1989
• After witnessing first-hand the misery and suffering in war-torn Afghanistan, ex-British army engineer Rae McGrath enlists the help of his brother Lou to look at ways to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) from conflict zones.
• MAG is founded and conducts the first landmine impact survey in Afghanistan
1989-91
• Further MAG surveys undertaken in Cambodia, Iraq and Somaliland with human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
1992
• MAG begins national training and clearance operations in Cambodia and Iraq
• MAG co-founds the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
1993-94
• Programme begins in Angola
• Operations begin in Lao PDR
1994-96
• Expansion and capacity-building in Angola, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Iraq
• Assessment and Mine Risk Education in Rwanda
• Executive Director Lou McGrath appointed
1997-98
• MAG and others define the concept of Humanitarian Mine Action
• Mine Action Teams and Community Liaison developed
• Assessment in Bosnia
• Ottawa Convention negotiated and signed.
• Ottawa Convention ratified by the UK
1999
• MAG moves to new headquarters in Manchester, UK
• MAG begins in Sudan
• MAG begins in Vietnam
• Assessments conducted in Namibia
• Child-to-child methodologies adopted to Mine Risk Education in northern Iraq
2000
• MAG opens a support office in the United States
• Emergency mine action in Kosovo, Cambodian Mine Action Teams fill in. Mine Risk Education, and Child-to-Child and Child-to-Adult techniques developed
• MAG hands over programme staff and equipment to UXO Lao
• Assessment in Nicaragua and in the West Bank
• MAG begins training local staff in Azerbaijan
• MAG begins in Lebanon
2001
• Operations in Sri Lanka begin
• Assessments undertaken in Mauritania and Uganda
• Emergency assessment in Pakistan
• MAG training projects undertaken in Somaliland
2002
• Expansion of MAG in Vietnam
• Development of partnership with local NGOs in Afghanistan
• MRE workshop implemented in Myanmar
• Further training undertaken in Lao PDR and Azerbaijan
• MAG carries out a Landmine Impact Survey in Lebanon
2003
• All-female demining teams employed in Cambodia
• Large-scale capacity building , training and emergency response in Iraq. MAG continues operations during the war. Mine Risk Education conducted in southern Iraq
• Assessment in Tunisia
• Mine Risk Education workshop follow-up in Mon State, Myanmar
2004
• MAG develops new activities in Lao PDR
2005
• Operations begin in Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus, Kashmir and Sudan
2006
• MAG is the first organisation to provide emergency clearance response in Lebanon, the day after the cease-fire
• Community Liaison activities introduced to the Vietnam programme
2007
• Assessment mission in Somaliland results in several short term projects
• MAG activities start in Burundi and Republic of Congo
• All-female demining team employed in Lao PDR
• Executive Director Lou McGrath is awarded an OBE in the UK
• MAG signs the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Code of Conduct
2008
• MAG begins a project in Rwanda, to provide technical assistance and training to the Rwandan Army and Police in stockpile management and the destruction of surplus weapons, unstable ordnance and small arms ammunition
• In a first for MAG, a diving team in the Democratic Republic of Congo clears Mbandaka harbour, Equateur Province, of 18 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and more than 17,000 items of small arms ammunition
• MAG welcomes the verdict in the trial of those responsible for the abduction and murder of deminer Christopher Howes and his interpreter Houn Hourth near Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 1996: “Today we feel that justice has been done for our two colleagues who were brutally murdered whilst carrying out life-saving work,” says Lou McGrath. “For more than 12 years the families of our colleagues have been fighting for this verdict and we are all extremely satisfied with today’s outcome. Hopefully, now the loved ones of Chris and Hourth can finally move on with their lives.”
2009
• MAG responds to the crisis in Gaza, working as an implementing partner of UNMAS to identify and prioritise UXO-affected communities for emergency clearance
• Operations restart in Northern Province, Sri Lanka, during April 2009 after a break of over two years during the conflict in the region. Activities focus on releasing land for return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their home villages. Mine action survey and clearance is identified by UNHCR and the Government of Sri Lanka as a key prerequisite of this returns process.
• Project in Mogadishu, Somalia aimed at strengthening the peacekeeping work of the African Union, supporting AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) in destroying the stockpile of confiscated small arms.
• After an evaluation of demining non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan, MAG begins helping the NGOs to use good standard operating procedures, have well-organised institutional structures and build on their own capacity to expand.
• MAG begins in Colombia. Working in partnership with the Colombian Campaign Against Landmines and a local non-governmental organisation, Paz y Democracia (Peace and Democracy), the work focuses on improving the quality of Mine Risk Education to really target those most in danger.
