Panel 2 Mine action on the ground: placing the people in the centre The history of arms control and disarmament is marked by a succession of various treaties focusing on the weapons, trying to reduce the number of assets or the damages directly provoked by their use. But, unfortunately, the sequels of the presence of landmines are not limited to the physical and psychological injuries inflicted to the victims and their families, as painful as it can be. The human consequences of the death of a member of a family as those of the loss of an arm or a leg are obvious. Beyond that, landmines are a threat for the fragile economy of the affected families, communities and countries. In this matter, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti - Personnel Mines and on their Destruction marks an important step for the international humanitarian law. Its special achievement lies in the attention it pays to the affected populations. The treaty has induced actions that are not limited to what is described in its title: it includes among other campaigns related to the demining of the affected areas, medical assistance to the victims and support to the communities. These actions can be conducted by various actors like international organisations, national governments and NGOs. The panel will highlight a few aspects of the activities inspired by the so - called spirit of Ottawa. The challenges of the demining operations will be illustrated through the experience of the Belgian contribution to UNIFIL and the removal of the minefields on the Blue Line, between Israel and Lebanon. Ban Advocates and Handicap International will focus on the needs of the victims, with the testimony of a mine survivor from Tajikistan, and will explain the comprehensive and cooperative approach needed to support the victims. But, as already explained, the societies (local communities, countries) are also affected by the landmines, whose presence worsens the situation of already war - battered areas. This aspect will be set out by the Implementation Support Unit of the Ottawa Convention.
Lieutenant-Colonel Peter PHILIPSEN Lieutenant-Colonel (GS) Peter Philipsen was born on the 30 March 1966 in Balen (Belgium). He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in 1989 with the 125th promotion ‘Al l Branches ’ and received a master’s degree in Social and Military sciences. After completing his professional formation as an engineer officer in the Engineer School in Jambes (Namur) he was appointed to the unit of his choice, the 1 Engineer Battalion in Westhoven (Germany) where he stayed for four years executing different operational functions in a Combat Engineer Company. Subsequently, he was transferred to the Infrastructure Management Service attached to the Belgian Forces in Germany where he assumed the responsibility to hand over all existing Belgian Infrastructure in the western sector to the German authorities. After a period of seven years with the Belgian Forces in Germany, he returned to his home country Belgium where he joined once again the operational side of the military and he was appointed to the 68th Combat Engineer Company in Helchteren. He accomplished the functions of Operations Officer and subsequently he became the deputy commander. Following his formation as a senior Officer in the Royal Higher Institute of Defence, he was assigned to become the Commander of a Combat Engineer Company within the 11th Engineer Battalion. Subsequently, in this same battalion, he was appointed to the function of officer responsible for operations and training for a three-year term. During this time he participated in a four-month NATO operation in Kosovo as commander of the engineer detachment attached to BELUKOS 7. In 2006, after graduating as a master in Political and Military Sciences from the Defence College at the Royal Military Academy, he stayed in the institute in order to teach engineer support to land operations to all officers attending advanced formation courses. From May till November 2012 Lieutenant-Colonel Philipsen was the Belgian National Contingent Commander attached to UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The Belgian contribution to this UN mission, BELUFIL, executes a demining mission within the framework of the Blue Line Marking process. Apart from being the National Contingent Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Philipsen also worked in the Joint Headquarters UNIFIL, situated in Naqoura (South-Lebanon) in the J3 Combat Engineer Section. In this section he was responsible for the planning and monitoring of all demining activities alongside the Blue Line in South- Lebanon. On 14 December 2012 he was inaugurated as battalion commander of the 11th Engineer Battalion in Burcht in the vicinity of Antwerp (Belgium).
Mr Umedjon NAIMOV Mr Naimov, from Tajikistan, is a mine survivor. He was 12 years old when he lost his leg in a horrible accident in Khatlan, a province of Tajikistan. At the time he was in grade 5 at school and it was summer holidays, which he was spending with his family at his grandmother’s. There, he met some other children on a football playground who were of the same age. The playground was near contaminated areas but no one knew about it. He started playing with them but next to them there were 3 other children who were playing with what happened to be a mine. Suddenly he heard a big explosion and when he woke up, he was in a bed at the hospital. He felt pain in his legs and saw they were covered with white stripes. The doctor advised him to stay quiet for a long while and not to carry any heavy things: it took him almost one year to recover. One day, at school, he argued with one of his classmates who hit his injured leg. The pain was so bad that he had to then go back to Dushanbe where he went through several surgeries. Unfortunately he could not be cured and the doctor said that amputation was needed. This was a traumatic experience and Umedjon felt really isolated; even his family was depressed when thinking about his future. After almost three years of treatment and recovery, Umedjon went back to school joining his old classmate in grade 9 and is now studying in Branch Technology University. In 2010, he met Mrs Reykhan Muminova in a summer camp for people with disabilities. She encouraged him to continue his education and to stay self-motivated. She also introduced him to Umarbek Pulodov, the executive director of the Tajik Campaign to Ban Landmines (TCBL) and Aziza Khakimova who proposed him to join the Ban Advocates project, which he did in 2011. They are still helping and encouraging him, together with the support of Handicap International, to get the most out of his participation in international and national conferences as well as national events as a member of the Ban Advocates team. “Today, I am advocating for a world free of mines and clusters. This not only means states have to support these conventions but also that they should have a specific focus on victim assistance because this is what really changes people’s lives. Getting me dical care and being given the possibility to access education and employment will empower survivors and help them participate actively in society with equal rights and opportunities.”
Ms Hildegarde VANSINTJAN Hildegarde Vansintjan has been working with Handicap International in Brussels since 2005. Her main task as advocacy officer is lobbying towards a ban on cluster munitions in Belgium and internationally within the framework of the Cluster Munition Coalition, for which Handicap International is a founding member. Besides advocacy, she also reaches out to Belgian and international media for groundbreaking reports published by Handicap International on the human impact of cluster munitions on civilians such as “Fatal Footprint” “Circle of Impact”, “ Voices from the Ground ” , “ Armed Violence and Disability: The Untold Story ” . As Handicap International she advocated for strong victim assistance provisions during the negotiating conference on cluster munitions in Dublin in 2008. Her advocacy work has included victims of cluster munitions, known as the “Ban Advocates”, a team of victims built, trained and supported by Handicap International since 2007, thanks to the support of the Belgian government. In 2011 mine survivors were included in the Ban Advocates project and in her lobby work around the Mine Ban Treaty. Advocating with the survivors themselves required a specific strategy which she believed had to be personalised and strength-based. Still working towards the universalisation of these treaties, her lobby work also includes the implementation, in particular victim assistance, mine action support, reporting and disinvestment, in order to bring sustainable changes for the people on the ground. Her work as advocacy officer with Handicap International benefited from her experiences as communication officer within organisations working with people in the South, as spokesperson in the Belgian House of Representatives and as journalist. Her studies of Dutch and German languages and literature had brought her first to the cultural redaction of a Flemish newspaper, but her interest in politics encouraged her to switch to politics, in particular Foreign Policy and Development, Social Changes and Education. It was her experience as a teacher in pedagogical high schools and at the university that paved the way for her work as a journalist. At the Catholic University of Louvain her focus was Analysis of Literary Texts, European literature and Symbolism. She studied at the Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven) and the Catholic University of Brussels (KUB).
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