The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has approved more than $4.4 million in grants to thirty-two organizations to destroy conventional weapons, landmines, and explosive remnants of war, and to assist those who have been permanently injured by conflict. The grants, part of the Office’s projected $123.1 million budget for conventional weapons destruction in fiscal year 2008, were awarded in response to a request for applications in November 2007 (see www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/nov/94723.htm).

These grants reflect the United States’ determination to further reduce the annual rate of casualties from explosive remnants of war and landmines worldwide – there were 5,751 reported casualties in 2006 - and stem the indiscriminate and illicit use of conventional weapons. The grants mark two decades of leadership in battle area remediation and conflict prevention since the United States helped to launch what was then termed “humanitarian demining” in Afghanistan in 1988. A summary of the grants follows.

- $467,339 to the Iraqi Health and Social Care Organization (http://www.ihsco.org) to conduct mine risk education and collect data on victims of mine and explosive remnants of war accidents in central and southern Iraq.

- $345,227 to DanChurchAid (http://www.danchurchaid.org) to clear anti-vehicle mines from roads in the Nuba mountains of Sudan.

- $288,233 to Information Management and Mine Action Programs (www.immap.org/joomla) for its OASIS Fusion system to work with the Colombian Anti-Personnel Mine Observatory and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Colombia to integrate mine action data with other types of international assistance to increase collaboration in conflict and post-conflict environments.

- $271,853 to Mines Advisory Group (www.mag.org.uk) to provide small arms/light weapons destruction technical support in the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Horn of Africa.

- $264,098 to the Mine Action Information Center (http://maic.jmu.edu) at James Madison University to raise safety awareness of explosive remnants of war among affected populations in northwest Jordan, and $155,430 to study the effects of aging on persistent landmines around the world in order to help focus clearance priorities on those mines and regions where they pose the greatest danger years after conflict has ceased.

- $243,995 to Cleared Ground Demining (www.clearedground.org) to destroy stockpiled munitions that are excess to Guinea-Bissau’s security needs.

- $194,252 to the Survey Action Center (www.sac-na.org) to undertake a study of certified land release of areas that have been cleared of landmines and explosive remnants of war, and $189, 347 to draft operational guidelines to integrate development priorities with mine action planning in three mine-affected countries.

- $194,089 to the Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA) for a program to reintegrate and provide alternate professional job training for Afghan humanitarian deminers who are being layed off due to the progress that has been made in clearing landmines and explosive remnants of war in Afghanistan.

- $149,993 to Texas Engineering Extension Service (www.teex.com) to provide vocational training for humanitarian deminers in Latin America to obtain future jobs as they are being laid off due to the great progress that has been made in clearing landmines in the Americas.

- $146,034 to Catholic Relief Services (http://crs.org/vietnam/projects.cfm) to continue supporting its mine risk education programs in Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces in Vietnam.

- $118,987 to the International Documentary Association (www.documentary.org) for a film about the problems caused by illicit small arms/light weapons and indiscriminately- used landmines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.