Members of a Cambodian demining unit that is working with UNFIIL is currently at the Mammari Mine Hazard area and in the ten days that it has been working, has found an anti-tank mine that was washed into the buffer zone from Turkish occupied north during heavy rainfall in October 2012.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) on Wednesday held a site visit for journalists to Mammari Mine Hazard Area where work is underway to clear mines that have been inadvertently washed into the buffer zone.

UNFICYP Chief of Staff Colonel Angus Loudon told reporters visiting the site that in October 2012 there was heavy rainfall resulting with a flood from the northern side of the buffer zone north of Mammari village, a few kilometres west of Nicosia, potentially washing mine hazards into the buffer zone.

Noting the area is used for agricultural purposes, he said it is “important to establish whether there was a threat and then deal with that threat”.

The area has been fenced off, barbed wire was placed and signs erected. “Every step was taken to ensure the safety of anyone who could be in the area”.

Through some very hard work and great cooperation within the UN and our colleagues in UNFIL in particular, he said, “we were able to deploy a team of 21 deminers from Cambodia” who started work last week and “are about one quarter of the way through the work they have and yesterday found an anti-tank mine. The mine was found in the suspected mine hazard area. So it was time well spent to ensure that we can clear this are and return it to its normal usage”, he said. The mine will be detonated later Wednesday.

He said praised the cooperation from the Turkish Cypriot so called forces and the National Guard as well as the support from the political side from both sides. “So in all respects it has been a model of its type all in the interests of safety and ensuring that we can return this area to its former status.
I believe this itself is a confidence building measure and this type of cooperation is relatively unusual”, he remarked.
The demining of the area is also beneficial for the UN as UNFICYP patrol vehicles use the area, he added.

Colonel Loudon said that the minefield from where the flooding occurred was in the north.

“There are still four minefields inside the compounds of the buffer zone”. He clarified that UNFICYP does not have a responsibility to clear the mines but requires the cooperation of the two sides. The minefields are in south Famagusta (Dherynia) and three in Louroutzina.

UNFICYP Mine Project Coordinator Major Jo Ramsumair said UNFIL has already visited the area where it offered its expert advice and mapped out the suspected areas which are now being followed. UNFIL will return when the unit will move to the other suspected area,  on the eastern coast of Cyprus near Deryneia,

According to the assessment made, said Site Superviser Lieutenant Suon Sutharith from Cambodia, a 50 metres landslide has been moved from the Turkish side into the buffer zone.  This area became the suspected area and the Cambodian Enginenering Company has been assigned to clear the area. These soldiers belong to the Royal Cambodian Army Force and are assigned with UNFIL in Lebanon. He said the project is expected to be completed by 24 May. In the last ten days that the unit has been working, it has cleared 1994 square metres and found one anti-tank mine that will be detonated this afternoon.

Members of the Cambodian unit went ahead with an on-site clearance demonstration on the methods used for the detection of mines.

UNFICYP Commander Major General Chao  Liu told CNA that this is a very important demonstration on how the soldiers clear the mine. He described this as a very important confidence building measure.

“This is why we have organised tofday`s technical visit”, he added.

According to UNFICYP,  teams of deminers associated with the UN Mine Action Centre in Cyprus (UNMACC) worked to rid the 180-km-long buffer zone of landmines originally laid by military forces in 1974.

The deminers cleared and destroyed over 25,000 landmines, taking a major step towards a mine-free buffer zone and ultimately a mine-free Cyprus.