A bold plan to develop and de-mine the northwest coast is on the way. Magda El-Ghitany reports Egypt's effort to remove landmines and unexploded ordinances (UXOs) is finally attracting attention. Next January, Cairo will host the first Donors' Assistance Group (DAG) conference, organised by the National Committee for De-mining and Developing the Northwest Coast. The conference will discuss the committee's plan to remove the landmines planted in areas that could otherwise be developed. The committee, headed by International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abul-Naga and composed of representatives from the ministries of international cooperation, foreign affairs, agriculture, tourism, planning, and defence, as well as Egyptian NGOs, has been working on the plan for two years. "The target," said one of the officials who worked on it, "is to introduce a comprehensive plan that underscores the sectors in which the concerned parties can help in developing the northwest coast through investment." For the past six decades, since the end of World War II, landmines have prevented Egypt "from using the rich resources located in this area", the official said. Because getting rid of the mines is costly -- $250 million -- the committee's plan aims to combine "de- mining and developing" the northwest coast as a more viable economic model. The plan thus clarifies the possible developmental projects -- in sectors as varied as agriculture, oil resources, and tourism -- that each party may sponsor. According to the Egyptian official, after finishing the de-mining process, one million feddans will be available for cultivation. There will also be one billion cubic metres of underground water reservoirs, and "4.8 billion barrels and 13.4 trillion cubic feet of oil and natural gas reserves". The northwest coast, he said, also contains many Byzantine and Roman archaeological sites. Bilateral negotiations with the concerned parties, as well as the 14 DAG countries, have been taking place for the past two years. The committee also established a trust fund in coordination with the UN for the same purpose. The upcoming conference in January is meant to be the launching pad for the plan. Although it will take 20 years to be fully implemented, the plan may be the beginning of the end for Egypt's "landmines crisis", the Egyptian official said. Landmines have never been good news for any country, and Egypt is no exception. Ranked as the second highest landmine- infested country worldwide after Angola, Egypt has 22 million land mines and unexploded ordinances planted over a span of 287,000 hectares, particularly in the Western Desert region, areas near the Suez Canal and to the east of the Red Sea, as well as the Sinai Peninsula. It is the western region, however, that suffers the most, as it contains "16.7 million of the 22 million landmines and UXOs," a high ranking diplomatic source told Al- Ahram Weekly. Over the years these mines and UXOs have claimed many an innocent life. According to official records, 696 people have been killed and 7617 severely injured between 1982 and 1999. The Land Mine Monitor 2004 Report on Egypt indicated that between 2000 and 2004, an additional 87 victims were added to the list. According to the diplomatic source, however, the actual human cost tends to be higher as there are other unknown cases that did not go "to hospitals, and did not demand compensation". Last week, Egypt took part in the 2004 Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World. The summit represents the first review conference of the Ottawa convention's Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines. During the summit's opening session, Egyptian Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister Heba El-Marrasi said that landmines are a "humanitarian catastrophe", and that for Egypt, getting rid of them is especially necessary to ensure a "full utilisation of [Egypt's] available land... and to avoid the increase in casualties that the pressures of population and urban expansion create." Egypt stopped importing mines in 1984, El- Marrasi said, and has taken part in "all preparatory meetings associated with the Ottawa process" in order to try to limit the human and economic losses that have resulted from being the location of 20 per cent of the world's planted mines. At the same time, Egypt has not acceded to any international or regional treaty that deals with the issue, and it only attended the Nairobi Summit as an observer. The reason, El- Marrasi said, has to do with Egypt's three main concerns regarding the Ottawa convention: that it did not establish a "frame work that would hold a state responsible for deploying landmines in another state's territory; it did not provide assurances in the field of assistance in landmine clearance; and it does not include main mine producers as member states." Nonetheless, she said, because "Egypt tops the list of the countries that have landmines," it took part in the summit to highlight its full support for the "humanitarian cause of the convention". The summit also provided non-member states with a chance to "explain their visions, and for the convention to expand its scope to include these visions," in order to enable them to join the treaty, said the diplomatic source. Much hope is being placed on the upcoming conference's ability to generate interest -- on the part of the DAG countries, the Egyptian private sector and the government -- in the potential developmental projects that could take shape in the area. In the meantime, local NGOs have started awareness campaigns that better inform the public about mine-infested areas. Other groups have also been collecting funds to provide victims with artificial limbs to replace those that were lost to the mines.
