“After 22 Years of Work, Mozambique Is Free of Land Mine Peril”
The New York Times, September 17, 2015
“Once contaminated with tens of thousands of land mines from a legacy of war, Mozambique was officially declared cleansed of those weapons on Thursday after 22 years of work. The achievement, celebrated at an event in the capital, Maputo, was considered especially remarkable by disarmament advocates. Some had regarded Mozambique as so riddled with land mines that clearing them would perhaps take centuries. … Most of the clearance work was done by the Halo Trust, a Scotland-based international organization that helps former conflict zones cleanse themselves of land mines and other vestiges of war that can kill and maim long after the combat has stopped. … Overall, Halo said in a statement, its workers cleared more than 171,000 land mines from Mozambique in a decontamination project that began in 1993, accounting for about 80 percent of the total destroyed. Destruction of the last-known land mine took place Wednesday… A former Portuguese colony, Mozambique was consumed by conflict for decades, first in a war of independence and then a civil war that lasted until 1992 and left about a million people dead. While the casualties from leftover land mines in Mozambique have not been calculated, Human Rights Watch said in a 1994 report that more than 10,000 people had been killed or maimed by these weapons in just the first few years of peace.”
Quickie analysis: A major achievement on many levels.
Not What You Might Think 