(4 March 2002, Bangkok)

——Statement by the Chinese Delegate at the Southeast Asia Regional Technical Workshop for Humanitarian Demining Experts       

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to attend this workshop.  The theme of this workshop is the humanitarian demining technology.  That would give us a good opportunity to make a meaningful exchange and discussion on demining technology, and I’m convinced that we would learn much valuable experience on mine clearance from the colleagues of other countries through this workshop.  At the same time, we are willing to share our own experience in mine clearance with the colleagues here.

We consistently hold that both mine clearance and restrictions on the use of landmines are two complementary ways to effectively eliminate the threat of landmines against innocent civilians.  Timely clearing landmines left over from conflicts signifies much in tackling the landmine problem.  The Chinese government has consistently taken a serious and responsible attitude toward postwar demining.  As a result, outstanding achievements have been made in this regard, and valuable experience gained.

I. China’s Achievements in Postwar Demining

Border conflicts in the 1980s left over a huge amount of landmines and UXOs in the Chinese border areas in Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces.  From early 1992 to late 1994, and from November 1997 to August 1999, under the organization of the Chinese government, two large-scale demining operations along its border in Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces had been conducted, involving more than 2,000 PLA officers and soldiers, which results in a thorough clearance of over 306 square kilometers, 1,880,000 different landmines and 320,000 UXO cleared and more than 700 tons of discarded ammunition and explosive ordnance destroyed.

The demining operations not only restored the locals to its peaceful and normal life, but also created favorable conditions for the border trade.  Thanks to the two large-scale demining operations, 60,000 hectares of deserted farmland, pastures and mountain forest had been restored and reexploited, the local ecological environment preserved and improved, which significantly promoted the local economic development and improved local people’s living standards.  The poverty-stricken population, therefore, was decreased evidently.  In addition, over 290 border trade approaches and trading ports had been opened up, which facilitated the growth of the border trade.

II. Experience from China’s Postwar Demining

I would like to take a few more minutes to touch upon this section. Some useful experience in 6 aspects can be drown as followed:

1. Much attention devoted by the Chinese government and close cooperation between local authorities and the military

Large part of the border areas in Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces are of typical karst mountains overgrown with subtropical jungles.  The terrain there is precipitous with high mountains, steep slopes, dense forests, and thick vegetation, while the communications are underdeveloped.  At that time, more than 560 minefields in the Chinese side, scattered in intermountain basins, mountains and forests, sandy soil, and roads, spelled a large mine-belt with wide front and small depth.  To some extent, such factors as the adverse geographic environment, diversified kinds and huge amount of landmines and UXOs, and the hazards and arduousness of demining operations there from made the mission unprecedented in Chinese military history, and even in the world at large.

Having faced the above situations, the Chinese government lost no time in organizing both the army and the local authorities to conduct large-scale demining operations in Yunnan and Guangxi simultaneously, which aimed at creating a safe living circumstances and sound conditions for the development of the locals in mine-affected areas.  Financial and material supports were granted accordingly.  Two demining leading groups were set up in Yunnan and Guangxi respectively; meanwhile, two demining headquarters were established respectively in Yunnan Provincial Military Command and Guangxi Military Command.  Each demining headquarter was in charge of several demining teams, which were composed of professional and experienced officers and soldiers from engineer corps.

2. Adherence to the principles of thoroughness, efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness in demining operations.

“Thoroughness” means a thorough clearance of mines with no future trouble left.  “Efficiency” refers to wrapping up demining operations within time limit so as to restore the local living environment as soon as possible.  “Safety” underlines the guarantee of deminers’ safety in the whole mission through making out safety operating procedure, flexibly adopting various demining methods, skillfully operating different demining equipment and outfitting protective appliance.  “Cost-effectiveness” means to demine at a low cost, which would not bring more financial burden onto the government.

3. Scientific division of the implementation phase

The whole demining mission was composed of two operations.  The aim of the first operation was to clear the minefields near the trade ports and in the roads, while the aim of the second was to clear all the other minefields except those to enclose and mark only.

Both operations fell into three stages, that is, preparation stage, operating stage, and check and acceptance stage.  Main tasks in the preparation stage included establishing commanding organizations, laying out the demining tasks, training the backbone deminers, conducting pilot demining operations, establishing demining teams, intensifying the pertinent demining training, planning and preparing demining equipment and materiel, and carrying out survey on the minefields.  Main tasks in the operating stage included drawing an overall demining plan, conducting on-spot reconnaissance to investigate and ascertain the minefield location, areas, and types of landmines, then, making out demining program, the specific operating procedure and demining methods, finally, demining and enclosing the uninhabited areas.  In the last stage, the demined areas were checked and handed over to the local authorities.

