Military

DATE=03/07/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

NUMBER=5-51218

TITLE=AFGHAN / U-X-O (CQ)

BYLINE=GARY THOMAS

DATELINE=KABUL

CONTENT=

VOICE AT:

INTRO: Flags were flown at half-staff at the German military compound in Kabul Thursday in honor of the soldiers killed this week in a freak accident. As V-O-A correspondent Gary Thomas reports from Kabul, the accident underscores the problem of unexploded bombs and rockets.

TEXT: In military parlance, they are called U-X-O, shorthand for "unexploded ordnance." They are the refuse of war, the trash left behind by former foes or departed forces. After 23 years of conflict in Afghanistan, there is a lot of deadly trash lying around.

On Wednesday, five peacekeepers were killed and eight injured by an old Soviet SA-3 surface-to-air missile. The men -- ordnance experts from the International Security Assistance Force -- were rigging the missile to destroy it when it prematurely detonated.

Afghanistan had a big U-X-O problem before, due to the bombs and rockets dropped or left behind by occupying Soviet forces. The rocket the peacekeepers were trying to defuse was an old Soviet one. But explosives experts say the recent U-S bombing in Afghanistan has complicated the problem, leaving hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new unexploded bombs scattered across the countryside.

In an interview only one day before the accident, Hayatullah Hayat of the Danish De-mining Group -- one of many private organizations working in mine and ordnance clearance in Afghanistan -- said U-X-O has actually become a greater danger than mines because of the U-S-dropped cluster bombs.

// HAYAT ACT //

With the new cluster bombs, we can say that's a bigger problem because these cluster (bombs) they are laying on the surface of the ground. And sometimes the kids, you know, they think it's just like toys, things like that. And you know, with the poverty in this country, people are gathering some of the metal pieces. So when he touch, he die or get injury.

// END ACT //

Mr. Hayatullah says many U-S bombs hit Taleban ammunition depots, sending showers of unexploded bombs, bullets, and rockets around. The Danish group estimates at least six percent of the bombs dropped fail to explode, and that there are 15 to 25 accidents every day involving U-X-O.

The hazardous work of detecting and defusing small bombs is the work of the many small private demining and U-X-O organizations working in Afghanistan, such as the Danish group and the Halo Trust. But the big stuff, such as large missiles, is being handled by explosives experts from the International Security Assistance Group, the peacekeeping force in Kabul.

Jurgen Sorensen, an explosives expert of the Danish Demining Group, says there is no U-S-dropped unexploded ordnance in Kabul. But, he says, the Kabul airport remains littered with old Soviet U-X-O from 10 to 20 years old, ranging from small shells to big rockets.

Right now, says Mr. Sorensen, U-X-O is scattered so close to the airport runways that the airport cannot meet international safety standards for commercial aircraft.

// SORENSEN ACT //

The problem out there right now is that we have to clear within 150 meters to either side of the runway, and 340 meters at both ends before any commercial airplane is allowed to use it, or will use it.

// END ACT //

Soviet forces also used the airport as an explosives storage depot, says Mr. Sorensen. A big store of unexploded bombs for aircraft remains at the west end of runway, waiting to be cleared. (signed)

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