Text and photographs by Onnik James Krikorian

GYULABLY, Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan — A few kilometers from the border of the unrecognized breakaway and self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a shepherd sits with his grazing cattle in the lush pastures of Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan. The scene could grace the front of any postcard from the scenic Caucasus. The twisted carcasses of rusting vehicles along the roadside tell a different story, though.

The shepherd is sitting in a minefield.

A blast resonates in the distance as a newly discovered, booby- trapped TM-57 anti-tank mine is detonated, but it doesn’t seem to rattle the shepherd or his herd. Along the road, a mine- clearance team from the HALO Trust has already uncovered 17 anti-personnel and three anti-tank mines.

Armen Harutyunian, assistant operations manager for the British charity, says that as many as 200 mines still remain in an area covering just 500 square meters. Ten years have passed since an armistice brought peace to Nagorno-Karabakh, the largely Armenian-populated territory in Azerbaijan that demanded unification with Armenia, sparking a war that claimed more than 25,000 lives. Since the 1994 ceasefire, however, the HALO Trust estimates that incidents with landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO) have caused more than 900 deaths and injuries.

And while that may sound insignificant compared to the thousands who have died as a result of landmines in other war zones, there is concern that casualty figures will increase over time. Continual shifts in the front line have left the land littered with minefields and UXO.

Although the HALO Trust initially started work in Karabakh in 1995, it wasn’t until five years later that it started to clear the disputed territory of UXO. Delayed by the need to map out locations, the charity finally started the work of clearing mines in late 2001 after international donor organizations such as USAID provided financial support.

The number of civilian personnel jumped from 28 to 133 — including three Battle Area Clearance [BAC] teams, two survey teams, and three teams of mine-clearers — and the Trust bought dozens of new vehicles, including ambulances, trucks, and a large armored tractor that can literally roll over mines that can’t be cleared manually.

But even though the harsh winter slowed down their work, the organization managed to destroy over 250 mines during the first few months of 2002, says Shane Pritchard, Program Manager for the HALO Trust in Karabakh. “There aren’t mines everywhere but it’s obvious that there are likely to be many in areas where fighting took place,” he explains.

“There are also mines in a number of ‘green areas’ that were formerly Azeri villages in between Karabakh and the frontline which are now being resettled [by Armenians]. We can remove the threat before people hurt themselves.”

Askeran, Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik James Krikorian 2002

No Man’s Land

Beyond the threat they pose to human life, landmines and UXO damage people’s livelihood. Between the towns of Askeran and Aghdam, the discovery of a minefield has frustrated plans to construct a water pipeline to the nearby village of Khrmort and the HALO Trust has been called in to clear the area. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 50 million square meters of arable land and more than 80,000 square meters of vineyards are unusable.

Much of this land used to be among the most fertile acreage in the self-declared republic, but now, much of it has turned fallow. In all, 150 million square meters of land, roads, and forests need to be surveyed for mine clearance operations in Karabakh.

Mels Hakobjanian, head of the Mine Awareness Working Group (MAWG), which coordinates mine and UXO activities for the Nagorno-Karabakh government, agrees that the problem is serious. The map on his desk identifies regional centers such as Askeran, Mardakert, Martuni, and Hadrout as most at risk, but these are only the areas authorities know about.

HALO Trust Battle Area Clearance, Fizuli, Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan © Onnik James Krikorian 2002

Mine Awareness

In November 2001, two Soviet-made cluster bombs were discovered in Stepanakert and quickly disposed of. Hundreds of these fragmentation devices have been found in the capital since 1994 and the HALO Trust estimates that least 10,000 mines laid by both sides require urgent attention if accidents are to be prevented in the future.

Largely due to the clearance work of the HALO Trust — as well as information campaigns run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — casualties from incidents involving landmines and UXO have been steadily decreasing. In 1995, soon after the cease-fire agreement, there were 64 landmine casualties; in 1999, 30 people — over half of them children — were injured or killed. In 2002, casualties declined further: 14 injured and four deaths — none of them children.

Our educational program targets 228 schools and an estimated 22,000 children in Karabakh, as well as Lachin and Kelbajar,” says Christopher Mehley, head of the ICRC office in Stepanakert. “In conjunction with the Ministry of Education, mine awareness is now integrated into the school curriculum and the effectiveness of this program has been clearly demonstrated.”

Armine, Ptghavan, Armenia © Onnik James Krikorian 2002

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

In the first of six operations to save her upper arm, the bone in Armine’s elbow was removed. The ten-year-old hadn’t even been born when conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out over Nagorno Karabakh and had barely turned two by the time an armistice was signed in 1994. Nevertheless, one year after the ceasefire, the conflict claimed another victim. Armine however, doesn’t want to talk about it.

