The British head of the UN Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon and his 990-member team of mine clearers will receive the 2008 Nansen Refugee Award for their courageous work in removing tonnes of deadly munitions that had prevented the safe return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres announced that the annual prize will go to Christopher Clark, the British coordinator of the UN-funded programme and his international and Lebanese staff of nearly 1,000 civilian mine clearers.

“Chris Clark and his Lebanese and international staff in the UN Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon have worked courageously to clear southern Lebanon of the remnants of war and cluster bombs,” Guterres said. “Through their painstaking work and devotion, the teams created the conditions for a safe and dignified return home for almost one million displaced Lebanese.”

In 2006, over a period of five weeks, between 2.6 and 4 million Israeli cluster bombs were scattered in southern Lebanon. More than 750,000 Lebanese fled the south and lived as internally displaced people in northern Lebanon, while another 250,000 people fled to Syria or further afield.
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