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AFGHANISTAN: Weapons cache discovery underscores risks to civilians

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, 4 December 2008 (IRIN) - Nearly 3,000 metric tonnes of military hardware, which had been posing a potentially serious risk to local people, have been discovered in Shirin Tagab District, Faryab Province, northern Afghanistan, posing a potentially serious risk to local people.

The discovery was made by the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), which is jointly managed by the government and the UN Development Programme.

"We have discovered a number of caches of weapons amounting to over 2,900 tonnes of munitions and ammunition," Mohammad Shafi Rahimi, ANBP's regional manager in the north, told IRIN.

The weapons were buried in caves in the countryside and “posed a very serious threat to local communities”, he said, adding that this year at least one person had lost an eye and a hand as he tried to carry off a warhead.

It is unclear who dumped the weapons, which include hundreds of warheads, but ANBP experts said all were left over from the past three decades of conflict.

Several local people said the discovery was a big relief for them in the sense that at least the hazardous material would now be disposed of safely.

The ANBP has discovered 8,000 metric tonnes of munitions in 940 caches over the past three years in northern provinces, Rahimi said. It hands over usable weapons to the army and destroys the remainder, with the assistance of demining agencies.

Landmines, cluster bombs

The existence of explosive remnants of war poses serious threats to people in many areas, and dozens, mostly children, have fallen victim to them, according to mine-clearing agencies. Landmines claim about 40 victims a month, demining organisations say.

Afghanistan joined the anti-cluster-bomb treaty on 3 December. ”We are delighted to be among other nations that oppose the use of cluster bombs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen told IRIN.

"We applaud the government of Afghanistan on its decision to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions," the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan said in a statement on 4 December. The treaty would help facilitate the clearing up of the remaining cluster bombs, it added.

Cluster bombs scatter a number of smaller sub-munitions and/or bomblets which can remain undetected for a long time, and often kill, maim and injure civilians. They were used by the Soviet army in the 1980s and also by US-led forces in 2001, according to the Human Rights Watch.

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Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Economy

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Copyright © IRIN 2008
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
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