration.

An estimated 69,000 residents in 60 villages in Armenia are afflicted by the problem.

Pretty tragic. If you remember, the issue was previously covered on Armenia Blog.

Source: IWPR

Removing Unexploded Mines from Karabakh

Here are just a few snippets from the article, but I encourage you read the whole thing.

Although both Armenian and Azerbaijani forces used land mines during the Karabakh conflict, HALO has received information about mine placement only from the Armenian and breakaway Karabakh governments. HALO currently employs 210 local residents in de-mining and support program operations.

Some 287 mine-related casualties or fatalities have been recorded in Karabakh since 1995, the organization says. Another 215 accidents have occurred. As of December, only two fatalities were recorded in 2006, and nine accidents with anti-personnel mines or unexploded ordnance took place.

Though HALO claims that Karabakh has the world’s highest incident of mines per capita (one per 13 residents, three times the number in Afghanistan), finding funding for mine clearance in the territory has been a challenge, according to Kumnova. The program manager charged that Azerbaijan’s suspicion of HALO’s operations lies at the root of the problem.

Kumnova estimates that another five to six years remain before the territory can be considered "mine-impact free." HALO has cleared about 16 million square meters of land to date; another 10 million square meters remain.

An interesting article with frightening statistics. No matter which side you're reading this from, I'm sure you will agree that mutual cooperation and funding is the only way to quickly prevent more innocent deaths.

Source: Eurasianet