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Chief Executive Guy Willoughby wins the Burns International Humanitarian Award – May 2009
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Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.
Now in its eighth year, the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award is presented annually to a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service, 'hands on' charitable/volunteer work, or other acts. The winner receives 1759 guineas, a sum which signifies the year of the Bard's birth and the coinage then in circulation, as well as a specially commissioned hand-made award.
Links to the story can be found at:
Visit Scotland http://burns.visitscotland.com/who/award/
Scotland on Sunday http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Landmine-charity-founder-wins-Burns
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/17/land-mines-halo-trust-award
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HALO Emergency Response in Georgia
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Following the August 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia, the US Department of State prepared a large-scale humanitarian response. HALO's longstanding presence in Georgia and the Caucasus region made it the natural partner of choice for the US government in addressing the problem of explosive remnants of the conflict.
Within days after direct hostilities ceased, HALO survey teams were deployed to the various conflict areas to assess the threat to the civilian population. A special website was set up to provide other aid agencies with the most current threat assessments by location. As well as providing emergency risk education to over 20,000 returnees to areas of the conflict, HALO also provides regular focal point briefs for the UN, EU, OSCE, ICRC, Embassies / Donors and other agencies operating within Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) impacted areas.
Clearance teams have been deployed onto the highest priority sites – since late August HALO teams have destroyed over 15,000 mines, cluster bombs and other ordnance in the wake of the recent conflict. "The HALO Trust developed and executed a model emergency Explosive Remnants of War plan", said Dennis Hadrick, Program Manager at the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. "It provided immediate assistance to innocent civilians and relief workers and allowed many displaced persons to return to their homes more quickly and safely than we have ever seen before in post-conflict operations."
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| HALO clearance teams conduct systematic surface clearance of the village of Shindisi where cluster munitions, as pictured above (M095), pose an immediate threat to current inhabitants and returnees. |
| Twenty-eight HALO teams (200 demining staff) have been trained, equipped and deployed in Georgia (Gori Tskhinvali region) since September primarily clearing cluster bomb strikes. A further 80 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Staff have been clearing UXO in the Upper Kodori Region of Abkhazia.
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HALO utilizes dual-sensor detector
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The Handheld Stand-off Mine Detection System, known as HSTAMIDS, is a dual-sensor mine detector developed specifically for the U.S. military by L-3 Communications Cyterra Corporation. HSTAMIDS combines advanced metal detector and ground-penetrating radar technologies, allowing a trained user to discriminate between metal debris (clutter) and metal that has associated mass (a possible mine).
Early deployment of HSTAMIDS was restricted to U.S. military operations, with some limited exposure to humanitarian demining organizations. However, in 2006, having realized the potential of dual-sensor technology in day to day mineclearance operations, HALO signed up for a lead role in support of the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research & Development Program’s evaluation of HSTAMIDS.
The subsequent HSTAMIDS Operational Field Evaluation conducted in Cambodia made significant strides: in proving the technology in dense mine concentrations, with minimum metal mines, and with high metal contamination and in various types of soil; in entrusting the tool in the hands of locally employed deminers who now train and supervise themselves; and in the development of Standard Operating Procedures which have made possible the productivity increases that were previously just high hopes.
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| HSTAMIDS SOP’s employed in Cambodia involve the operator clearing in lateral direction along search lanes distinguishing possible mines with ‘red chips’ and harmless metal clutter with’ blue chips’. Red chips are investigated with the usual care, while blue chips are subject to rapid investigation with a mechanical tool specifically designed by HALO.
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The statistics shown are entirely associated with HSTAMIDS (March 2006 – June 2008), and these accomplishments are only a small portion of HALO’s overall contribution to resolving the mines problem in Cambodia.
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| Total Area Cleared | 604,375 m² |
| Total Detections | 1,423,902 |
| Total Mines Found | 5,610 |
| 2008 Clutter Rejection Rate | 96.5 % |
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| The Cambodia evaluation provides HALO with 12 HSTAMIDS units, but in addition HALO has subsequently procured a further 50 units for deployment globally. Significantly HALO is the only demining agency licensed by the U.S. Department of State to do so. Immediate use is being made of these detectors to tackle minimum metal anti-tank mines in Afghanistan. Similar plans are in motion for clearing roads in Angola.
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Clearance Milestone: HALO Cambodia surpasses 200,000 mines found and destroyed
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In mid-2008 HALO Cambodia’s deminers achieved an extraordinary clearance milestone by surpassing 200,000 mines found and destroyed since our program started in 1991.
A staggering 168,586 of these mines (84% of the total) were cleared from the northwest border districts where HALO has been concentrating its efforts since 2003.
It is not insignificant that during this same period the annual mine or Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) casualty numbers have dropped year on year from around 900 to less than 250.
