US helping secure Libya arms stockpiles: White House

Carney said five contractor specialists were on the ground to work with the new Libyan leadership to secure weapons stockpiles.

The US State Department has provided $3 million to help destroy weapons and raised particular concern over the spread of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, also known as Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS), which could be used to target civilian aircraft.

AFP September 27 2011

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — The United States is working closely with Libya’s new interim leaders to secure all arms stockpiles, amid concerns over weapons proliferation, the White House said Tuesday.

“Since the beginning of the crisis we have been actively engaged with our allies and partners to support Libya’s effort to secure all conventional weapons stockpiles including recovery, control and disposal of shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles,” spokesman Jay Carney said.

“We are exploring every option to expand our support,” he told reporters on Air Force One as President Barack Obama toured western states.

US General Carter Ham, who led the first stage of the coalition air campaign in Libya, said in early April that there were fears that militants could seize some of the estimated 20,000 shoulder-launched missiles in Libya, calling it “a regional and an international concern.”

The proliferation of arms raided from the vast stores of ex-strongman Moamer Kadhafi is raising fears not only for Libya’s future stability, but also that the weapons will fall into the hands of radical groups like Al-Qaeda

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LEBANON: Meeting bolsters cluster munitions convention

BEIRUT, 22 September 2011 (IRIN) –

Over 100 children have been killed or maimed by cluster munitions in Lebanon since 2006, a senior army officer told IRIN at a recent international meeting on cluster bombs in Beirut.

Since 2006, cluster munitions have killed or injured 408 Lebanese civilians, 115 of whom were children, Maj Pierre Bou Maroun, chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces Regional Mine Action Centre (RMAC) in Nabatiyeh, told IRIN on the sidelines of the second meeting of states parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions which ended on 16 September.

RMAC coordinates all demining operations in the country.

Speaking at the meeting, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman called cluster munitions a “despicable weapon” designed to “sustain programmed killing and handicapping” long into the future. He said the Lebanese state was “fully committed” to the Convention, “particularly when it comes to assisting victims of cluster munitions and ridding its territory” of the weapons.

The meeting brought together representatives from over 115 governments, the UN, civil society organizations and cluster munitions survivors to discuss how to advance the Convention’s key obligations.

“Governments need to demonstrate that they are acting with the urgency and comprehensiveness that they have promised in eliminating cluster munitions and addressing the effects these inhumane weapons have on civilians all over the world,” said Steve Goose, chair of the Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) and director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch.

Lebanon and Tunisia are the only Arab states to have ratified the Convention. Iraq has signed but not yet ratified.

According to the CMC, Iraq and Lebanon are the worst-affected countries in the Middle East/North Africa region, but Libya is the most recently contaminated country, following use of cluster munitions by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi earlier this year.

The Beirut meeting heard that as a result of the Convention, around 50 percent of the world’s cluster munitions have been destroyed. In Lebanon, the CMC said, around 66 percent of contaminated land has been cleared and returned to residents.

Goose said that while the success was impressive, some 80 countries had still not signed the Convention, including some of the world’s biggest manufacturers, users or stockpilers of cluster munitions, such as Israel, the US, China, Russia, Pakistan and India

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Libyan rebels in Brega shift focus

AFP  July 25 2011

Libyan rebels say demining efforts outside the eastern oil hub Barge are being hampered by a lack of specialised kit, and that fighting against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces has lost some intensity.

“We have no choice. We have to clear the sand of mines,” Mohammed Seaway, a spokesman for the Union of Revolutionary Forces in Addable, told AFP.

He said the mine problem has sapped some momentum from the campaign to clear Barge of loyalists, although the rebels said on Sunday they captured one soldier and sent scores more fleeing west to Abuser village on the road to Ras Laming

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D.R. CONGO: Graduation day for two new MAG-FARDC demining teams

Sixteen members of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Armed Forces will carry out important clearance work to make the DRC a safer country after being trained by MAG.

ALERTNET  July 12, 2011

The FARDC (Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo) personnel make up two Manual Clearance Teams, formed with the support of the UK Department for International Development under MAG’s new “Linking Mine Action and Development” project in DRC.

Having completed the basic deminers course in accordance with International Mine Action Standards, the teams will now apply their theoretical and practical knowledge to contribute to the national humanitarian demining clearance operations. This will be done under supervision from the MAG Technical Field Managers who conducted their month-long training.

One team will deploy to Dimbelenge territory in Kasai Occidental province, to conduct technical survey and clearance work of high-priority Suspected Hazardous Areas, while the other will deploy to Bas Congo province, carrying out the equally high-priority clearance of the Lindu minefield

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Landmines kill 20, injure 75 Cambodians in 5 months

Peoples Daily

Cambodia has seen 95 landmine casualties in the first five months of this year, with 20 killed and other 75 injured, a report said on Tuesday.

According to the report from the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System, from 1979 to May 2011, a total of 63,901 mine/ERW casualties were recorded. Of the casualties, 19,595 were killed and 44,306 injured from mine/ERW accidents.

It added that 81 percent of the victims were men, 8 percent were women, and 11 percent were children.

Cambodia is one of most mine affected nations in the world as the result of 30 years of armed conflict. Mines had been laid in Cambodia during the decades of chronic conflicts from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.

Cambodia’s five most mine-laid provinces are Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pailin and Preah Vihear.

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