CCOPAB carries out Mine Action Course
Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – On August 16th, the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center – Sergio Vieira de Mello Center – concluded the Mine Action Course, which lasted for five weeks, in which technical aspects and practical exercises were addressed. The objective of the activity was to train military personnel and auxiliary forces to perform functions in humanitarian demining missions under the aegis of international organizations.
The course, which was carried out in Spanish, had two weeks of online learning, which was followed by three weeks of in-person learning. During the online stage, the following themes were addressed: Promotion of mine ban treaties; Five pillars of mine actions; Guide for the application of IMAS; Details of the International Mine Action Standards. Besides that, there were also lessons on Spanish for specific purposes.
During the course, the students had lessons on the following issues: the general aspects of Mine Action and its historic and key features; Demining techniques; Training Management; Humanitarian Demining; Quality Management; Accreditation of Humanitarian Demining Organizations; Cartography; Monitoring Humanitarian Demining Organizations; Technical and Non-Technical Study; Assistance to victims, among others.
From August 5th to 9th, the students set out to the Engineering Instruction Center (CIEng, acronym in Portuguese), which is located in Araguari – Minas Gerais. In the CIEng, which is considered to be a centre of reference within the Army, the students could put into practice the whole theory they had learnt during the lessons.
The activity also had the support of the Navy Engineering Battalion, from the Engineering Instruction Center, as well as the support of the 2nd Railway Battalion. Besides the instructors and monitors from CCOPAB, the course was also supported by the following invited instructors: COL Márcio Tomaz de Aquino; COL RT Eduardo Moura Gomes; MAJ Denivaldo de Sousa Silva; MAJ Hilton Martins Laureano da Silva; LT (Navy) Thiago Gonçalves Garcia; CPT Rogério Santos Silva; and WO Everaldo da Silva Meira.
As for the number of students who completed the course, eleven of them were from the Brazilian Army and one was a police officer from the Federal District.
TRANSLATION: LT RANGEL
