Report
Deminer
Clearing landmines, making the ground safe again.
Deminer searches for landmines: Photo by UN Photo/Jawad Jalali.
I came in contact with landmines, for
the first time, when I did my military
training in Swedish armed forces, in
late 1980s. Then, the use of landmines
was not a big issue, since it was before the
Ottawa treaty.
We were undergoing the routine
military training preparing ourselves
for the event in the distant future when
Sweden would be in a war, if ever. So, at
that time, I did not think much about it –
landmine was seen as just another way of
defending the ground, in case of a war.
After a career as an army officer in
22 March/April 2010
By Magnus Boström
the United Nations forces in Bosnia,
during the civil war, I learnt what a great
threat this weapon is. In Bosnia, we never
left hard ground or set foot in uncleared
ground. Despite taking precautionary
measures, we had accidents as landmines
went off under troop vehicles, maiming
fellow soldiers. Some of them became
wheel chair users for the rest of their
lives. There was indeed a lot of ground
covered with landmines, planted by all
the warring parties.
A landmine does not need any sleep,
salary or food to be totally dedicated to
Independent World report
the task it was designed for – kill or maim
anyone who steps over it, even if a peace
treaty is signed. Unless it is deactivated
or cleared, a landmine keeps on waiting
for its victim – like a patient assassin.
According to some statistics, 90% of
landmine victims are civilians. And, the
socio-economic impact of this weapon on
societies that are effected by it, are huge.
Imagine yourself as a farmer who can not
use his land unless the ground is demined
– it is truly terrible. I myself had a hard
time stepping on soft ground years after
I came back home. Even playing football
Photo by Magnus Boström. Photo by Magnus Boström.

with my children was frightening,

though I knew for sure that there were no
landmines planted in my backyard.
The clearing of minefields – or
demining – is a plainfully slow process.
A manual deminer can clear from 0.5M2-
25M2 of land in one day. A dog and its
handler can do up to 300M2. A machine
can clear up to 15000M2 a day. Demining
is usually done by governmental agencies
or commercial companies.
I now work for a company that builds
demining machines that can be deployed
to clear the numberless minefields across
the world. In 2006, I was trained by
Swedish army engineers to be a demining
team leader, then in 2009 to be an EOD
operator. For the past few years, I have
been visiting and working in minefields
across the globe – Sudan, Bosnia, South
Korea, Yemen, Afghanistan.
Actually, I am looking forward to the
day when I will be unemployed from this
line of work, when the world mobilises all
the resources necessary to wipe out all
the landmines from the face of the earth.
�

Magnus Boström is an expert on demining

and an executive member of the United
Saila Jan, 29, a Sri Lankan woman trained as a de-mining technician by the UK charity HALO Trust,
Nations association of Sweden. pictured at work: Photo by Russell Watkins.

Independent World report March/April 2010 23