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LIBYA

SITUATION UPDATE

02-02-2012

Explosive remnants of war and the proliferation

of small arms: new challenges for Libya

All photo credits: Handicap International

About Handicap International

Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an international aid

organisation working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster.Working alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations in over 60countries worldwide, we take action and raise awareness in order to respond to theiressential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignityand fundamental rights.

Press contact

Tom Shelton, Handicap International UK

Tel: +44 (0)870 774 3737 | Mob: +44 (0)7508 810520

Email:tom.shelton@hi-uk.org

mailto:tom.shelton@hi-uk.orgmailto:tom.shelton@hi-uk.orgmailto:tom.shelton@hi-uk.orgmailto:tom.shelton@hi-uk.org

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BACKGROUND

The uprising in Libya which began on17th February 2011 led to fierce clashesbetween forces loyal to ColonelGaddafi and rebel fighters. The protest

movement gave way to bloodyrepression, leading to the death orinjury of thousands of people.

Landmines (anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines) and cluster munitionswere used during the conflict,threatening the safety of civilians1.Hundreds of thousands of people fledthe country as a result of the fighting.

On 20th October 2011, Sirte, the lastbastion of the old regime, fell andColonel Gaddafi was killed. Aprovisional government, the NationalTransition Council, took control of thecountry.

One year after the initial uprising, the situation remains highly precarious. Alongside thethreat from mines and explosive remnants of war, a large quantity and variety of small armshave fallen into the hands of civilians, who lack the training to use them.

Handicap International launched an immediate emergencyresponse to the crisis in Libya. In March we started raisingawareness of the dangers posed by explosive remnants of war incombat zones, homes, schools and public spaces. During the year,we also began risk education on the dangers posed by theproliferation of small arms, by teaching civilians the correct safetyprecautions to take to avoid accidents.

Handicap International has begun to tackle a new challenge:clearing land contaminated by mines and destroying explosive

remnants of war in Tripoli and in Sirte, one of the worst affectedregions in the country. We will are also intensifying our riskeducation activities. By committing to this as a long-term process,we aim to ensure that people living under constant threat will beable to lead normal lives again.

For more information, visit our website:www.handicap-international.org.uk/libya

1Human Rights Watch reports, March and April 2011http://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2011/04/15/libya-cluster-

munitions-strike-Misratah

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2011

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Families have foundexplosive remnants of war intheir homes, gardens, livingrooms, childrens bedrooms,or in their places of work.

STAFF INTERVIEW

The fighting is over,but civilians are still at risk

Frederic Maio, Manager of Handicap Internationals programmein Libya

One year after the revolution, whats thesituation like in Libya today?

Although the revolution ended in October2011 with the fall of Sirte and the death ofColonel Gaddafi, the fighting left its mark andthe population still lives in constant danger.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced peoplehave returned to their homes in areas thathave been bombed and mined. Families havefound explosive remnants of wari in theirhomes, gardens, living rooms, childrensbedrooms, or in their places of work.

The rebellion against the Gaddafi regime alsoled to an influx of small arms that nowthreatens to dramatically increase the numberof dead and wounded. Civilians are not usedto handling these weapons and know little or

nothing about basic safety precautions. Theseweapons are regularly used duringcelebrations, even marriages, where guestsfire into the air to express their joy! The highrate of accidents, which sometimes involvechildren, provides a daily reminder of how vitalit is to get our prevention message across.

Who is worst affected by explosiveremnants of war?

In Misrata, for example, a third of accidentsinvolve children under 14 years old and nearly80% of recorded victims are civilians underthe age of 23. Young people are thereforebearing the brunt of these accidents. Thatswhy we are focusing our actions on this agegroup, particularly through sessions in schoolsand teacher training. Weve received a verywarm welcome from the local population.

Everyone wants to know more about thesafety precautions to take when faced withthese dangers, which are to avoidapproaching explosive remnants of war, tomark the danger zone and to alert us so thatwe can secure the area.

What new measures is HandicapInternational taking to tackle this constantthreat?

We are scaling-up our risk education on these

weapons. At the start of the year, we alsobegan clearing contaminated land ii in Tripoliand Sirte, two areas particularly badly affectedby the fighting. This will limit the risk ofaccidents and restore cleared land tocommunities and safe homes to families. Buttheres a long road ahead of us. There areshells, rockets, mines and grenades lyingabout everywhere, on the roads, in the fieldsand around hospitals and mosques. Aftermonths of fighting, everyones top priority is tobuild a climate of peace and security.

iExplosive remnants of war refers to unexplodeddevices, missiles, etc.ii

Clearance: identifying and neutralising explosiveremnants of war

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Clearing contaminated land

The fighting in Libya is over but civilians are still at risk.Thousands of explosive weapons liescattered across the country, particularly in Tripoli, Sirte, Misrata, Ajdabiya, Brega, Ras Lanufand along the Tunisian border. Handicap International sent a demining specialist to Libya inSeptember 2011 to assess local needs by identifying zones contaminated by anti-personnelmines and other explosive remnants of war. This specialist also worked in conjunction with

the authorities, including the National Transition Council (NTC) and other humanitarianoperators present in the field.

Following this assessment, three Handicap International demining teams were deployed andare now operating in Tripoli and Sirte. Each team consists of one expatriate managing andtraining eight Libyans, and a medic. These teams are primarily working in districts worstaffected by the fighting to identify, remove and destroy mines and explosive remnants of war.

