Operations in Mozambique
Real progress at Limpopo
The exuberant vegetation in the mine-infested beltts left and right of he Limpopo railway and the irregular laying patterns caused the Limpopo demining operation, which is sponsored by the German government, to proceed only sluggishly for a long time. Now the work is making good headway.
This year also the US government supports the MgM project by generously supplying heavy special machinery to clear the extremely dense vegetation. Additionally – for the field test of this prototype - the US government agreed to build a ROTAR-mine-sieving-drum especially for this machine. The Unidisk, which weighs tons, arrived by ship over the Atlantic Ocean to the east coast of Africa.
After an eventful transport (three flat tyres) of the heavy demining device from the port of the Mozambique capital Maputo to its destination in Monte Alto the Unidisk and the material container with spare parts were unloaded from the flatcar.
The new Rotar-sieving-drum, build according to MgM specifications, could be mounted without any problems. But first another tool, the hydraulic vegetation cutter, was applied.
First tasks
In an area directly opposite the Limpopo railway and not far from the main mine field the MgM team got familiar with the new device. A so-called „confidence area”, meaning free from vegetation could be created in relatively short time near to the field of operations.Especially Hans Georg Kruessen, mgM director and in charge of the Limpopo operations was especially glad about the enormous strength and wide range of the UNIDISK: 24000 sqm in only 4 hours! Finally a fast way to get rid of the exuberant tropical vegetation in the mine field next to the railway station!
All of a sudden work is making good headway. Difficulties arising every once in a while when you work with new devices could be overcome with „the ship’s own means” and the help of the experienced MgM mechanics.
Mine explosion
When an anti-personnel-mine of type Gyate (approx 200 grs of TNT) exploded during the work with the UNIDISK no determinable damage resulted. The explosion happened in a area opposite a water passage inside a railway embankment which we had cleared the year before. There we found several mines which confirmed the information given to us by experts for the local mine situation. The new mines and others found by our team of manual deminers in the region now, must have been placed in the last phase of the civil war; their condition was much better than that of the mines we found in the older main mine field along the rails.
Emergency assistance in bridge construction
The high value of UNIDISK for demining Mozambique’s infrastructure was shown by several operations around large bridge building sites. Any other method than sieving through the suspicious ground with a Rotar drum would have been too dangerous. Again it was the enormous strength and range of the device which prevented a stop of the bridge building projects.
Dates, facts and figures
In three years of demining projects in Mozambique a lot has been reached. How strenuous and time-consuming humanitarian demining can be, however, will be demonstrated by a few facts and figures of the year 2002:
In spite of adverse conditions of this project MgM was able to dig many anti-personnel and anti-group mines from the ground and defuse them. 232.441,5 sqm of mine-infested land could be given back to the people of the region. But not every time the metal detector gives its typical signal, is there a mine. The MgM deminers had to carefully follow a mine suspicion 73 734 times (!) and dig out a suspicious peace of metal with the Minensuchnadel. 73034 times it was an empty cartridge shell, a piece of wire, the zip of a can of coke. 689 times it was a lethal anti-personnel mine or an anti-group mine, killing or badly hurting everything within a radius of 50 metres.
It is true: the trouble, the risks and the costs are large, but somebody has to dig out the lethal heritage of the war and render it inocuous. MgM does.
