Contamination and Impact

Jordan is contaminated by explosive remnants of war (ERW), both unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO), and has a residual threat from antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines. Contamination is the result primarily of the 1948 partition of Palestine, the 1967–1969 Arab-Israeli conflict, the 1970 civil war, and the 1975 confrontation with Syria. Military training ranges and cross-border smuggling have added to the ERW problem.

Mines

At the end of 2011, Jordan’s main mine contamination consisted of barrier minefields laid by the military along its northern border with Syria. In addition, a sampling and verification project in the Jordan Valley revealed that areas cleared by the Army’s Royal Engineering Corps contained some mined areas.

By the end of 2011, demining operations by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) had reduced the area of the northern border needing clearance to about 50,000m² and the area needing verification to 4km², down from 5.5km² at the end of 2011.[1] NPA completed clearance of the mine belts in March 2012 but still needed to check adjacent land for close to 10,000 mines that remain unaccounted for. These may have been removed by the army during unrecorded clearance operations, or by smugglers, or they may have shifted owing to weather, floods, or land erosion.[2]

In the Jordan Valley, sampling by the Army’s Royal Engineering Corps (REC) had identified 267 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) and the total area needing to be verified had increased from about 7.7km² in June 2010 to 12.5km² a year later.[3] In addition, a NATO-funded ERW survey undertaken by the REC identified eight suspected mined areas.[4]

Cluster munition remnants

Jordan may have some cluster munition remnants in remote areas, the result of the armed forces testing cluster munitions on firing ranges,[5] but the National Committee for Demining and Rehabilitation (NCDR) believes any contamination is unlikely to be extensive. A NATO-funded ERW survey initiated in September 2008 had recorded no cluster munition remnants as of the end of 2011.[6] The NCDR sees the main risk of submunitions as arising from imports of scrap metal from Iraq. The only submunition found since 2010 was at a north-eastern checkpoint where it appeared to have been imported with scrap from Iraq.[7]

Other explosive remnants of war

The NCDR describes Jordan’s ERW contamination as a problem that “occurs in all provinces and directly impacts the lives of 1.8 million people.”[8] A NATO-funded ERW survey, started in the Jordan Valley in September 2008 and completed in September 2011, surveyed 296 of Jordan’s 1,040 communities, identified 396 hazards in 162 impacted communities, and located 5,021 items of ERW, three-quarters of them classified as high risk. Resurvey of 18 communities found four more that were contaminated, raising the total number of affected communities to 166.

The survey found confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) covering 15.1km² and identified 5.3km² of SHAs, affected by a wide range of ERW, including air-dropped bombs, rockets, landmines, grenades, and AXO.[9] Most UXO dated back to the civil war of the 1970s but surveyors found some UXO in the vicinity of military firing ranges. The NCDR reports the most affected areas are concentrated around Ajloun, Jerash and Irbid in the Jordan Valley, particularly near former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) bases, where munitions were hidden in caves and buried underground. Most CHAs (42%) identified by the ERW survey, however, are in Ma’an in the vicinity of military training grounds,[10] but UXO was also found at Risha in the northeast where BP has a $237 million project to exploit natural gas.[11]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

Jordan established the NCDR under Law No. 34, passed in 2000, and an April 2002 royal decree appointed its board of directors. It includes representatives of the Jordanian Armed Forces, the government, NGOs, landmine survivors, and the media. It became fully operational in 2004 when Prince Mired Raad Zeid al-Hussein became the NCDR’s chair.[12]

The NCDR was established as “the primary national mine action authority” responsible for preparing and overseeing implementation of a national mine action plan, including mine clearance, mine/ERW risk education (RE), and victim assistance while ensuring that mine action is integrated into the country’s wider development strategies. As a result of the rising number of ERW casualties, its mandate has widened to include the issue of ERW.[13] It is responsible for coordinating, accrediting, regulating, and quality assuring all organizations involved in mine action as well as for fundraising.[14]

Under the 2010–2015 National Plan published by the NCDR in June 2010, Jordan aimed to complete clearance of all known mines, including 65,000 mines from the northern border, by May 2012, and to clear all ERW by December 2012.[15] However, NCDR reported in July 2011 that the results of the Jordan Valley sampling and verification project were under review.[16]

Land Release

On the northern border, NPA released a total of 2.6km² through manual clearance and verification in 2011, up from 2.18km² the previous year.[17] The REC also verified 2.1km² through the Jordan Valley Sampling and Verification project in 2011 (3.9km² the previous year) and released 1.2km² by technical survey (2.4km² in 2010).[18]

Five-year summary of clearance[19]

Survey in 2011

A NATO-funded ERW survey conducted by the REC was completed in September 2011 after surveying 296 communities. The project was due to end in June 2011 but was extended for three months until September for “status verification” of 18 communities as requested by the local population. As a result, four communities previously classified as not impacted by ERW were found to be impacted.[20] In Jordan’s 12 provinces, the survey found most CHAs close to military training grounds in Ma’an province, which had a total of 6.2km² or 42% of the total area of the CHAs.[21] Of the CHAs, 36 required manual clearance and 63 needed mechanical clearance.

