Cambodia has been painstakingly removing mines with Japanese assistance since the 1990s, after decades of conflict left its landscape riddled with mines and unexploded bombs. In December, Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen had said his country would help train Ukrainians in clearing mines as part of a three-way cooperative effort, along with Japan.
In a weeklong training session that ended Friday, staff from a Cambodian institution that specialises in restoring safe conditions in mined areas shared their expertise with about 10 workers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. This included instruction on how to use Japan’s Advanced Landmine Imaging System (Alis) detectors at a minefield in the Cambodian province of Battambang.
Now Alis detectors will be supplied to Ukraine, Jica said.
Alis is a handheld device developed by professor Motoyuki Sato of Japan’s Tohoku University. It detects metal buried underground and creates an image on a screen, allowing operators to easily identify mines and clear them across a wide area.
The system offers distinct advantages over conventional metal detectors used to find mines. Because conventional detectors cannot distinguish between mines and other metal objects, teams waste considerable time removing harmless debris.
Other methods, such as using animals to sniff for mines or machines to detonate them, can be costly and not completely reliable. Areas must be guaranteed to be completely free of mines if they are to be habitable again.
According to Ukraine’s National Mine Action Authority, about 25% of the country’s land area may be littered with explosives such as mines and unexploded bombs, endangering about 5 million people. The affected areas are concentrated close to the border with Russia, but some are located near the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere.
As a first step in the cooperative scheme to address the problem, Japan will provide four Alis devices to Ukraine, which are expected to be used in Kyiv.
The three-way cooperation was arranged through summits between Japan and Cambodia, as well as Cambodia and Ukraine. The training program is being spearheaded by the Japanese government and Jica, and will continue in Japan, Poland and Ukraine.
“It’s important that the entire international community shows support, not just Japan or the G-7,” said a Japanese foreign ministry official, referring to the Group of Seven advanced economies. “We believe it is meaningful that we can support Ukraine’s restoration together with Cambodia,” the official said.
The US, the European Union and others are also supporting demining efforts in Ukraine, and Japan is coordinating with them to avoid overlap. The “needs are massive,” ranging from necessities like detection devices and trucks, to helmets and protective vests for staff, a Jica staff member said.
Clearing explosives will be the “basic premise” of efforts to reconstruct the country, the foreign ministry official emphasised. The ministry secured ¥60 billion (US$467 million) in a supplementary budget last month to be used to assist Ukraine and nearby countries, with the funds going to support mine removal.