A shipment of thirty mine detectors will soon be in the hands of United Nations humanitarian deminers in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The instruments have been donated by church groups, trade associations, individuals and customers of Schonstedt Instrument Company, which manufactures the demining tools and coordinates distribution to the world's most mine-infested countries.
Since 1993, the interagency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program has provided well over $40 million to Vietnam to help clear explosive remnants of war (ERW) and landmines left from over 30 years of conflict, educate Vietnamese who live in impacted area about the risks of UXO and landmines, assist survivors of landmine and ERW accidents, and provided equipment to strengthen the national capacity of the Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN) of the People's Army of Vietnam Engineering Command.
The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense's Humanitarian Demining Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have all contributed in this regard. Their efforts have saved lives, helped to speed Vietnam's post-conflict recovery, and contributed to the growing friendly relations between the United States and Vietnam.
Under the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative, each purchase of a new Schonstedt TraceMaster or XTpc underground pipe and cable locator will trigger a donation, in the customer's name, of a magnetic locator for explosive ordnance detection. The UN Mine Action Service will then coordinate the distribution of the locators to where they are most needed, thereby extending its humanitarian demining work throughout the world.
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