Mine clearance in 2011

The amount of area cleared manually by NPA on the northern border decreased during 2011 as a result of political instability in Syria and security issues on the northern border which caused the loss of 35 days of operations. Clearance teams also proceeded more cautiously following the accident which killed a deminer in December 2010.[22] However, NPA was still able to complete clearance of the remaining mine belt by April 2012.[23] Between January and the end of April, NPA manually cleared 44,727m² and verified another 423,374m², destroying 3,828 antipersonnel mines and 2,385 antivehicle mines.[24]

At the end of 2011, NPA still employed 90 deminers in 14 manual clearance teams which were supported by 10 mine detection dogs and three mechanical assets. With the completion of clearance of the mine belt, it reduced its field staff from 156 to 82 with one support staff member remaining in Amman for the final phase of survey expected to continue until July 2013.[25]

Due to their concern that up to 10,000 mines might be missing from the recorded mine belts, the NDCR requested NPA to check approximately 7km² of land outside the recorded mine belt. NPA believes that many of these mines may have removed in unrecorded REC clearance operations or by smugglers, but verification is needed to check for other mines displaced by weather, floods, and land erosion. NPA is targeting technical survey at areas where evidence, environment, and experience indicate the possibility of residual contamination.

Between January and the end of May 2012, when it completed clearance of the northern border minefields, NPA destroyed a total of 6,168 mines (3,773 antipersonnel mines, and 2,395 antivehicle mines) in the mine belt, and 45 mines outside it. In the checking of areas outside the mine belt starting from 1 June 2012, NPA had, by 31 August, found and destroyed a total of 83 antipersonnel mines and three antivehicle mines after surveying a total of 480,345m². This included “ground preparation” of an area of 238,234m² (mainly with the use of mechanical assets with limited use of manual deminers and mine detection dogs) as well as the visual inspection of 162,838m² in which land is covered by a machine with deminers walking behind.[26]

Mine clearance in 2011[27]

In the Jordan Valley Sampling and Verification project, the REC checked a total of 2.1km² in 2011 (3.9km² in 2010), and released 1.2km² (2.4km² in 2010), destroying 495 antipersonnel and 145 antivehicle mines, as well as seven items of UXO.[28] The REC worked initially with three manual teams, one machine, and two mine detection dog teams leased from NPA, but to accelerate clearance, it doubled the number of manual teams to six in July.[29] At the end of 2011 it had seven NPA mine detection dogs.[30]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the four-year extension granted in 2008), Jordan was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 May 2012.

Jordan reported completion of its Article 5 obligations on 24 April 2012 after NPA completed demining minefields along the northern border with Syria. Since 2006, Jordan had cleared 14km² and 58,000 mines on the border with Israel; 9km² and more than 180,000 mines were cleared on the border with Syria. In a statement marking the occasion, NCDR chairman Prince Mired Raad Al Hussein said Jordan would submit its formal declaration of completion to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in December 2012.[31] Prince Mired also acknowledged that “a residual risk could remain in areas where anti-personnel mines have been emplaced.”[32] Mine finds since the expiration of Jordan’s Article 5 deadline on 1 May 2012 suggest that there remain mined areas that must be surveyed and cleared under Article 5. It is unclear why an initial declaration of completion was made pending completion of this work.

Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas in 2011

Jordan did not report any clearance of cluster munition remnants in 2011.

Roving clearance/explosive ordnance disposal in 2010

The REC’s survey of ERW provides for destruction of any items found within 72 hours. The NCDR reports that, as of July 2011, the project had found a total of 5,021 ERW, of which it identified 3,852 items as high risk, including 2,656 artillery shells and 437 rockets; and 1,169 items of small caliber ammunition. The project also found 106 landmines.[33]

Quality management

NPA has its own team for internal quality assurance and reports its operations are quality assured by the NCDR on a daily basis.[34]

Safety of demining personnel

An NPA deminer was seriously injured in March 2011 after stepping on an antipersonnel mine. Another NPA deminer sustained injuries to his arm and a fractured hand after driving a picket down on an antipersonnel mine.[35]

Risk Education

The NCDR coordinates Risk Education (RE) and is the main provider operating with public education teams and community liaison teams drawn from the REC and the Jordanian Red Crescent Society.[36]

Under the 2010–2015 National Plan, the NCDR aims to provide direct RE training to 100,000 people a year through community liaison teams and to reach some 125,000 people indirectly through exhibitions and radio and television broadcasts.[37] In 2011, the NCDR continued an RE project started the previous year which targeted 25 communities in the northern governorates of Ajloun, Irbid, and Jerash that were identified as ERW-affected by the NATO-funded ERW survey. The project was extended by two months until the end of 2011 to include five more communities identified as ERW-affected in Ajloun governorate.[38]