With the approval of the State Council and the Central Military Commission, an assistant group comprising 14 mine clearance experts left Beijing for Eritrea on September 1 to conduct a four-month humanitarian assistance program in mine clearance. This is the first time for the Chinese military to conduct assistance in mine clearance overseas, according to the People's Liberation Army Daily.

Since China joined in the newly amended Landmine Protocol in 1998, the Chinese government and military have been active in carrying out humanitarian assistance in mine clearance by various forms, including contributing money to UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Clearance and donating mine detection and clearance equipment to mine-affected countries, as well as holding international mine clearance training courses. In order to support the international humanitarian assistance, as well as broaden methods and channels of assistance, the Chinese government has organized this new activity in mine clearance.

It is reported that the 14 experts who left for Eritrea are scientific research personnel who have long been engaged in the research and training in regard to landmine handling, as well as leading technicians who have taken part in large scale mine clearance along the border of southwest China's Yunnan Province. They have taken the advanced mine clearance equipment made in China to Eritrea and will train a batch of local mine clearance professionals and give them instructions on the practical mine clearance operation.

(china.org.cn by Wang Qian, September 6, 2002)