UN blows up mines

UN explosives engineers blew up 670 kg of landmines on Saturday at Rwampara, some seven kilometres east of the principal town of Bunia, in Ituri district, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Engineers placed 1,135 Claymore antipersonnel mines and 57 antitank mines in a hole, set fuses to the pile and detonated the charges. The mine destruction operation was conducted by the UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, and the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the agency responsible for coordinating all aspects of mine action within the UN system. The engineers said the mines were made in Russia, the United States and Zimbabwe. The operation to destroy them was attended by the deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general in the DRC, Behrooz Sadry; the Congolese minister for human rights, Ntumba Lwaba; and the commander of Ugandan forces in Ituri, Brig Kale Kayihura. Sadry said the mines were destroyed with the permission of the Ugandan government. Ugandan troops had found the mines in the home of a commander of the rebel Union des patriots congolais (UPC), when they flushed the rebels out of town on 6 March. Kayihura told IRIN that one reason Ugandan troops seized the tiny airport at Bunia was to stop further air shipments of mines. Antipersonnel mines have killed and maimed numerous people in Ituri district. Claymore mines are particularly deadly: when triggered they spring two metres high and spray pellets over a 50 metre-wide area. Suspected mined areas still present a considerable hindrance to humanitarian operations. In December 2002, UN mine engineers blew up 700 mines in Kisangani, about 600 km west of Bunia.