Nov. 21, 2001, 11:39PM

Canine commandos make de-mining safer

By MICHAEL HEDGES Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Faced with the deadly dilemma of making the most heavily mined country on Earth habitable, if not safe, United Nations de-mining experts here have gone to the dogs -- a corps of explosives-sniffing canines.

In a kennel on a slope just outside downtown Kabul reside 112 German shepherd and Belgian shepherd dogs with names like Nita and Bruno and Betty.

They are the latest generation of canine commandos who over the past dozen years have found thousands of mines cased in plastic covers, which make them almost impossible to locate with conventional mine detectors.

"Fifty percent of the clearance of mines in Afghanistan has been done by the Mine Detection Dog Center" or MDC, said Mario Boer, a German dog trainer who has worked with the program in Afghanistan for three years.

And, according to Sultan Mohammed Raufi, operations director of the program, which is affiliated with U.N. anti-mine efforts here, "Our work is safer than other de-mining efforts" which have cost the lives of several people in recent years in Afghanistan.

The danger from mines in Afghanistan was shown last week when a van loaded with 15 people returning home to northern Afghanistan after fighting there ended hit an anti-tank mine just a few feet from a main highway. All 15 were killed, their bodies flung into a mine field that made retrieval difficult, said Abdul Latif Matin, director of U.N. regional anti-mine efforts here.

Afghanistan is the most mined nation on Earth measured either in sheer numbers -- several million by all estimates, though none claims to be strictly accurate -- or measured in mines per acre. Hundreds of people, including many children, have been killed or maimed by the devices in recent years.

The Red Army planted mines in this country after the 1980 Soviet invasion. Next, mujahedeen fighters opposing the Soviets laid hundreds of thousands of mines. Then, both sides in the civil war that followed the Russian withdrawal in 1989 put down even more mines.

It is estimated that a staggering 45,670 square miles, or nearly 20 percent of the country, has been mined, Matin said.

As if that isn't frightening enough in a land where millions of displaced people are moving along open fields and back roads, tons more of unexploded ordnance have rained down on Afghanistan from U.S. warplanes since Oct. 7, officials here say.

At least four unexploded 500-pound bombs have been found in Kabul, said Ross Chamberlain, an unexploded-ordnance expert working with the United Nations. One huge bomb was found in a house occupied by a crew of journalists from NBC television.

"I was looking at some other sites when the owner of the house contacted me," Chamberlain said. "They (the NBC crew) were all sitting around eating breakfast and smoking when I came in. They left in a hurry after I told them about the bomb."

Chamberlain, who spent 21 years as an ordnance expert in the Australian army, said a major danger from the U.S. airstrikes are unexploded cluster bombs that rained down on Taliban military bases. On one such base outside Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, dozens of the small bombs, each about the size and shape of a medium-size flashlight, could be seen.

So far, Chamberlain has been surveying unexploded bombs and bomblets inside Kabul, and training Afghans to help find and defuse them. "What we have to do first is get Kabul cleared and then go from there," he said.

In an estimate other experts said was optimistic, Chamberlain said that if Afghanistan is at peace for five years, various de-mining and unexploded ordnance collection methods might make the country relatively safe.

Already Kabul has been made habitable, if not mine-free. That is a huge change from the early 1990s when, according to Matin, "Kabul was totally contaminated with explosives."

Asked how difficult it was to train people to defuse mines with a minimum of danger, Chamberlain said, "It is dangerous no matter what level of training you've had."

That is why Chamberlain said he has become a fan of the mine-sniffing dogs.

But the dogs are not foolproof, he said, citing an example of a canine that was distracted by a fox, then chased it into a minefield and was killed.

Of course, people get killed looking for mines as well, especially in Afghanistan where wars and terrible roads also take a toll.

The mine-hunting dog project began here in 1989 when the king of Thailand donated 14 dogs. Since then, the Afghans and German and Dutch trainers have developed their own breeding program for the dogs. Nearly 200 are ready to hunt mines. Others, like two plump puppies in a clean cage with a mother named Betty, will handle the job in the future.

The program has been in a hiatus since the U.S. air campaign began in October, but Boer said Wednesday that work would resume within days.

The kennel outside Kabul nearly suffered a catastrophe on Oct. 25, when a laser-guided U.S. bomb, intended for a Taliban house nearby, exploded just yards from the compound, gouging a long crater and ripping a corrugated-tin roof along one side of a series of doghouses. It could have been much worse, Boer said. Enough TNT was stored on the premises to have blown the entire operation off the hill.

TNT is used to train the dogs, because molecules of the explosive is what they smell emanating from mines even years after they are buried.

To test the dogs, defused mines are buried up to 4 feet deep and left undisturbed for two years. The best dogs can find them with no problem, Boer said. That is more than adequate to find most mines, buried just inches below ground.

Once a dog locates a mine, a second dog is brought to the site to confirm the finding. The dogs are held on 25-foot-long leashes to protect the handlers. If a second confirmation occurs, workers check with a mine detector, or carefully dig around the area to locate a plastic mine the detectors might miss.

Out on a rocky hillside Wednesday, future mine hunters were put through their paces. The dogs are watched from birth, with puppies most aggressive and playful when thrown a rubber ball chosen for the work.

"A lazy dog who won't play probably isn't good for finding mines," Boer said. "Seventy percent of our puppies we can use for our purpose." The others are given away as guard dogs in a Muslim country where having a pet pooch is a foreign concept.

In fact, the dogs are given European or American names, and trained to answer Dutch commands. "The dogs cannot be given Muslim names, it is not allowed," Raufi said.

Along with other methods, the de-mining dogs have reduced the substantial carnage from mines, bombs and other unexploded ordnance here, Matin said. In 1995, between 50 and 55 Afghans a week were injured or killed by mines. That has been reduced to two or three reported injuries a month now, he said.

"Within five years we'll be able to clear the country enough so people can go about their business," Chamberlain said.

But when asked how many mines will have to be removed, he said, "I"ll know after we get the last one."

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

Answers

A few weeks ago, I read about some of the dogs getting killed, and I don't think it was just a fox. IIRC, there were 3 or 4 dogs that were killed while locating a dog. (I don't want to think about a Belgian getting killed by a bomb, but I can see one going after a fox).

My real question is.... does the US get their money back from the manufacturer of the unexploded bombs?

apoc

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

You just can't get a warranty on some things, apoc, lol!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

Damn!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

we could reuse them, tho, right?

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

er, I meant the un-exploded bombs. Just wanted to make sure you understood that.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

Barefoot,

I understand ya about the reuse of the bombs.

It's 9:30 and I have drunk a magnum and a half of (homemade)wine with the MIL, and currently feeling no pain.

Wonder what the remaining Taliban would do if I dropped my draweres and mooned them? They would surely head for the hills and into the caves. SURENDER! That's the ticket! I'd moon em if it would work, and if they saw my a$$ (butt) they might just surrender.

a slightly buzzed apoc

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001