1500 mines cleared in southern Iraq

The Maysan governorate council in Iraq declared on Monday the collections and bombing of more than 1500 mines and remnants of projectile warheads used in the Iran-Iraq war. It emphasised the pursuit to complete legal procedures for hiring specialised companies to defuse mines. The head of the Health and Environment committee in the governorate's council, Maytham Fartusi, said in a statement released today that an Iraqi army battalion was able to collect and explode more than 1500 mines and projectile warheads in  ??Abu Ghraib, south Maysan governorate, noting that the army used "semtex", a highly explosive material that requires professional handling. Fartusi, who oversaw the clearance process, said: "The good land of Maysan turned into a land of death after the planting of more than five million mines...the most horrible of them all is the Valmara mine that could kill more than a dozen people for it contains 1200 fragments and is considered one of the most dangerous.” He called on Iraqi ministries to participate in a national campaign to remove the mines and also urged competent international organisations to intervene and assist in the extraction of the deadly traps. Fartusi stated: "Legal procedures related to a draft by the Maysan council to sign on companies to help defuse mines in coordination with the Department of Mines Affairs in the Ministry of Environment are in progress," describing the project as "humanitarian and global". The Iraqi Ministry of Planning has revealed in a statement that it approved the Maysan council's proposal to allocate 2 billion dinars (approximately $1.9 million) to hire specialised companies to remove the mines. Experts have estimated that Iraq alone accounts for a quarter of the world's planted mines. Sources in the environment ministry pointed to the presence of more than 25 million mines in Iraq while unofficial estimations refer to 10 or 11 million mines in the territory of Kurdistan, most planted during the Iran-Iraq war, which lasted for eight years, and the first Gulf War in 1990. Iraq ratified in 2007 the Ottawa Treaty which bans the use of mines. It is imperative under the treaty to destroy all stockpiles of mines by 2012 and clear mines from lands by February 2018.