Making Tajikistan mine-free
Landmines are a life-threatening scourge that linger decades after a war is past. Tajikistan has pursued its vision of a country safe from the negative impact of landmines and unexploded ordnance ever since it acceded to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (the Ottawa Convention) in 1999.
Over the past 15 years, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe has provided support to Tajikistan’s National Mine Action Centre (TNMAC), which provides management, administrative services and oversight to the Humanitarian Demining Company of the Ministry of Defense.
From 19 February to 29 March 2018, the Humanitarian Demining Company organized basic demining training for five humanitarian demining teams – 96 persons in all – with OSCE support. A one-week theoretical course at the Ministry of Defence in Dushanbe was followed by three weeks of practical training on the TNMAC training ground in Dushanbe.
The teams learned about mine action standards, the location of mines in Tajikistan, types of mines, and the marking of minefields. The teams will begin their demining work in the first week of April, in the Shohin district of the region Khatlon.
