The Head of the ICRC delegation in Iran said the organization is involved, together with Iran's Red Crescent Society, in teaching risk awareness and mine risk education to people who live in regions contaminated by mines.

Iran Press/Iran news: In an exclusive interview with Iran Press on Tuesday, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mark Achermann said: "ICRC is actually involved, together with Iranian Red Crescent Society, in teaching risk awareness and mine risk education to the people and communities who live in mine-contaminated areas or nearby."

Speaking on the sideline of an international roundtable on 'humanitarian mine action, challenges and best actions' held in Tehran from 12 to 14 March 2019, he added that since the imposed war of Iraq against Iran, the country has serious problems with contamination of mines and unexploded remnants of war especially in the zone of Iran-Iraq border.

"The authorities, especially IRMAC (Iranian Mine Action Center) have done tremendous efforts to decontaminate the area and basically to clear the area of mines," Achermann said, adding that the ICRC also supports them by delivering personal protective equipment that was delivered on two or three occasions.

In further comments, Mark Achermann said: "But we are more involved actually, in conjunction with Iranian Red Crescent Society, in risk awareness and mine risk education for communities who live in areas contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnance. Education of communities who live in areas where there are unexploded mines is very important."

The head of the ICRC delegation added: "This is an ongoing process, as we all know, there are still incidents where children are injured by these anti-personnel mines, so it is very important that we teach these communities and make them aware of the dangers, and we are helping the Iranian mine action centre and also Iranian Red Crescent Society to have a better impact on the communities to make sure that these incidents can be avoided as much as possible."     

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