I wrote an opinion column in The Examiner (Independence, MO, USA) this weekend calling on Russian and Chechen authorities to “do everything they can to ensure an independent investigation” into the slaying of landmine campaigner Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov this week. Unfortunately, the string of political murders of human rights activists in Russia suggests that any such political commitment from Russian and Chechen governmental bodies is highly unlikely. Therefore, I call on the Obama Administration to “support Russian human rights and democracy activists, whose lives are growing more dangerous every week.”

Read the whole article here.

I was deeply shocked and saddened to learn today of the brutal killing of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov. Ms. Sadulayeva was a tireless campaigner for mine action in Chechnya. Though I did not personally know her, we had exchanged a few emails and I was sickened to hear of her death.

“Ms Sadulayeva was a tireless activist who was committed to creating public awareness about the landmine problem in the region and advocating for the rights of landmine survivors and other people with disabilities,” said Ms Kasia Derlicka, Advocacy and Campaign Officer for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, in a press release on their website. “Her death is a huge loss to the mine action community.”

The killing of Ms. Sadulayeva and her husband is the latest in a string of high profile murders of human rights activists in the Russian Federation. Click here to read Human Rights Watch’s press release.

To learn more about the landmine situation in Chechnya, click here.

My book, Foreign Aid and Landmine Clearance: Governance, Politics and Security in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan, won’t be out until the end of this year, but Amazon UK is offering a 35% discount on the book if you pre-order it now, as a part of a special sale on textbooks. Click here to buy it from Amazon UK. The following is a brief description of the book, from the publisher I.B.Tauris:

In the decade since the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, which banned the production and use of anti-personnel mines, governments have spent over $3 billion on clearing up and mitigating the security threat of mines, cluster munitions and other unexploded ordnance in the world’s current and former war zones. However, this flow of cash into regions dominated by violent social structures raises numerous political issues. Through detailed archival and field research, this book explores the politics behind the allocation and implementation of foreign aid by the US and Norway for demining in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan. It is an essential resource for practitioners and policymakers working in the field of landmine clearance and for students and researchers of Development Studies and post-war reconstruction.

The book is also available on Amazon USA, but at a much higher price. Click here if you want to buy it from there anyway.

Stuart Casey-Maslen of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines weighed in on the debate in Turkey about how to clear its minefields along its Syrian border. (Click here to read the whole article).

Much of the debate has focussed on whether to use foreign commercial companies to conduct clearance. (See this previous Political Minefields post).  However, Maslen said the Turkish government had not adequately considered the option of using international NGOs.  Another Turkish newspaper reported that HALO Trust “were aware of the debate in Turkey and might be interested [to help] if asked.”

Research by Political Minefields in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan has suggested that using humanitarian NGOs rather than commercial companies can often be a better move for demining programs. International NGOs are often safer and better able to communicate with the local population.

Casey-Maslen also questioned plans by the government to give long-term leases on the demined land to commercial companies that cleared it.  He said the government must consider the property rights of the land’s owners.

Turkish opposition parties have called into question government plans to tender clearance of minefields along the Turkish-Syrian border.  Citing security concerns, they do not want the contract to go to a foriegn company.  They are particularly concerned that Israeli companies might win such a contract.

The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized this as xenophobia and the “result of a fascist mentality.”

“The opposition is blocking the efforts without proposing an alternative. We are losing time,” he said.

For more information on the issue of mine contamination in Turkey, click here.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has launched a new, revamped website.  It looks very swanky. Check it out.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) condemned yesterday the Pakistani Taliban’s use of antipersonnel landmines in the Swat Valley.

“The humanitarian situation in northwest Pakistan is already extremely tense and the civilians are struggling to protect themselves and their families. We are appalled that recently laid landmines come as an additional threat in the region,”said Raza Shah Khan, Director of the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO), ICBL member in Pakistan. 

“Not only does landmine use pose an immediate and direct menace to civilians, but it will also have long-term consequences on these populations.”

IBCL member Human Rights Watch has been conducting investigations into violations of humanitarian law in the Swat Valley, including use of human shields and indiscriminate use of artillery.

“The Taliban’s use of landmines and human shields is a sorry addition to their long list of abuses in the Swat Valley,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “They urgently need to let civilians leave areas of fighting.”

 To learn more about the landmine situation in Pakistan, click here.

Following his receipt of the Burns Humanitarian Award, Guy Willoughby, director of the demining NGO HALO Trust is calling for more recognition of aid workers who spend their careers working in dangerous and difficult places.

“I feel strongly that aid workers who spend 24 months or more in dangerous malaria ridden conflict/post-conflict countries should get some form of recognition,” Willoughby told Political Minefields. He said he would try to help organize such an award, “even if it takes years.”

Earlier, Willoughby told the Scotland on Sunday that, “If you serve with the military you get a campaign medal after 30 days, but many aid workers sacrifice years of their life for very little in return.”

“At the moment the only sort of recognition is in the form of OBEs and MBEs that are only awarded to a very select number, far later in their career.”

I just ran across this claim by the Sudanese Government in April that Sudan was contaminated by two million mines. Surely this can’t be right? First of all, it is practically impossible to estimate how many mines are in the ground.  Second, the ongoing Landmine Impact Surveys indicate that the landmine problem in Sudan has been overestimated. 

Perhaps a good indication of what this is about is the rest of the statement: “the de-mining process is very expensive, it needs a lot of funding.”  Exaggerating the extent of the mine problem in Sudan has often been used as a fundraising strategy — to learn more, read the “Sudan’s Expensive Landmines” report.

Maybe some of the people on the ground in Sudan can post a comment or two to verify whether this number has any basis in reality.

Guy Willoughby, founder of the Scotland-based HALO Trust, one of the world’s largest humanitarian demining NGOs, was given the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award in recognition for his service to people living in war-torn communities. The annual award recognizes “a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole.

“He has tirelessly driven forward work to rid the world’s most impoverished communities of deadly war debris and saved thousands of people from being killed or severely maimed by landmines or bombs,” said Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, who presented the award.

Willoughby is famously willing to express controversial criticisms of the mine action community, prone to making provocative statements on the use of demining dogs, campaign conferences and misallocation of aid. Indeed, shortly before receiving his award, Willoughby told Scotland’s Sunday Herald that Princess Diana — the glamorous late patron of the mine action community — would have been “flipping irritated” with the “plethora of organisations and bureaucracy into the world of mine clearance.“

To see The Observer’s profile of Willoughby, click here.

Despite his formidable reputation, Willoughby has been a strong supporter and friend of Political Minefields — even opening HALO’s archives to assist with the “Sudan’s Expensive Landmines” report.  Political Minefields wishes him a hearty congratulations!