U.S. Donates $1.5 Million for De-Mining Group
Washington has donated $1.5 million to help a humanitarian organization destroy conventional weapons spread across Lebanon”s south, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Thursday.
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) will use the funds, donated by the State Department”s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, to dispatch expert teams to at least eight regions in the south and to "survey some 680,000 square meters of land."
During the July 2006 war, the south was contaminated with a huge amount of landmines, cluster bombs and other forms of unexploded ordnances which have crippled the agriculture sector and caused deaths and sever injuries to civilians.
The statement described as "essential" MAG”s project to "revive and improve agriculture in the south to rehabilitate the area”s infrastructure."
It warned against the dangers posed on the lives of people by the unexploded ordnances "that are still being uncovered in new locations."
The embassy pointed out that the U.S. administration has since 2006 donated more than $15.5 million to help destroy the explosive remnants of the war.