Its vital to start the clearance operations immediately, explains Frdric Maio, manager of

Handicap Internationals programme in Libya. After the fighting ends, the first thing peoplewant to do is to return home.People returning to areas where fighting has taken place arefaced by danger on all sides.Many civilians unwittingly put themselves at risk. Some of themare even tempted to recover metal or explosives from abandoned bombs close to bunkersformerly used by Gaddafis armed forces and which came under NATO attack.Thisextremely risky behaviour provides us with a daily reminder of the need to destroy theseweapons and to ensure civilians understand the dangers they pose.

In a statement on 27th April 2011, the NTC renounced the use of landmines (anti-personneland anti-vehicle mines) and agreed to destroy them. The Council also expressed a desire tocooperate with demining, awareness and victim assistance activities. Handicap Internationalis now working to ensure that Libya signs up to the Mine Ban Treaty as quickly as possible.

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Risk education on landmines and explosiveremnants of war

Handicap International has beenrunning prevention activities in Libyasince April 2011. We have been working

in the east of the country and in Misrata,a city particularly badly affected byclashes between rebels and forces loyalto Gaddafi. As soon as hostilities endedin Bani Walid, one of our teamstravelled to the area to raise theawareness of vulnerable civilians aboutthe risks posed by mines andunexploded remnants of war.

So far, we have trained some 100Libyan nationals to raise the awareness

of people at risk, particularly displacedpopulations returning home, andchildren. We have been able to rely in particular on the considerable support of the LibyanScouts who swiftly moved into action in Ajdabiya, Benghazi and Brega, and have beenreaching out to displaced populations along the Tunisian and Egyptian borders.

As Ali Abdel Moneim Al Zayani, 21, a Scout trained by Handicap International, observed,People are running huge risks because they dont realise how dangerous these weaponscan be.People pick up unexploded ordnance and keep them as battlefield souvenirs,children play with them, and other people organise displays of weapons in the street or inschools. Some even try to clear their land with rakes or by hand.Theres a lot to be done, butits essential work.

Our teams and partners work directly in schools, businesses and with authorities andorganisations. Around 17,000 people have now attended our risk education sessions,including 10,000 children, who are the main victims of these weapons.

To date, Handicap International has distributed around 60,000 leaflets to vulnerablecommunities in Libya and displayed 5,000 posters in towns and cities contaminated by theseweapons. 20,000 childrens textbooks have been handed out in schools. Using simpleimages understandable to everyone, these books demonstrate the basic safety measures totake when faced with explosive remnants of war.

Information spots were broadcast daily on six main

radio stations in Benghazi, Ajdabiya, Brega andMisrata, and on Free Libya radio, which isaccessible virtually across the country. A song hasalso been written about the issue and is now anational hit. Newspapers, weekly announcementsin mosques and roadside billboards were also usedto disseminate information.

Handicap International is now stepping up its riskeducation activities targeted at people living inTripoli, Misrata and Sirte. As in Benghazi, we are

training local focal points on the risk education messages, establishing direct contact with thelocal population, and distributing documents in the worst affected areas.

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A campaign to support communities to

address the problem of weapon misuse.

Small arms preventioncampaign

There has been a huge proliferation of smallarms2 in Libya due to the opening of armsstockpiles by Gaddafis forces during the rebeladvance and also the arms deliveries made bydifferent states from the start of the conflict. Theproliferation of all types of small arms amongcivilians, who have not been trained to use them,has given rise to accidents which could easily beprevented by specific educational measures.Between October and November 2011, 400people were killed by small arms in Tripoli alone3.

We are dealing with civilians who took up armsduring the rebellion, in a country in which theywere previously confined mainly to the military,

explains James Turton, a specialist in reducingarmed violence at Handicap International. Thepeople who possess fire arms do not know how touse them properly and are not trained in safety procedures, as in the case of two teenagerswho were injured as they played with a gun.Our role is to avoid accidents in areas in whichthe fighting is now over.It is not acceptable, for example, that celebrations, in which manypeople fire into the air, should lead to injury and even death. Sixty-three people wereadmitted to hospital in Benghazi within just five days in October 2011 for bullet injuriessustained during celebrations to mark the liberation of Sirte, some of whom died of theirinjuries.

For Handicap International, it is necessary to respond immediately to this latest threat, which

poses an enormous risk to civilians. We are therefore scaling-up our risk education activitieson the dangers of handling weapons and teaching people the correct safety precautions totake to avoid accidents. The risk education activities run by Handicap International havebeen recognised by the transitional authorities as the most effective in the country.

We have so far trained some 100 school teachers to teach students and their parents, asteenagers are particularly likely to put themselves at risk. We have also intervened directly incolleges to educate over 1,300 teenagers in Benghazi, a third of whom were girls. Over16,000 leaflets and some 3,000 posters have been handed out to vulnerable children.

In Benghazi, the messages were also displayed on 4m x 3m billboards at strategic pointswith heavy traffic and in extremely poor neighbourhoods where the number of small arms

held by civilians is highest.

Finally, we raised the awareness of seven local organisations in Benghazi and Brega to actas new focal points for this campaign.

We are currently extending our risk education activities on small arms to Tripoli, one of thecities most severely affected by this problem. Information about the risk from small arms willalso be included in risk education sessions on in the cities of Misrata and Sirte in 2012.

2 Small arms are, generally speaking, weapons used by a single person. They include revolvers, self-loadingpistols, rifles and shotguns, machine guns, assault rifles and light automatic weapons.3

Source: UNDSS