MAG has destroyed 16 mortars, two projectiles and three 'VS -50' anti-personnel mines, following an urgent request from a museum director who suspected that a display of military vehicles contained live items.
Amna Sooraka museum was the site of the Sulaimaniyah Security Department under Saddam’s regime. It now provides a memorial to the victims of the Anfal campaign, a military operation against Kurdish villages between 1986 and 1989 in which tens of thousands of civilians died or were moved to collective towns.
On receiving the request at MAG's Sulaimaniyah base, a small arms and light weapons (SALW) destruction team deployed immediately to the museum, safely removing and destroyed the hazardous items from the military vehicles.
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Outside Amna Sooraka museum where SALW teams removed the mortars and projectiles from military vehicles. |
Since 1992, MAG has been working to facilitate the safe return of displaced communities to their villages and promote socio-economic reconstruction in the region. MAG’s work in the region continues to support conflict recovery of the communities who were targeted during Anfal.
MAG’s recent work at Amna Sooraka ensures that surviving communities as well as the region’s younger generations can visit the museum in safety.
The SALW project began in September 2007 and now comprises eight SALW emergency response teams and four Community Liaison (CL) teams, all recruited from local communities and then trained.
The CL staff work with affected communities and other conflict recovery organisations in the north of the country to identify contaminated areas. The expert mobile teams – more than 100 deminers were trained in the first 10 months of the project – then travel to the sites, to safely remove and destroy the hazardous items. By the end of June 2008, CL SALW teams had conducted more than 980 visits to communities, identifying and reporting dangerous areas in the governorates of Erbil, Kirkuk, Sulymanya, Ninewa, Dahuk and Diyala.
These visits, along with the launch of a local hotline number – ‘DIAL 234’ – to enable individuals to report SALW contamination directly to emergency response staff, led to the teams responding to more than 1,500 incidents from September 2007 to June 2008. A total of 447 caches (defined as containing 10 items or more) of SALW were destroyed, amounting to 132 (US) tons of explosive materials and 51,960 hazardous items.
Links:
- Latest news from MAG Iraq
- More on MAG's work in Iraq
- Why does MAG work in Iraq?
- MAG's response to small arms and light weapons
MAG's work in Iraq is currently funded by: Irish Aid; MAG America; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, Bureau of Polical-Miltary Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Royal Netherlands Government; Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).
4 August 08
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