Africans Training Africans

Another group of Angolans has completed a special training course in de-mining strategies and techniques in South Africa. In 1997, I was among a group of reporters who watched in Pretoria as they gave a demonstration of their newly-learned skills. I also got a demonstration of my own.

Five Angolans, each holding metal detectors, fan out across a barren Pretoria army base field, each listening intently through headphones for the telltale signals that will warn them they have located a real landmine.

Suddenly, one stops and shouts.

“Mina!”

The others immediately stop and begin withdrawing, while the one who found the mine, after carefully clearing away the soil around the deadly device, attaches a grapnel hook to it. Then he too retreats a safe distance, starts a countdown and yanks the mine from the ground with a mighty heave.

“Tres, dos, uno -- zero [pulling sound followed by slap of mine as it plops out of the ground]”

There is no explosion for this demonstration. But later the South African Army instructors who have been training the Angolans detonate a small anti-personnel mine, using a weighted boot dropped from a rope to trigger the explosion.

“Three, two, one, zero [explosion]”

I and the other reporters are later shown the boot -- which has been shredded at the heel. It takes little imagination to realize what the devastating effect would have been on a person's foot and leg.

To underscore for visitors the hazard posed by landmines, South African Army engineers seeded the observation area with small, unseen anti-personnel mines -- each loaded with tiny smoke bombs instead of real explosives.

The first reporter to unwittingly step on one was shocked as the green smoke billowed out. From that moment on, the rest of us stepped gingerly, realizing we could be next.

Later, I purposely triggered one, located for me by one of the de-mining specialists. It made a small popping sound before the smoke began hissing out.

South Africa this year banned the further production and use of such mines as part of its effort to work for a global prohibition. South African authorities are now helping neighboring countries deal with their landmine problems.

Besides the Angolans, being trained in demining strategies, South Africa will soon launch a demining program in Mozambique.