THE remaining two mines in the Nicosia buffer zone were detonated yesterday morning by remote control in a ceremony declarating that the Nicosia buffer zone is officially mine-free.
In a speech at the high-profile event in the buffer zone, UN Special Representative Michael Moller said that the joint EU-UN effort had led to the removal of 2,810 mines in 25 minefields and the clearing of 1.8 million square metres of land throughout the buffer zone.
He referred to the detonation of the final two mines in the Nicosia buffer zone – which extends from the old Nicosia airport to Kaimakli – as the “end of a significant chapter in the history of this very special co-operative venture” and a “landmark landmine occasion”.
“Clearly landmines have no place in any civilised society,” he said. “One landmine can hold an entire community hostage just through fear of its presence.”
The European Union is the principal donor and has contributed 5 million euros to the de-mining programme, which was launched on November 18, 2004.
Head of the de-mining operation in Cyprus Michael Raine said that five to six million euros would be required to complete the project of de-mining the entire buffer zone, which he said could be completed within two years, assuming they continued to receive EU funding.
Raine said that around 28 minefields in nine million square metres of land still had to be cleared. “But we still get people reporting suspect areas, so this number will probably increase, but only slightly,” he said.
Raine said he had received assurances from both sides that the Nicosia areas outside of the buffer zone were mine-free, although experts have not yet verified the claims.
The UN has procured the services of ArmorGroup Mine Action, a UK based company that specialises in mine clearance among other things, to conduct the de-mining operations.
Project Leader for ArmorGroup Mine Action-Cyprus, Neil McKenzie, told the Cyprus Mail that the de-miners are from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, while the operation staff are English and Bosnian.
The last minefield to be de-mined contained 160 10kg anti-tank mines and 318 154g anti-personnel mines, forming a long strip in a flat stretch of land under the cover of some high rocky ground.
In that particular minefield, the tank mines were placed six metres apart in two long rows, with two anti-personnel mines to every anti-tank mine.
“All minefields are protected by fire, so the elevated ground in the rear would have served as the defensive positions looking down onto the minefield,” said McKenzie, adding that the minefields are designed to stop the advance of enemy forces before opening fire upon them.
McKenzie said that the formation of a minefield depends on its purpose. “If someone wants to protect a particular area, then they might compress the mines into a particular box,” he said.
Both the Greek Cypriot National Guard and Turkish forces laid minefields in Cyprus during 1974.
The 1997 Ottawa Treaty bans completely all anti-personnel landmines and has been signed by 154 countries, including Cyprus and Turkey.
European Commission Head of Unit DG Enlargement Rasbash reflected on the symbolic nature of the event in the following speech (excerpts included):
“Ladies and gentlemen when I look around what do I see on the edge of Nicosia? I see a paradise where nature has been allowed to take its course largely undisturbed since 1974. It’s a wonderful resource for any city to have a lung such as this, a place where people can go out and walk and play, search for mushrooms and wild fruit, picnic with their families… Nicosia is lucky to have such a resource. And yet nobody comes. We all know why. This is the buffer zone… But even if the men with guns had gone away, it would until recently have been dancing with death for the Nicosians and their children and their dogs to come here and walk and play and look for fruit and mushrooms. An anti personnel mine is triggered by a footstep. Seven kilos of pressure will set it off… Both sides laid fields of anti-personnel mines, as well as the larger anti tank mines…. [A]rmies persist in using them because they are militarily useful, cheap and effective deterrents. They cost perhaps 10 euros each to buy but 1000 euros each to remove. And the task of removing them is painstakingly dangerous in the extreme. The people who do that work are heroes… [When] the great day dawns that the parties of Cyprus reach agreement and the soldiers guarding the buffer zone melt away, then the people of Nicosia will be able to come here and breath the clear air safe and free… Later on in this morning ceremony we plan to blow up some symbolic last mines… [T]hinking about it now, it seems to me right, that we should experience at a safe distance the dreadful explosive power of the mine and think, there, but for the grace of God, go I.”