SA firm leads the mine-clearing pack

By Lumka Oliphant

Mechem, South Africa's only de-mining specialists, are fast becoming world leaders in the clearing of landmines in former war zones, such as Mozambique, Angola, the Balkans and northern Iraq.

The company, which forms part of parastatal arms giant Denel, has received a seven-month contract worth R7-million from the government of Mozambique to clear about two million mines that were planted during the civil war between the Frelimo government and Renamo rebels.

The civil war ended in 1992, but the landmines were left in the countryside, where the majority of the country's population lives. Last year's floods washed some of the mines downstream, posing a threat to people living in areas previously perceived to be safe.

The landmine situation in Mozambique is also hampering economic growth because some of the country's arable lands contain mines.

Staff at Mechem will leave for Mozambique in March, and they are expected to conduct de-mining operations until October. The crew will consist of 16 men and eight dogs.

Mechem plans to train and employ between 25 and 50 Mozambicans once it starts operating in that country.

According to Theo van Dyk, the manager of de-mining operations, the plan is not to take away jobs in foreign countries, but to train locals and get them involved.

Mechem, whose offices are on the eastern outskirts of Pretoria, was started as a research unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Its major activity was the development of landmine-protected vehicles and the upgrading of standard vehicles to various levels of protection.

Mechem has also developed a landmine detection and de-mining technique called the Mechem Explosives and Drug Detection System (Medds) - a vapour concentration system which interfaces with the acute sense of smell of specially trained dogs. This system ensures that de-mining occurs quickly and efficiently, as opposed to using the slower, manual metal detection alone.

"In Africa, most minefields are discovered by accident because often the bush and undergrowth obscure the mines, and torrential rains may bury them deeper or wash them away," Van Dyk says. "Using manual detectors is difficult because detectors pick up everything that is metal in the ground. Dogs and people then have to investigate which metal is a mine and which is not."

He adds that Medds has proved to be a reliable method of detecting buried explosives, even if they are deep or have no metallic parts.

"The first step of Medds is the collection of vapours by sucking air through a specially prepared sampling tube. The vapour-concentrating tubes are mounted on the front of a protected vehicle or carried by an operator on foot, with a suction backpack.

"Groups of sampling tubes are placed on a row of stands and the dogs then sniff along the rows of samples. They indicate positive samples by lying down."

The final stage is the physical search, which is reduced by the Medds to a fraction of the work that would otherwise be necessary.

"Only enclosures or sectors indicated as positive by Medds-trained dogs need to be physically checked," Van Dyk says.

This won't be the first time Mechem has been involved in de-mining in Mozambique. The first successful exercise was in 1991 between Maputo and Komatipoort, where 600 landmines were located.

"That was so unbelievable, we couldn't believe what we saw there," Van Dyk says.

Mechem, which has operated in northern Iraq, the Balkans and Angola, has had only three accidents. "We had one fatal accident leading to a death in Croatia and two people who lost parts of their bodies."

Anti-personnel mines are used in conventional and guerrilla warfare to prevent people from using roads. They are laid randomly during the war, but cause most casualties during peacetime.

"Anti-personnels are dangerous because they are laid randomly during a war and they kill people once the war is over. People are unable to farm and can't let the cattle graze either," Van Dyk adds.

Herdsmen are particularly vulnerable in these areas because they often chase after cattle and end up being blown up by a mine. World estimates are that a person is blown up by a mine every 20 minutes.

It is estimated that in Africa alone, there are more than 17-million buried landmines, with Angola topping the list with up to 10-million.

Van Dyk says that although the job is dangerous, it is satisfying because, for every landmine taken out, at least one life has been saved.