1. IEDD IN MINE ACTION – OVERVIEW
1.1. INTRODUCTION Although improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are among the world’s oldest types of explosive weapons, recent years have demonstrated a global trend in their increased use, especially in conflicts involving non- state armed groups. IED contamination in affected states severely impacts upon humanitarian operations, impedes stabilisation, reconstruction and longer-term development. The mine action (MA) sector is now being routinely called upon to survey and clear IEDs at an unprecedented scale, with ‘disposal’ being a key activity in the clearance process. This chapter intends to provide suitable reference literature for the MA sector on IED disposal (IEDD) by sharing knowledge and skills related to IEDD task conduct, threat assessment, and disposal techniques and procedures which constitute good practice. It has been developed in order to comply with the existing guidance in International Mine Action Standard (IMAS) 09.31 for Improvised Explosive Device Disposal. This defines IEDD as:
“IED Disposal (IEDD) in a mine action context is the location, identification, render safe and final disposal of IEDs.”
This chapter takes IEDD as an activity conducted as part of a broader MA clearance process which achieves all reasonable effort to locate, identify, render safe and dispose of IEDs within specified parameters. Therefore, IEDD is not a means in and of itself but viewed as a critical component of a much broader MA survey and clearance operation which enables follow-on actions to achieve humanitarian outcomes. There is, by definition, no manufacturing standard for an IED. Design and purpose are based upon supply chain availability, the intent of the armed group and their technical capability. Qualitative and quantitative analysis over many years has identified that armed groups continually alter components, methods of functioning, and emplacement. Section 2 of this chapter ‘IED tactics’ describes in detail the fundamentals of the global deployment of IEDs, with a deliberate focus on those types of device commonly encountered by the MA sector. This section should not be considered as an encyclopaedia on IED threats; rather it is a guidance on some of the technical characteristics that MA organisations should be recording, reporting and sharing through their information management systems.
IEDD in mine action – overview
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