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| Bohle and Blagden at work. |
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| P. Blagden inspecting what an anti-vehicle
mine left of a truck. |
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| You can find these wrecks all over
Angola |
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Working
with the Foreign Office: from desk to mine field
Germany’s Foreign Office has increased considerably its humanitarian
efforts in Africa, the continent which suffers most from crises and natural
desasters. The whole extend of the humanitarian catastrophe in Angola has
shown only 2002 after decades of civil war.
As emissaries by the Foreign Office Paddy Blagden and Vera Bohle visisted
the operations of the German foundation Menschen gegen Minen e.V. (People
Against Landmines). Starting from the by now considerably enlarged Central
Campl in Ondjiva the two experts of the Geneva International Centre for
Humanitarian Demining GICHD evaluated the safety and quality standards of
mine-clearance operations run by MgM director Ken O’Connell in the
South of Angola.
It is of great importance to the Foreign Office that the supplied means
will be used to the direct benefit of the people threatened by mines. A
meticulous examination is made of the salaries of the international staff,
the administrative costs of a project, the transparency of the cost calculation
as a whole etc.
In 2002 the German Foreign Office supplied approx. 18.2 million Euro for
around 60 projects in 19 countries. A large part went to the MgM operated
countries Angola and Mozambique.
Since 1996 – that is already during the civil war – MgM has been
clearing mines in Angola with financial help from the German Foreign Office.
A
short portrait - Vera
Bohle
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