59-05-032 Proceeding

213 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE MRCT LANDMINE CLEARANCE PROJECT, FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY JAPAN-ASEAN INTEGRATION FUND (JAIF) Amornchai Sirisai Project Manager of MRCT Project Thai Civilian Deminer Association Abstract : The “Implementation and Dissemination of the Experience of Minefield Releasing at Border Area with Cambodia in Surin Province, Thailand (MRCT)” is a landmine clearance project, targeting 2,420,000 sq.m. of contaminated land. Grant of USD 473,055.96 to the project is made available by the JAPAN-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) under kind recommendation and facilitation by the Department of International Organization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Thai MFA). Thai Civilian Deminer Association (TDA) has executed project with 19 experienced staff members during the project’s operating period of 18 months from April 2014 to September 2015, in close collaborationwithThailandMine Action Center (TMAC).The project has deployed the Land Release Process (LR) which is recognized and proven by many mine action authorities such as Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) and TMAC, and international mine action body such as Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), as a more efficient and effective method. The LR process consists of 3 steps. In the first step, project staffs conduct non-technical survey where they gather sufficient information on the minefield to identify part(s) of the minefield that have no evidence of the presence of mines. The identified land shall be deducted from the total minefield called cancellation.The second step, known as technical survey, project staff further investigate the remaining land not cancelled fromstep one by using equipment such as metal detectors. Land confidentially proven not to have mines shall be deducted. The deduction of land in this step is called releasing. In the third and final step, is the full clearance on remaining land. Project staff clear every inch of land using metal detectors and other relevant resources. Safe areas returned from the project - through cancellation, releasing and full clearance - allow local people to freely enter the forest and areas without risk of landmine accidents, and be used for local development projects such as temporary border trading areas. MRCT project so far has found about 2,200 landmines/UXO, and returned safe area about 1,940,000 sq.m. to local communities. Best practices and lessons learned from the implementation of the project especially on LR are summarized in a report and disseminated toASEAN countries for regional application. MRCT project has also arranged meetings for local NGOs in this field to share and learn know-how which can be passed on to other ASEAN countries.