Exploding Penguins? Pant WI hear extraordinary Falklands minefield talk

On May 7, Pant WI visited the World of Wedgwood near Stoke-on-Trent, enjoying a guided tour around their factory, lunch and a spot of retail therapy. However, it was back to Pant Memorial Institute for their June meeting and a rather unusual – but fascinating – presentation from their speaker for the evening.

In a talk entitled ‘Exploding Penguins? Clearing the Falkland Islands minefields’, Guy Marot OBE spoke about his work de-mining the islands nearly 30 years after the end of the 1982 conflict. It was estimated that there were 20,000 anti-personnel mines and 5,000 anti-tank mines laid by the Argentinian forces. However, despite Argentina signing up to the Geneva Convention which stipulates that invading forces must record their mine-laying activity, their records were in many cases inadequate or simply incorrect. Some mines had been laid indiscriminately; some were laid on top of one another; and others dropped from helicopters. British military personnel were initially involved in the clearance of mines directly after the conflict but there were unfortunately casualties. In 1983, the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher decreed that mine clearance would no longer be carried out by the military, but by civilians.

The Ottawa Convention – or Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention – came into force in 1999 and requires states to clear mines under their jurisdiction or control. So that was the reason that clearance in the Falkland Islands was carried out by the UK some considerable time after the conflict ended. Starting the task in 2009, Guy and his team began with creating a plan to clear 122 separate minefields, or ‘Suspect Hazard Areas’, carrying out research and surveys to ascertain where the mines were laid, as well as risk assessments.

Circling back to the title of the talk, there was much concern about the project’s risk to the natural environment. One of the risk assessments involved asking the question as to whether – given their number on the islands – a penguin could set off a mine while the clearance went ahead. Guy reassured the audience that even the weight of a fully grown adult male king penguin would not be enough to activate the device. So, the island’s famous wildlife would be safe.

With the help of deactivated mines, equipment and photos, Guy demonstrated how the mines were cleared by hand; the unforgiving terrain that his team often found themselves operating in did not lend itself to the use of machinery to carry out the task. In particular, some mines were laid in sand – the deepest being around 19 metres below the surface, the equivalent depth of three houses. Guy estimated that they shifted three-quarters of a million tons of sand during the clearance.

The painstaking work meant that approximately 5 square metres was cleared each day. However, by 2020, Guy and his team were able to confirm that 23 million square metres had been cleared and was safe to be released back to the public. The all-too-familiar signs showing skull and crossbones and the words ‘Danger Mines’ would be a thing of the past for the islanders.

The competition was ‘A decorated biscuit’. Linda Elliott took first place, Janet Jones was second and Caroline Buxton was third.

New members or anyone who is interested in coming along and finding out more about Pant WI, please get in touch at [email protected]. Meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month at 7.15pm at Pant Memorial Institute. At their July meeting, they welcome Douglas Wood who will be giving a talk about the National Garden Scheme.