Federal Foreign Office makes available 2.76 million euro for humanitarian mine action in Afghanistan

The Federal Foreign Office is providing a total of 2.76 million euro for the work of two Afghan mine clearance organizations via the German relief organization Medico International. This will enable the two Afghan partners to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Tom Koenigs, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement on this in Berlin on Friday (4 March):

"Landmines and unexploded ordnance are greatly hampering Afghanistan's reconstruction. There are still about 100 victims every month and some 800 kmē of the country continue to be infested with landmines. Anyone who has seen the film "Kandahar" will know the great suffering this entails. However, the terrible fate of the victims and their families is not the only problem. The justified fear of landmines and unexploded ordnance considerably restricts people's freedom of movement and hinders agriculture.

The funds supplied by the Federal Foreign Office will make it possible to render land usable for agriculture once more and to offer the population a safe environment for the reconstruction of the country."

Afghanistan has been one of the main recipients of German support in eliminating the legacy of war and civil war since 1995. Among other things, the Federal Foreign Office is funding what is probably the world's largest mine dog school there. Since 1995, 26.1 million euro have been made available for humanitarian mine action. This year, funding will total 3.3 million euro.

March 4, 2005

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