May 26,
2008: The $300 million, 19 year old
demining effort in Afghanistan is coming to an end. Most of it was paid for by
the United States, which is also paying for a retraining program for deminers
who no longer have work. In many parts of Afghanistan, all the explosive stuff
has been cleared, and many of the deminers don't want to move to another part
of the country to continue their work. That can be dangerous given all the
tribal and religious animosities, not to mention the bandits and Taliban.
The demobilized
deminers are given training mainly in the building trades (carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, and
masons.) Having been a deminer is a splendid resume enhancer in Afghanistan, so
these men should have little trouble getting in on the building boom that is
currently sweeping the country.
The
demining effort, using nearly 9,000 demining personnel (nearly all of them
Afghans) have removed over 330,000 anti-personnel mines, over 19,000 anti-tank
mines and over seven million pieces of unexploded ordnance (shells, grenades).
The demining effort should be finished in another four years.