4. Ensuring the locals’ safety and safeguarding the ecological environment

It was another key to the success of the operation that the local governments and the local people had cooperated closely with the demining troops.  Large quantities of work had been done in joint efforts, such as mine awareness and public security education, minefield marking, and first aid training and reestablishment.  Meanwhile, in order to protect the primary forest and water resources of the border area, some mined forests and water resources areas were enclosed permanently with the view to keep personnel and livestocks from entering the mined areas.

In the interest of protecting ecological environment, the demining means like blasting demining and burning-aid demining were used on a moderate basis.  The blasting demining, which was used to enhance the demining efficiency, was only employed to clear safety lanes in main traffic arteries, trading ports, building plots, and those densely mined areas.  

It was also seldom adopted in the economic forest and cultivable lands and even forbidden in the areas near water resources so as to preserve vegetation and water resources.

5. Flexible employment of demining methods in accordance to the actual situations

According to actual situations of the mined areas and specific emplacement ways of mines, three operating modes are defined, namely, shallow demining, middle demining, and deep demining.  The shallow demining refers to clearing landmines and/or UXOs laid less than half a meter in depth, which is usually applied to the minefields located in land for yielding and living.  The middle demining refers to sweeping those landmines and/or UXOs laid less than one meter in depth, which was usually applied to the minefields in the residential areas of border ports, border passes, border markets and communications facilities.  The deep demining refers to clear the landmines and UXOs laid less than 2 meters in depth, which is usually used in clearing mine barriers in trading ports and border roads.

One minefield differed a lot from another in regard to their environments.  Some were in intermountain basins, mountain forest, sandy soil, or cliffs, some in the residential areas, military zones, or near ammunition depots.  According to the above situations, the demining troops adopted comprehensive demining means by following up the strict operating procedure, which turned out to be their key to the success of the postwar demining operations.  The comprehensive methods include manual demining, mechanical demining, burning demining, and blasting demining.

The manual demining, which is the most widely used traditional mean, can guarantee a thorough clearance of landmines and UXOs.  The mechanical demining means to strike, roll, plough, and bulldoze the mined areas with some special demining mechanism such as demining flails, demining ploughs, and bulldozers, which is characterized with its high speed, cost-effectiveness and less casualties.  The burning demining refers to burning away part of the surface vegetation of the subtropical jungles to expose mines and UXOs and detonating them.  The blasting demining, borrowed from lane-clearing in battlefields, refers to opening operating planes for the demining groups by reticulating or sectoring the mined areas, which was employed as a complement to help speed up operations and minimize casualties.

6. Enhancement of demining efficiency by researching, developing, and applying new equipment 

Together with the concerned R&D and production departments, the demining troop researched and developed demining implements, equipment and personal protective appliance to meet the technical requirements of field operations.  The demining flail, the small-size demining plough, the high-pressure water-spraying device, the demining bangalore, the hand-held demining rakes and the multifunction demining stick were developed in the two demining operations, which solve the problem of technical insufficiency of the existing demining devices and greatly improved the efficiency of the operations.  In addition, landmine-proof boots and personal protective appliance were specially designed and developed to ensure the safety of the deminers.  For instance, the landmine-proof boots of FLF protective appliance are made of special material.   With these boots, the damage to personnel’s lower limbs and feet will be greatly reduced in case the deminers happen to step on an APL.

III. Conclusion

The above is the experience we summarized from our demining operations.  I hope our experience briefed here could somewhat contribute to relieving the civilians from the threats of mines.  Just with this purpose, China joins in the international demining efforts.  The Chinese government, cooperating with UN, held two international demining courses in Nanjing in October 1999 and May 2000 respectively.  40 trainees from seven countries had been trained on demining technologies. In November 2001, China sent an expert panel to Eritrea for demining training.  In addition, China had provided detecting and clearing equipment to 7 countries seriously affected by landmines, namely, Angola, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia and Rwanda.

Finally, we would like to thank the organizers of this conference again.  And we’d like to take this opportunity to express our interests in participating in the discussion, revision, and amendment of UN Mine Action Operating Standards with the view to make it more workable and practical and meet the needs of the countries affected by mines.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.