Thursday, November 12, 2009

The PLA de-mining team in Lebanon

The PLA’s UN de-mining team in Lebanon (UNFIL) has been selected by the PLA daily as the next “headline” item to cover. (Here)

These photos were taken from the de-mining team of the PLA’s 6th rotation to Lebanon. The 335 person battalion (275 troops and 50 medical personal) is serving under the UN UNFIL mission mandate. The team is composed of 70 de-miners from the Changdu MR UNMACC certified de-mining operation and has been sent abroad three times including the Vietnam boarder de-mining operation of 1997.

Each of the PLA UNFIL rotation lasts about 8 months with main focus on clearing landmines left by the Lebanese-Israeli conflict of 2006 . To date, they have cleaned 135 square kilometers in southern Lebanon. One of the PLA peacekeepers, Col Du Zhaoyu, was killed during an Israeli air strike in July 25th 2006 (here) making him the 8th PLA solider killed while participating in UN peacekeeping missions.

It is also noted that the PRC has not signed the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 51/45, the International Agreement to Ban Anti-personnel Landmines. However, in 1996, China agreed to the moratorium on the export of AP mines which were prohibited by the Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol II and ratified on November 4th 1998. (here) The US has yet to ratify either the Mine Ban Treaty or the CCW Protocol II; citing anti-personnel mines along the DMZ are a key part of the U.N. defense against the 1.5 million-man North Korean army as the main reason (here)











GSL 30 de-mining tank



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm from South Lebanon , and the least we can say is Thanks to the PLA and China.

I saw this type-59 based demining tool/tank ... i think it got two specialized Anti-mine rockets ... you know its designation?

Coatepeque said...

The de-mining version of the type 59 is called GLS-30.

The rocket should be the GLS-111

http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E4%BA%A7GSL111%E5%B1%A5%E5%B8%A6%E5%BC%8F%E7%81%AB%E7%AE%AD%E6%89%AB%E9%9B%B7%E8%BD%A6