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Explosive Remnants of War and Landmines in Nepal: Understanding the Threat

During 2005, Handicap International Nepal, through our project "Access to Physical Rehabilitation Services for People with Disabilities in the different regions of Nepal", became aware of the need to have a better understanding of the situation regarding people wounded and disabled by victim-activated explosions of landmines and other remnants of the conflict.

Information like this can help better identify people injured by the explosions and in need of the services on offer at the physical rehabilitation centres run by our partner organisations and supported by our Rehabilitation project in each of the development regions of the country.

In addition, it can also help identify actions that aim to prevent victimactivated explosive incidents and the disabilities that so often occur as a result.

The Informal Sector Service Centre in Nepal has, for several years, had a nationwide data collection system reporting on the Human Rights situation. It came to our attention that this system would be a good mechanism to provide detailed information about the explosions of landmines and other remnants of war, and the victims of these incidents.

INSEC's data collection system, proved extremely reliable, efficient and helpful to us in our work. However, it soon became obvious that a permanent and more comprehensive system of surveillance and reporting on victim activated explosions, could easily be developed and maintained within INSEC's structure and with limited additional means.

In June 2006, INSEC thus initiated an active surveillance system, the results of which are presented in this report. The system provides regular detailed reports on all the incidents related to victim-activated explosions of landmines, unexploded ordnance and other improvised explosive devices, as well as the casualties and victims of these explosions. This has proved to be an invaluable source of essential information not only for all the organisations involved in the rehabilitation of people with physical disabilities victims of these explosions, but also for various stakeholders working on the prevention of casualties and damage caused by these explosive devices, legacies of the recent armed conflict in the country. This publication which is directly based on the results of the surveillance system and previous media information comes perhaps at an opportune time for Nepal. It speaks to key stakeholders by:

- taking stock of and providing a real picture of the situation and the risks and threats posed by these explosive remnants of the conflict

- providing accurate and consistent information on the victims of these explosions; essential for the organisations and centres working in the field of physical rehabilitation, in order for them to best answer the needs of people with physical disabilities, direct victims of the conflict

- providing recommendations to all actors involved in the prevention and reduction of the risks posed by these legacies of the conflict, and to tackle the remaining, long-lasting threat to the civilian population

I believe that this publication will make an essential contribution to the current massive efforts jointly undertaken by a multitude of governmental and non-governmental actors working to reduce the remaining threats and danger resulting from the recent conflict and to mitigate the effect on victims.

Sincere congratulations to INSEC and its outstanding teams across the country for the tremendous work achieved during the last years that, from our initial limited request for basic data, finally led to this publication. Special thanks as well to the stakeholders involved in the fields of physical rehabilitation, disability, mine action and risk prevention who have inspired or directly supported this publication.

Jean-Bertrand Lebrun

Country Director, Nepal Programme, Handicap International

Explosive Remnants of War and Landmines in Nepal: Graphics

Civilian casualties by districts 2006 Incidents by explosive device 2006 Places of incidents 2006 Casualties by dage and sex 2006 Number of incidents by type explosive device 2006 1 Number of incidents by type explosive device 2006 2

Executive summary

Source: Nepal INSEC Explosive Remnants of War and Landmines in Nepal: Understanding the Threat 1.7 MB PDF-File

In the aftermath of the cease-fire of 26 April 2006, which ended a decade long conflict between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Nepal government, incidents from victim-activated explosions continued on an average of six per month.

Nearly 90 percent of the incidents from victim-activated explosions stem from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), mainly from Maoist fabricated "socket bombs" ? improvised hand-grenades made from galvanized plumbing joints. Maoists did not use victim-activated landmines. They did, however, produce IEDs with anti-handling devices and booby-traps that can indiscriminately injure or kill.

The then Royal Nepal Army also produced IEDs from existing ordnance to arm its defensive perimeters as well as for aerial bombardments. In 2001/2002 it laid Anti-personnel landmines (AP mines) around 39 key positions using imported victim-activated landmines which are banned by more than 150 States party to the anti-personnel Mine Ban Treaty ("Ottawa Treaty"). These AP mines and unexploded IEDs, which mostly stemmed from aerial bombardments by the Army, caused some casualties.

Although mined areas are mapped, they are often not properly fenced and marked and the nearby population is often not properly informed of the risk. Nepal is not a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty or to other legally relevant frameworks. There are, however, promising signs in this respect. Following an advocacy initiative of the Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal (NCBL) after the ceasefire, nine political parties have signed a Deed of Commitment to abide by the Ottawa principles.

