"If the will is strong enough, a single person can do something good." Inspired by this motto Hans Georg Kruessen went to Africa in 1992 together with Hendrik Ehlers to work in humanitarian demining operations in Angola. This decision changed their lives into something very special until today: Demining to them is much more than a profession. How did it all start? How the daily work in the minefields of Africa looks like? How about the risks? "Kanimambo" – Welcome in Mozambique. An Interview with Hans Georg Kruessen, Direktor and Co-Founder of MgM:

Mr. Kruessen: You are one of the founders of MgM, and still working yourselves in the field. You are also the inventors of many machines and materials that help with demining. When did you meet Hendrik the first time - and when did you and Hendrik decide to get together and work on demining?

+ Hendrik and me know each other since our childhood, we come from the same small village in Germany, close to the Dutch border, and visited the same school.
In 1992, we decided to go to Angola to volunteer in a demining program of a German NGO, that had just started. As we both speak Portuguese and had some technical and administrative background respectively, we were not completely unsuitable for the job, but we had to learn from the Angolans -on site.

Have you been fed up with a normal life here in Europe, just searching some adventures? Give some informations about the motivation for which you chose Africa for your demining work ?

+ I was actually busy applying for a job with another development agency, when Hendrik's mother overheard an appeal in the radio to volunteer for demining in Angola. Hendrik phoned me to ask if I would come along, and we decided to go for it.
As most people, I think, we were attracted by the possibility of making some sense with what you are doing for a living.
When Hendrik and me visited a remote island in northern Brazil earlier, we made friends with an old former missionary, who had changed the life of tens of thousands on this island for better. I guess, this guy served as a kind of inspiration for both of us, as we saw, that a single person can actually make a change, if one really wants to.

What was life there when you started ?

+ In the beginning, the conditions were extremely hard, as we had to start up from zero. The civil war in Angola had just resumed, and most people from other relief agencies were actually fleeing the country, as we were getting in. Some said, it would be crazy to attempt to do humanitarian demining under such circumstances. But after some time, we saw that the war was not all over the place, and that we could work very well in areas, that had been affected by mines for years, but were relatively safe now. After all, most of the Angolans were very grateful for our assistance.
In the beginning, the road that connected our operational area with Namibia, and which we relied upon totally for our logistics and our own safeguard, was frequently mined by rebels. As we were clearing the mine belts, these incidents became more and more sparse.

How did you start anyhow? Hire people, show them how to do this dangerous work? Did you already have trucks?

+ The Angolan sappers (=mine clearers) were actually quite capable of doing the job. What they were missing was the right framework in terms of infrastructure and the political will to do it. One must not forget that until the end of the 80's-beginning of the 90's, mines were thought of as an defensive measure, also to protect the civilian population. This kind of thinking was changing only slowly. We supplied them with trucks, detectors, medical services, radio communication, batteries and so on, as without these things you can't do any sustainable demining. On the other hand, we supervised and tried to set up the political framework for the operation.

Can you give us a short description of a normal day of yours at the moment in Mozambique?

+ I'm either in the capital, Maputo, where we run a small office, or in the field, some 3,5 hours from here. Typically, there are two office days per week for me, as we have to liaise with the government and fight the bureaucracy, for example when we have to bring in machines from the exterior. Right now, I'm busy preparing the temporary importation of an armored excavator from the USA and twelve demining rats fom Tanzania. In the field, we wake up at 4.30 a.m., because operations start at 6.00.
The manual demining with detectors has to stop at 1.00 p.m., because it gets too hot in the afternoons. But the machines do vegetation cutting and soil sifting until 17.00 p.m.. Although my job is more a co-coordinating one, I also have to cross-check on the ground, if for example the detectors are calibrated the right way, the safety is o.k. and so on. To be honest, this can be boring sometimes, and you must always pay attention that the routine doesn't make you negligent.

You are working in Mozambique and Hendrik Ehlers is working in Angola and Namibia? Do you exchange your experiences and how do you communicate?

+ We meet every couple of months, when Hendrik comes to Mozambique or I go to Angola/ Namibia. Apart from that, we phone regularly and exchange emails. Sometimes we meet during Christmas holydays in Germany.

The communication may anyhow be very important and sure not easy to organize in Africa's bush , how do you get along with phone's , mails, etc. ?

+ We use radio communications (HF and VHF) in an out of the bush. We also have satellite phones, but they are very expensive. Since recently, we can even use our cell phones on certain spots in the camp or with a special antenna. Email is only feasible from and to Maputo. In general, Mozambique's infrastructure is much better than the one in Angola, as the war has stopped here ten years ago, already.

Where do you work just now and which are the challenges you have to solve?

+ We are working on a forty kilometer long minefield along the Limpopo Railway, that is difficult to clear because of the vegetation and the chaotic way in which it has been laid. This year, we have to speed up our clearance rate significantly in order to meet the donor's deadline. We hope to do this by introducing new methods and machines.

What are the comments of the natives when they see you demining the countryside? Do they work together with you?

+ Of course they are very grateful, as it is their children and their cattle that would step on the mines. We always have some guys from the local villages working with us, so they can trust our work and help us finding the outer limits of the minefield.
Often, the cleared minefields are used immediately for cultivating crops like maize and cassava after clearance.

The same question we asked Hendrik Ehlers: What was your most dangerous experience you had 'till now?

+ I don't know what he answered, but I think one of the most dangerous situations I've ever been in was with Hendrik and a German delegation in '95 here in Mozambique, when we were still being introduced to the problem here. A German official led us into a minefield that he thought was already cleared. Only when we were already standing in the middle of the minefield with some of the bounding fragmentation mines ("jumping jacks") right next to us, we found out that he had misinterpreted the map.
If we had set off one of those, we all would have been dead.
In our day-to-day routine, we try to avoid these kind of situations, of course.

What could you tell the donors in the "first world", why is your work so very important for a country plagued with mines?

+ Mines-and most other modern weapons- have not been invented and produced in countries like Angola and Mozambique, but came mostly from developed countries in the northern hemisphere. By supplying the means and the know-how for clearing them, we can at least help the people here to become self -sustaining again, as they were before the armed conflicts. Mine clearance is a pre-requisite for reconstruction of infrastructures and development.

Do you personally have any spare time? What you do then? How do you relax between this work that needs such a lot of concentration and experience?

+ I like music and listen to it whenever I can. Sometimes, I visit live music events with some friends here in the capital.
Mozambique has a very interesting music culture.

A final question Mr. Kruessen: What do you wish, that at the end of your engagement will be said about you:

+ Maybe that, after all the efforts, our work has made a bit of a difference for the people here in Africa. I know that this sounds kind of vain, though.
By the way: Mozambique is -like Angola- a portuguese speaking country, so you could say ciao, adeus or ate amanha, but in the local language here in the South, Machangana, good bye means "Namunka !"

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