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2008 Nansen Refugee Award: UNMACC-SL: leading humanitarian mine clearance in South Lebanon
Nansen Medal, 15 September 2008
GENEVA (UNHCR) – More than two decades of conflict in Lebanon left a deadly legacy – tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and millions of landmines and bomblets strewn over the countryside and in urban areas. The weapons took a regular toll on unsuspecting civilians over the years, particularly in the south, where Israel maintained a military presence until 2000.
In recognition of the serious humanitarian nature of the problem posed by landmines and UXO in southern Lebanon following the Israeli occupation and previous periods of conflict, the Lebanese authorities asked the UN for help in 2000.
In November 1998, following consultations with other UN agencies and the government of Lebanon, the newly formed UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in New York sent a multidisciplinary inter-agency mission to assess the requirement for UN assistance. As a result, a regional UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (UNMACC) was established in July 2001.
This formed the basis of today's UN Mine Action Coordination Centre – South Lebanon (UNMACC-SL), which was located at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern city of Naqoura.
As a result of United Arab Emirates (UAE) funding for mine clearance in southern Lebanon, UNMACC-SL was able to establish a base in 2002 in the southern port of Tyre.
This office was responsible for planning, prioritization, monitoring and coordination of clearance activities under the umbrella of the UAE-funded project. The UN was brought in to provide to provide technical support and establish a national support staff capacity for the project.
UNMACC-SL now has a staff of about 50 people, including some 20 international staff. In addition, seven officers from the Lebanese armed forces are attached to the centre. UNMACC-SL manages close to 1,000 Lebanese civilian mine clearers and works closely with non-governmental organizations and UN bodies such as the UN refugee agency.
After its creation, UNMACC-SL was charged with clearing munitions left from the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. It cleared 60,000 landmines, freeing up some 5 million square metres of land.
After the brief war in mid-2006 between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants, the focus changed to clearance of bomblets distributed by clusterbombs. To date, some 149,000 bomblets have been cleared from an area of 35 million square metres. At least 20 civilians and 14 mine clearers have been killed by unexploded ordnance in the south since the war and scores more injured.
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UNHCR country pages
2008 Nansen Refugee Award
The UN refugee agency has named the British coordinator of a UN-run mine clearance programme in southern Lebanon and his civilian staff, including almost 1,000 Lebanese mine clearers, as the winners of the 2008 Nansen Refugee Award.
Christopher Clark, a former officer with the British armed forces, became manager of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre-South Lebanon (UNMACC-SL) n 2003. His teams have detected and destroyed tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and tens of thousands of mines. This includes almost 145,000 submunitions (bomblets from cluster-bombs) found in southern Lebanon since the five-week war of mid-2006.
Their work helped enable the return home of almost 1 million Lebanese uprooted by the conflict. But there has been a cost – 13 mine clearers have been killed, while a further 38 have suffered cluster-bomb injuries since 2006. Southern Lebanon is once more thriving with life and industry, while the process of reconstruction continues apace thanks, in large part, to the work of the 2008 Nansen Award winners.
2008 Nansen Refugee Award
Lebanese Returnees Receive Aid
UNHCR started distributing emergency relief aid in devastated southern Lebanese villages in the second half of August. Items such as tents, plastic sheeting and blankets are being distributed to the most vulnerable. UNHCR supplies are being taken from stockpiles in Beirut, Sidon and Tyre and continue to arrive in Lebanon by air, sea and road.
Although 90 percent of the displaced returned within days of the August 14 ceasefire, many Lebanese have been unable to move back into their homes and have been staying with family or in shelters, while a few thousand have remained in Syria.
Since the crisis began in mid-July, UNHCR has moved 1,553 tons of supplies into Syria and Lebanon for the victims of the fighting. That has included nearly 15,000 tents, 154,510 blankets, 53,633 mattresses and 13,474 kitchen sets. The refugee agency has imported five trucks and 15 more are en route.
Posted on 29 August 2006
Lebanese Returnees Receive Aid
Lebanese Stream Home After Ceasefire
Tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese have been streaming back to their homes from locations inside Lebanon and Syria since a ceasefire started on Monday. UNHCR teams monitoring the roads leading to the worst affected areas of Lebanon expect the huge numbers of returnees to continue in the coming days.
UNHCR teams have been monitoring the borders around the clock at the four border points from Syria and assisting returnees. They are distributing return packs of water, high-energy biscuits, wet towels and rehydration salts. They are also identifying vulnerable cases who require additional help. Convoys for refugees who are without transportation or who cannot afford transport home are being organized by the refugee agency.
Inside Lebanon, UNHCR teams have set up distribution points alongside roads to distribute assistance such as plastic sheeting, mattresses, water and other supplies to returnees. The full extent of the aid that will be needed will not be clear until a thorough assessment is carried out in the worst-affected areas.
Posted on 16 August 2006
Lebanese Stream Home After Ceasefire
Nansen Award Announcement 2008
The UN refugee agency has announced the winner of the 2008 Nansen Refugee Award. The prestigious award goes to Chris Clark, the head of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in southern Lebanon, and his team of international and Lebanese mine clearers.
Nansen Refugee Award: Deminers Clear The Way Home In Lebanon
The 2008 Nansen Refugee Award recognizes the heroic work of Lebanese and international deminers in clearing southern Lebanon of tens of thousands of cluster munitions and allowing uprooted civilians to return home.