Since the cease-fire, one mined area has been cleared, IEDs are being removed from positions of the Security Forces (SF), and clash sites are also being cleared from unexploded devices. The Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team is currently looking for proper training to speedily clear the remaining 38 mined areas. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by both parties on 22 November 2006 declares in point 5.1.4 that "both sides shall assist each other to mark landmines and booby-traps used during the time of armed conflict by providing necessary information within 30 days and defuse and excavate it within 60 days." Nepal has been listed by the Landmine Monitor as one of the three remaining countries in the world that produce victimactivated "Anti-personnel landmines". Even though this claim was made by the Nepal government itself, it is most likely that it refers to the production of improvised command-activated devices using ordnance from its stock such as mortar shells and Anti-vehicle mines. Full transparency on this issue as well as on available stockpiles should be provided as agreed in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This applies also to stockpiles in the possession of the Maoists, not only to booby-traps already planted. Maoist cadres should, for both humanitarian and confidence-building purposes, provide all available information on devices placed for subsequent ambushes, hidden caches and production facilities. This information would allow for surveying high-risk areas to prioritize rapid explosive ordnance disposal where needed. All IEDs should be immediately removed, AP mines should be cleared, and those areas that have been cleared should be handed over to the communities in a confidence-building measure. The 60 day time period as stipulated in the Peace Agreement for this, is perhaps overly optimistic given the many challenges involved.

Imprecise terminology about explosive devices used in Nepal and the circumstances leading to casualties (victimactivated explosion or not) has made data collection and the interpretation of data a particular challenge. To address this issue, UNICEF initiated a process to define a common terminology (in English and in Nepali), whilst also training journalists on the issue and analysing media-based surveillance. In late 2005, INSEC was approached to start active surveillance on civilian casualties from victim-activated explosions. INSEC staff, including data gatherers from all 75 districts, received training on the issue and on how to prepare monthly reports. Active surveillance started in June 2006. The information available on each incident is now much more reliable.

INSEC Human Rights Report 2006 Summary

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Key findings based on INSEC surveillance (January to October 2006)

132 people were killed or injured from victim-activated explosions in 79 incidents. Of the 132 casualties, 27 died (20%).

An analysis by age and sex shows:

58 percent of casualties were children (76 out of 132) under 18 years of age.

70 percent of casualties were male, and 42 percent of casualties were boys.

79 incidents occurred in 71 communities in 45 districts of all five regions of Nepal. This resembles a very widespread contamination; it is not concentrated along a confrontation line or a border as in other countries.

The main locations where explosions occur are 'home/village' (43%), 'road/path' (24%), 'farmland' (9%), and 'forest/jungle' (8%). Whereas incidents on 'road/path' show a marked tendency to decrease after the cease-fire, incidents occurring on 'farmland' and 'forest/jungle' have increased significantly since the cease-fire. While the former can be explained by the absence of any new booby-trapped roadblocks and clashes/ambushes, the latter is perhaps indicative of greater freedom of movement and increased use of the forests/jungles.

Main risk-taking activities which led to the explosion are linked to deliberate tampering (38%) basically out of curiosity and only in one case linked to selling or bartering scrap metal. Forty four percent of the activities were part of livelihood activities making it difficult to mitigate the risk through mine risk education alone.

INSEC Human Rights Report 2006 Summary

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Explosive Remnants of War: Painful Reminder of Past

Decade-long violent conflict has come to an end. But the reminders of the conflict are lying around us. Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), one such reminder, are still inflicting sufferings to the people. Government should launch an effective campaign with the support of international donor agencies and in coordination with the NGOs.

One of the main issues to tackle during the arms and armies monitoring, as the country moves through transitional period from violence to peace, is to locate, identify and dispose the ERW. For this, former warring parties should inform each other about their devices. The Agreement on Monitoring of the Arms and Armies deals with the issue under provision 4.1.2 where it is said that, "Both sides shall assist each other to mark landmines and boobytraps used during the time of armed conflict by providing necessary information within 30 days and to defuse and remove/lift and destroy them within 60 days. Taken as over ambitious statement, it did address the serious condition owing to ERW in the country.

According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Nepal is one of the countries seriously affected by the problem of explosive devices. But, there was lack of reliable information related to incidents which, in turn, has hampered the proper initiation towards dealing with the problem.

INSEC joined the initiative to relieve the people of such indiscriminating weapons by best utilising its over-10 years of experience of Human Rights information collection and dissemination. It is clear from the information gathered by INSEC- ERW is a big problem for today's Nepal which is heading for lasting peace.

Data from INSEC Surveillance System operational from June 1 and UNICEF media reports reveal that in 2006, there were 169 civilian casualties in 98 victim activated explosion.

INSEC Human Rights Report 2006 Summary

External links

Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC)