MAG at 20, part two: An 'advisory' role

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The name Mines Advisory Group was established in the early days of the organisation, when it was decided that MAG’s initial role would be to draw the attention of the international community towards issues relating to mines and UXO.

Between 1990 and 1991, the McGrath brothers carried out two assessment missions to Afghanistan and Cambodia with the hope that their findings would mobilise governments and international agencies into more purposeful action.

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Combatants in the streets of Kabul prepare for hostilities.

Nine per cent of MAG's staff in Cambodia is made up of amputees. Here, a deminer takes a rest during mine clearance operations in Battambang province in 1996.

In 1990, war-ravaged Afghanistan was a country of extreme disruption and immense suffering. Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan were being directed back to villages still contaminated by landmines and as a result were being killed or horrifically maimed. For the two men it was a sobering and frustrating experience.

One young Afghan boy left a particular impression on Rae McGrath. “His small body had been absolutely shattered by a Soviet-laid POM-Z fragmentation mine,” he remembers. “When we were at the hospital, his family urged us to take his photograph to show the world the horrific impact of these weapons, which we did.”

The boy died from his injuries hours after. His photograph was later used by MAG to highlight the dangers and deadly consequences of mines.

The second MAG assessment mission to Cambodia in 1991 took place at a turning point in the small South-east Asian kingdom’s history. Newly signed peace agreements had done little to eradicate the threat of landmines, unexploded bombs and other ordnance left behind by the communist Khmer Rouge, occupying Vietnamese troops and the US Air Force throughout 20 years of conflict.

And with Khmer refugees preparing to make their way home from neighbouring Thailand, Lou and Rae knew it was time to act. “Refugees were returning home and faced the risk of being blown up by landmines and UXO,” says Lou. “They had no idea of what they were coming home to and for us there was a feeling of complete hopelessness.”

Faced with crumbling infrastructure, bombed-out roads and bridges, the two men drove offroad for hours at a time, relying on the help of local guides and interpreters to gather valuable data about the mine and UXO risk to thousands of unwitting civilians.

“There were no records or maps of contaminated areas,” explains Lou. “So we really were starting from nothing.” The Cambodia technical assessment mission would result in a public report entitled “The Cowards’ War”.

A permanent operations base was set up in the kingdom a year later, and now in 2009 MAG’s programme in one of the most heavily mine- and UXO-contaminated countries in the world employs more than 475 members of staff – 34 per cent female and nine per cent amputees. [Cont.....]