An Cosantóir

18 | Report by Wesley Bourke Photos by Cpl Colum Lawlor An Cosantóir July/August 2013 www.dfmagazine.ie I n our interview with Brig Gen Patrick Phelan (Feb 2013 issue), the UNIFIL DFC spoke about the effort being made to mark an agreed border along the Blue Line/Line of Withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel. However, the agreed locations of many of the marker posts are in areas littered with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). To make safe paths for the various authorities to access the marker locations, UNIFIL employs 11 de-mining teams. The Belgian de-mining contingent shares Camp 245 with the Irish/Finnish battalion. It is important to put the situation in South Lebanon in context regarding mines and UXO. Trying to quantify the amount of these items left behind after the numerous conflicts over recent decades would be like trying to estimate the number of grains of sand on a beach. In any event, mines and UXO remain a continuous threat to military personnel and civilians alike. Following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 the Mine Action Co-ordination Centre (MACC) was established to commence de-mining to make the area safe for military personnel and the civilian population. There are 20 de-mining teams (from the UN, the LAF and NGOs) carrying out this work for MACC. In the wake of the 2006 IDF/Hezbollah conflict, MACC estimated that 48.1 million square metres of land were contaminated. While MACC has confirmed 1,058 cluster bomb unit (CBU) strike locations, the exact extent of the contamination will remain inconclusive in the absence of detailed Israeli strike data. Since the end of the 2006 conflict, in excess of 150,000 CBUs; 15,600 items of UXO; and 526 unexploded bombs have been cleared. Furthermore, more than 30 million square meters have been cleared either visually (surface) or sub-surface. The primary operational task for UNIFIL's de-mining teams is to clear paths through minefields to allow for the marking of the Blue Line or 'blue points' as the de-miners call them. UNIFIL's current 11 combat engineering de-mining teams come from Belgium, Cambodia, China, France, Italy and Spain. The Belgian de-mining contingent consists of 106 personnel, 33 of whom make up the de-mining platoon. Their equipment and procedures are largely the same as those employed by Defence Forces de-mining teams; the only differences being in terminology and equipment suppliers.

• Cover