Her mother though, says that when a group of civilians ran into a landmine in an attempt to escape cross-border gunfire, Armine was caught in the blast. Shrapnel from the explosion ripped through her right arm and across her chest, scarring and disabling her for life.

She still suffers from nervous anxieties and depression today. Tim Straight, Head of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Armenia, stumbled upon Armine three years ago. “If she doesn’t get proper examination and a plan for treatment soon, her muscles which are functioning minimally now, will wither and her arm may have to be amputated,” he says. “This means she will never marry or attain any social status. This is a catastrophe for her whole life.”

But while the concern is genuine, the issue is more than just that of one little girl living in a remote corner of Armenia. According to official statistics, over 70,000 people, including an undetermined number of refugees, have been displaced from the border as a result of the war. Although Nagorno Karabakh might seem a world away from the idyllic forests of Tavoush in north eastern Armenia, local residents nevertheless paid a price.

Whole villages situated along the Armenian border were reduced to rubble by incessant shelling and landmines situated along the 900 kilometer border with Azerbaijan have resulted in over seventy casualties in the Tavoush region alone. Eighteen people have been killed and eleven wounded by incidents with landmines in the Ararat region.

Further south in Siunik, there have been over thirty deaths and forty-four injuries since 1994. The Armenian military conducted partial mine clearance in the region until 1999 when material and technical resources ran out.

Rehabilitation of the Border Regions

Because those displaced by cross-border skirmishes, landmines and poor socio-economic conditions have found temporary accommodation in nearby villages, the low visibility of the problem has manifested itself as a lack of attention. The Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Internally Displaced People (IDPs), Dr. Francis Deng, highlighted those concerns when he visited Armenia in May 2000.

Gagik Yeganian, Head of the State Department for Migration and Refugees, says that for the past two years, authorities have started to take the matter seriously. “On 14 December 2000, a plan for the Post Conflict Rehabilitation of the Bordering Territories of the Republic of Armenia was approved by the Government,”he says. More than 23,000 houses, 78 education centers, 62 medical centers, 512km of potable and 724km of irrigation pipes, and 575km of roads were damaged by cross- border shelling and the total cost to rehabilitate the border is estimated at over $80 million. Under the Government initiative, an estimated 39,000 people will return to their homes and conditions for 28,000 who have returned already will be improved.

However, the regional authorities estimate that as much as 9,000 hectares of Tavoush is mined, fuelling concerns that the landmine problem in Armenia is greater than many realize. According to Jemma Hasratian of the Armenian National Committee of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), it is difficult to fully estimate the extent of the problem given that both regular and irregular forces were responsible for laying mines and few accurate maps exist. “Nobody knows how many mines there are,” she says, “but we’re working with the figure of 50,000.”

HALO Trust Landmine Clearance, Askeran, Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik James Krikorian 2002

Mine Clearance

Although Armenia and Azerbaijan were prevented from receiving US military assistance while the dispute over Nagorno Karabakh remained unresolved, the embargo was officially lifted on 29 March 2002 after both countries offered their assistance to the United States following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

On 16 March 2002, a US-financed demining center to train military personal opened in Etchmiadzin, twenty minutes from the Armenian capital. Lieutenant-Colonel Eric von Tersch, military attache at the US Embassy in Yerevan, however, says that the center would have opened regardless of the war in Afghanistan and heightened American interest in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

A year and a half earlier, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian soldiers had already simultaneously trained in humanitarian mine clearance at a military base in neighbouring Georgia under the “Beecroft Initiative,” a confidence and security building measure aimed at preventing injuries and deaths from landmines in the south Caucasus.

We really had the parameters of this going before the attacks,” explains von Tersch. “What 9/11 did was show that there was a common interest here and in the United States. Our common goals became much more obvious after 11 September and there was an increased level of trust on both sides. There was simply greater momentum.”

US military assistance totaling $4.3 million was allocated to the Armenian Government after sanctions against Azerbaijan were suspended but the cost of the demining center was financed separately. Training is facilitated through the RONCO Consulting Corporation and the US military.

Start-up and operating costs for the first year of operation stood at $2.1 million. Eighty conscript soldiers man the base and receive an additional stipend of $10 a month on top of their $3 a month salaries. Lloyd Carpenter, one of RONCO’s staff members in Armenia, says that eventually, the demining center should become self-sustainable through contributions from the international donor community and the Armenian Diaspora.

Although Armenia has not acceded to the International Mine Ban Treaty while the conflict over Nagorno Karabagh remains unresolved, the Government has nonetheless started to gather information on the arable and pasture land, orchards, and woodland affected. Von Tersch, however, is keen to stress that the main priority for the demining center will be the safety of civilians in mine-affected areas.