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Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society and ANAMA sign understanding memorandum

18 December 2007 16:17 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society and Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) signed an understanding memorandum on cooperation in gathering information about mine accidents and their victims and the needs of those who suffered from mines, APA reports.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society Novruz Aslan said the memorandum envisages gathering materials about those who suffered from mines and offering assistance to them. Novruz Aslan noted that safe playgrounds have been constructed for children in 35 villages since 2005 and underlined that joint activity will play an important role in eliminating the problem.
Director general of ANAMA Nazim Ismayilov said that 3,000 suffered from mines in Azerbaijan, 500 of them died. He said ANAMA has cleared 50mln. sq m area of mines and unexploded ordnances (UXO) since 2001.
â€œWe face difficulties during mine-clearing operation, as we are not given maps of the mined territories.
Experiences show that 15-20 years are needed for cleaning such regions without maps,â€ he said.
Ismayilov said that there were children among mine victims. ANAMA director said that pupils are enlightened for reducing mine risks in front lines. ANAMA carried out enlightening works in nearly 1200 schools by now, over 60 thousand books were published and distributed to pupils. Head of Azerbaijani representation of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Martin Amasher said that mine risks remain as a main problem, as there is not map of mined areas. ICRC representative noting that world countries are taking measures for the prohibition of antipersonnel mines stated that joint struggle against mine will give effective results. It was noted in the event that after demands of mine victims are learnt, issue on assistances will be considered. These assistances may be psycho-rehabilitation of mine victims, rendering humanitarian assistance to them, employment and so on. /APA/