China demonstrates its commitment to global demining efforts through concrete actions to help affected countries

On Oct 23, at a closing ceremony for a demining training course conducted by the PLA University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, 30 trainees from Laos skillfully demonstrated the techniques they had learnt for clearing mines.

This is the third time within the year that China has hosted training courses for personnel from mine-affected countries. After six weeks of rigorous on-site training, the trainees master sufficient knowledge and skills to carry out post-war humanitarian demining back home with equipment provided by China.

Laos is one of the countries most severely affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war, which have killed more than 50,000 people in the country since 1964. It is estimated that 80 million of the 270 million devices dropped in Laos by the United States between 1964 and 1973 failed to explode and that more than 25 percent of Laotian villages are still contaminated by landmines.

In addition to the human casualties, landmines have been a big obstacle to the country's post-war reconstruction and economic development, and hence a major cause of poverty in the affected areas.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, landmines have been extensively used in armed conflicts around the world, and according to an estimate by the United Nations, there are still 110 million active landmines scattered about in 68 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa. Each month, approximately 2,000 people are maimed or killed by landmines and other unexploded ordnance.

Landmine clearance is expensive and is still a difficult and dangerous operation. On average, one accident occurs for every 2,000 landmines cleared. At the current pace, it would take more than 1,100 years and $33 billion to clear up all the landmines even if there is no new deployment.

In the 1990s, China carried out two massive demining campaigns in the border areas of Yunnan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in an effort to eliminate the scourge of landmines in those areas. China's demining actions have been credited with being low cost, highly efficient and with a low number of casualties.

During the process, China has managed to train a team of demining experts, developed a variety of cost-effective and practical demining equipment, and accumulated a great deal of experience, thus laying a solid foundation for its active participation in international humanitarian demining efforts. China's demining techniques and equipment fully comply with the International Mine Action Standards.

Keenly aware of the dire humanitarian and socio-economic consequences caused by landmines, China has committed itself to the international humanitarian demining project.

In 1998, the Chinese government established an annual trust fund to finance its international humanitarian demining efforts. Over the years, China has provided demining assistance to more than 40 Asian and African countries in the form of training programs, demining equipment, medical assistance and field mine clearance assistance. Since 1998, China has sponsored 14 sessions of demining training programs in China for personnel from Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan and South Sudan and trained more than 400 professional deminers.

China has also dispatched teams of experts to Cambodia, Eritrea and Thailand for on-site training and demining instruction, with 200 professional deminers trained and 200,000 square meters of mine-contaminated land returned to productive use.

As a developing country, the budget China has allocated for international demining actions is relatively small in comparison with that of Western countries. However, China attaches no political conditions to the assistance it provides and it imparts demining know-how to beneficiary countries without any reservations. China's demining equipment is also safe, inexpensive and easy to use, and has been promoted in a large number of developing countries.

China has also been actively engaged in exchanges and cooperation with the international community including NGOs in this field. From Oct 17 to 19, China hosted a visit by the Special Envoy of the Ottawa Convention, H.H. Prince Mired Bin Raad Bin Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan.

During his visit, the prince made a trip to Nanjing PLA University of Science and Technology, and watched a demonstration of demining techniques and a display of China's indigenously developed equipment. The prince spoke highly of China's important contribution to the cause of international humanitarian demining and the professional and cost-effective equipment and technology it had developed.

In a meeting with the Laotian trainees, he encouraged them to use what they have learned in China to the fullest extent, so as to rebuild a secure and prosperous homeland free from the nightmare of landmines.

During the past two decades, China has demonstrated its commitment to the cause of international demining efforts through concrete actions. As a responsible member of the international community, China will continue to be actively engaged in and make due contribution to the noble cause of eliminating the scourge of landmines and explosive remnants of war around the world.

The author is a Beijing-based scholar of international relations.

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