How to Find Your Way Through a Minefield?

By Armelle Septiers

1- Watch where you step

2- If you walk on one, stay still

3- Examine the floor around you, so you can find electric cables, detonators, or other threatening things

4- Avoid like the plague these suspect things and go back slowly the same way you came

5- Keep doing it until you know you’re safe

But anyway, the best way is to avoid being in this situation. So, how identifying and avoiding minefields?

The simplest way to avoid the mines is to avoid risk zones. If you are already in a risk zone, follow these tips:

• Gather information from local people, mines clearance technicians, the women and the children are the best sources of information in the dangerous zones.
• Observe the animals. They often serve to clear off mines.  A high quantity of mutilated animals that the population don’t approach can indicate a minefield.
• Observe the movements of the local people, if people don’t take perfectly identifiable paths that mean that they are avoiding a mined zone. Locate and remember these places and avoid them the same way.
• Watch if the ground was moved. Ground movement or discoloration of fields may indicate a hasty mines installation.
• Watch out for tight cables in the middle of the way.  It is probably a detonator linked to a mine or to another explosive.
• Beware of recent destroyed vehicles or abandoned ones on the side of the road.  Burnt cars and craters are the most evident proofs of a recent explosion of one or more mines. Never think that the path is safe because a mine already exploded.
• Stay away from the bushes, fields and ways paths invaded with vegetation. The probable  mine clearing couldn’t be clearly signaled and it will be more difficult to find your way.

You are now warned:

• A lot of mines are indefinitely active. Don’t hesitate to take a guide in the risky zones.
• There are four types of antipersonnel mines:
• 1- Cable trap mines: a traction on the cable link to the detonator by a person detonates the explosion.
• 2 Direct pressure mines: A foot pressing on this mine is sufficient to detonate the explosion.
• 3- Time-mines: the explosion is automatically triggered by a detonator. It can be an electronic alarm clock or a chemical corroder product or a simple timer.
• 4- Remote-control mines: the detonator can be activated by an electric charge in a wire, a radio signal or a heat or sound captor.