Russia prepared to help clear unexploded ordnance littering South Lebanon

Source: Novosti, 20-6-2007
BEIRUT: Russia is ready to assist Lebanon in clearing unexploded ordnance left on its territory after the summer 2006 war with "Israel", a senior Emergencies Situations Ministry official said Tuesday. During the 34-day military confrontation last summer, "Israel" pounded Lebanon with over 4 million cluster bombs and artillery shells, leaving at least 1 million munitions unexploded. Teams affiliated with the UN have cleared hundreds of thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance since the war ended on August 14, 2006, but clearance work has yet to be completed.
"At the request of the Lebanese government, Russia will help clear the territory of the country of explosive mines," said Yuri Brazhnikov, director of the Emergency Situations Ministry`s international department, adding that the operation would be fully financed by Russia.
The official, who is currently heading a group of Russian experts on a week-long reconnaissance visit to Lebanon, said the first step was to establish contacts with the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers, and to determine the scope of future work.
Brazhnikov said a group of the ministry`s specialists comprising up to 40 people could later be deployed in a designated region of Lebanon to clear it of unexploded bombs.
The operation will be part of Russia`s humanitarian aid to Lebanon, which Moscow has been providing since the end of last summer`s war.
Russia sent humanitarian supplies to Beirut in the summer of 2006 and helped Lebanon repair nine bridges destroyed in the conflict. In addition, Russian diplomats have visited the country in an attempt to strike a compromise in Lebanon`s ongoing political crisis.
Brazhnikov said Russian experts had broad experience in clearing unexploded bombs left after World War II, conflicts in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia.
Meanwhile, experts from countries that are signatories to the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons gathered Tuesday in Geneva for week-long talks on reducing civilian casualties from the use of cluster bombs.