United Nations clears most dangerous museum in the world

Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan
Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 26 November 1999--"The mine museum in Zendajan, Herat Province, Afghanistan, was the most dangerous museum in the world," Mr. Peter Le Soeur said at the press briefing today at the office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan. As the Technical Advisor to Afghan Technical Consultants, an organisation which works under the aegis of the United Nations Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan, Mr. Le Soeur was in charge of the Afghan explosive ordnance disposal team that defused the mine museum, located forty kilometres outside the provincial capital.

The open-air museum, which was next to two schools, was set up in 1992 in the headquarters of the district chief of Zendajan to make the public be more informed about the dangers littering the surrounding countryside. Since the museum contained 463 live explosives, it became "one big hazard in one place," said Mr. Le Soeur. The museum housed eighteen large aircraft bombs, some as heavy as 500 kilos, and 445 other pieces of ordnance, with the smallest being a five-kilo mortar shell.

Underscoring the danger of the museum, Mr. Le Soeur exhibited a sample defused five kilo rocket mortar--about half the size of a bowling pin--and stated that if it were to detonate in the centre of the room, everyone present would be killed.

He also noted that some of the explosives in Zendajan museum had been fired and were therefore extremely hazardous. One accident involving even the smallest piece would have caused a chain reaction and detonated the entire museum, destroying everything within one kilometre of the building and injuring hundreds or perhaps thousands of people.

Most of the explosives were removed from the city to an isolated desert nearby, where they were defused. Some of the most unstable explosives, which were too dangerous to be transported far, were moved a short distance away from the building and defused after the team evacuated the area of all civilians. The operation, which began in September, took one month.

The team cleared the museum at the request of Taliban authorities in the area. Mr. Le Soeur noted that the authorities in Zendajan handed over their stocks of anti-personnel mines at the conclusion of the operation.

In western Afghanistan, there are an average of fifteen accidents involving unexploded ordnance (UXO) each month. In Kabul region, more civilians die or are seriously injured by UXOs than by landmines. Mr. Le Soeur said that civilians are more aware of the dangers of landmines than of unexploded ordnance, and children are particularly at risk.

The United Nations Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan, the largest mine action programme in the world, has so far cleared over one million explosives from the country. Over three-quarters of these have been unexploded ordnance.