SUMMARY OF JANUARY'S ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS

- Visual search & clearance of 116,914 square metres of land through hand, electronic, and visual techniques.

- Removal and destruction of 107 hazardous Remnants of Conflict* - 87 sub-munitions and 20 items of unexploded ordnance

BATTLE AREA CLEARANCE AND EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL

The continued focus of clearance for this month has moved towards clearance of agricultural and pastoral areas for the recovery of livelihoods. The programme re-started operations on 7th January 2008 following the winter break. Operational time was reduced this month due to mandatory annual re-accreditation of all MAG teams by the MACC SL. Time was also reduced due to heavy winter rainstorms, MAG worked in the following areas and achieved the following outputs from 7th January to 31st January 2008:

- Area 6: 18 BAC teams and one reconnaissance team continue to operate. They worked in 9 villages: Yohmor, Zawtar West, Sejoud, Kafar Tebnite, Kafar Sir, Qosaybeh, Aadchit, Jibnit, and Kfar Roumane. These teams have used visual and electronic methods of clearance, clearing an area of 104,331 square metres. 107 Remnants of Conflict were found and destroyed.

- Area 7: 3 BAC teams operating in the village of Maalieh. These teams have used visual and electronic methods of clearance, clearing an area of 12,583 square metres.

- All teams are contributing to the social and economic recovery and development of South Lebanon through the safe, efficient, and effective clearance of Remnants of Conflict.

COMMUNITY LIAISON (CL)

All Contact Officers have continued to undertake community liaison activities at the pre-clearance, clearance, and post-clearance stages.

There were 163 activities during the month, including 36 data collection activities**, 12 statement forms, five clearance permissions, three UXO tasking reports, and 100 other activities (e.g., mapping, hosting media visits, QA/QC) that support clearance work by providing control point locations and storage areas, securing land owner's approval for using their house/fields for clearance activities, liaison with local authorities, and emphasizing public safety messages to communities undergoing clearance.

EMERGENCY UXO CLEARANCE IN NAHR EL-BARED REFUGEE CAMP, TRIPOLI

MAG still has international technical staff and four Mine Action Teams available to undertake UXO clearance and/or provide technical support to UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies.

DONORS

- DFID - ECHO - German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) - US Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement - United Nations Office for Project Services

[* MAG uses the term Remnants of Conflict (RoC) to describe all items recovered and destroyed as part of its humanitarian disarmament activities, which include Anti-Personal and Anti-Vehicle mines, Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), abandoned and unexploded ordnance (UXO) and small arms light weapons (SALW). This term has been developed to reflect more accurately the broad range of clearance activities undertaken by MAG]

[** Data collection includes population, socio-economic data, village services and beneficiary details. If the teams discover a minefield/dangerous area then information is collected specific to the dangerous area/minefield in addition to the general information form.]