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For most of the nineteen nineties the north and west of the country was largely off-limits due to the fighting. After the final demise of the Khmer Rouge in 1998, rapid repopulation along the border districts was unsurprisingly matched by an unacceptably high mines/ERW casualty rate. HALO was the first to recognize how the mines problem had polarized and has since focused its deminers on the dense accident causing minefields. In particular HALO is unashamedly targeting the infamous 1,046km long ‘K5’ mine-belt which was instigated in 1984 -1985 by the Vietnamese and Peoples Republic of Kampuchea high command in an attempt to seal the border. The K5 - a small section of which is shown in this HALO site clearance map – comprises some of the most densely mined land on the planet.
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31st March: HALO Trust Board Member Mrs Cindy McCain visits Kosova
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Mrs McCain took 4 days out from her husband, Senator John McCain’s, Presidential campaign tour to visit HALO in Kosova during March.
She has previously visited HALO’s humanitarian clearance operations in Angola, Sri Lanka, Mozambique and Cambodia.
During the visit to Kosova she reviewed minefields and cluster bomb strikes that HALO will clear over the next few years. She also met with the communities that these minefields and cluster strikes still impact.
Mrs McCain concluded her visit by meeting with Kosova’s President and Prime Minister. Both fully endorsed HALO’s resumption of mines and cluster bomb clearance in Kosova.
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Mrs McCain meets with schoolchildren near Junic.
The playground of the school requires further clearance to remove the threat of unexploded NATO cluster munitions. |
After investigating a mined area close to this community
Mrs McCain makes time to share a joke with Admir Berisha
(HALO’s acting Programme Manager) and locals |
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| Mrs McCain congratulates Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Kosova’s independence and discusses HALO’s future clearance in Kosova |
Mrs McCain and President Fatmir Sejdiu publicly encourage the UN to endorse HALO’s resumption of mines and cluster bomb clearance as soon as possible |
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News update: Cluster bomb accident at Goles, Kosova
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Directly following Mrs McCain’s visit to Kosova one man was killed and a further three seriously injured on one of the sites she reviewed.
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All women demining section formed in Somaliland
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| HALO has operated in Somaliland since 1999 and currently employs 440 local staff.
During a routine minefield visit, a senior manager was approached by a group of women seeking jobs with HALO. After first briefing and receiving approval from local authorities, HALO decided to invite the women to join its intensive training program. The trainees successfully completed the course, thus creating Somaliland’s first female demining section.
Since September, the seven-woman section has been deployed to minefields and is proving to be an excellent addition to HALO’s operation in Somaliland. HALO is closely monitoring their progress and is subsequently planning to hire additional sections if funding levels permit.
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HALO completes work in Northern Mozambique
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| After 13 years of work in northern Mozambique, HALO has closed its doors there. In an area approximately the size of California, there are simply no more known minefields requiring clearance. The region will officially be declared ‘Mine Impact Free’ in early 2008.
An estimated 170,000 mines were laid in Mozambique during its fight for independence (1964-1975) and throughout the civil war that followed. All factions used mines to defend provincial and district towns, roads, airstrips, key bridges, power supply infrastructure and military posts. Although the civil war ended in the early nineties, landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) continued to claim lives and hinder development there.
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| Since launching its northern Mozambique program in 1994, 2,587 acres of land were demined and returned to local communities. Over 100,000 landmines and 22,000 items of UXO were destroyed in the process. HALO would not have been able to achieve these results without the generosity of its donors—particularly the British American, Dutch, Irish, Japanese and Swiss governments—who jointly provided $30 million in support. “I’ve been privileged to observe firsthand the positive impact that HALO’s dedicated work has had on the day-to-day lives of people in the north. This is a great success story and the United States is proud to have been a part of it,” says Deborah Netland, Program Manager at the US Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA). |
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Each white stick indicates where HALO located a landmine.
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| Now that the work is completed in the north, HALO has been asked to lend its assistance in south and central Mozambique, where progress has been slower. A survey to determine the extent of the remaining mines threat there was completed in October 2007, and workplans are now being developed.
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Fundraising Achievement - The HALO South Pole Expedition
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| On 21 January 2004, Alex Blyth, then a Trustee of The HALO Trust, and Ray Middleton,
a senior pilot with Cathay Pacific, reached the South Pole after a 730 mile trek from the coast of Antarctica.
They raised over $200,000 for The HALO Trust.
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International awards received
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| 1998 The European Commission's First
European Festival of Solidarity (Barcelona) - Major post-conflict labour
reconstruction category, Winner.
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| 2002
LEW KOPELEW PRIZE (Cologne) - for peace and human rights 2001, Winner.
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| May 2009 Chief Executive Guy Willoughby wins the Burns International Humanitarian Award. |
Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.
Now in its eighth year, the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award is presented annually to a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service, 'hands on' charitable/volunteer work, or other acts. The winner receives 1759 guineas, a sum which signifies the year of the Bard's birth and the coinage then in circulation, as well as a specially commissioned hand-made award.
Links to the story can be found at:
Visit Scotland http://burns.visitscotland.com/who/award/
Scotland on Sunday http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Landmine-charity-founder-wins-Burns
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/17/land-mines-halo-trust-award
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AFGHANISTAN