VOA常速英语:Clearing Explosive Remnants of War in the West Bank

Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.
接下来，是一篇反映美国政府观点的社论。
The West Bank is littered with landmines and unexploded ordnance, due to decades of conflict beginning as far back as 1948.A survey conducted in 2012 identified 90 minefields. Of these, 13 were laid by the Jordanian military between 1948 and 1967.The remaining 77 minefields were laid by the Israeli military following the 1967 war.
约旦河西岸到处散落着地雷和未爆炸的弹药，这是自1948年起数十年的冲突留下的。2012年开展的一项调查发现了90个雷区。其中13个是约旦军方在1948年至1967年间埋下的。剩余77个雷区是1967年战后以色列军方埋下的。
And landmines are not the only problem. Over half a century of armed conflict has left swaths of land contaminated with unexploded ordnance.After so many years, much of this war materiel lies buried beneath the soil, deep enough that it cannot be found with metal detectors.It is nonetheless highly dangerous to anyone digging in the soil, be it a farmer plowing a field or digging a new well, or children at play.Indeed, children are the most frequent victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Too often, they do not recognize the danger of these objects, and may pick up or even play with explosives.
地雷不是唯一的问题。在过去的半个世纪，武装冲突使大片土地受到未爆炸弹药的污染。多年后，大量战争残余物被埋在土壤下，埋藏地点足够深，连金属探测器都无法找到。尽管如此，但仍对挖掘土地的人构成很大威胁，当农民开垦土地或挖掘新井时，或当孩童玩耍时都有危险。事实上，儿童是最常受地雷和未爆炸弹药危害的群体。他们通常不能识别这些物品的危害，可能会捡起或将爆炸物当作玩具。
Clearing these hazards has been a difficult task, and not just due to the nature of such indiscriminate killers.Some of the contaminated areas are under Palestinian control, others are under Israeli control, while a number of zones are under Palestinian Authority civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian Authority security control.Getting permission to demine was a long and arduous process.Following years of negotiations, the first humanitarian mine action program in the West Bank finally began in April 2014.
清除这些危险物品并不容易，不仅是因其具有危险性。还因为一些受污染地区在巴勒斯坦或以色列的管控下，还有很多地区在巴勒斯坦当局的民事管制和巴勒斯坦-以色列当局的联合安全控制下。获得清雷许可是一个长期、艰苦的过程。经过数年的谈判，约旦河西岸的首个人道主义排雷行动计划最终于2014年4月开始。
The only mine clearance operator in the West Bank is the HALO Trust,a non-political, non-religious British charity as well as a U.S. non-profit organization that specializes in the removal of explosive remnants of war. The group has already disposed of thousands of landmines and unexploded ordnance in the West Bank,and hopes to clear by 2018 at least 9 minefields that lie dangerously close to Palestinian communities.
约旦河西岸唯一的排雷组织是光环信托组织，一个非政治、非宗教的英国慈善机构，也是美国的一个非盈利组织，它专门负责排除战争爆炸遗留物。该组织已经处理了约旦河西岸的数千枚地雷和未爆炸弹药，希望到2018年清除临近巴勒斯坦社区、极有可能危害该社区的至少9个雷区。
Over the past five years, the United States has provided over 4.1 million dollars for humanitarian mine action activities in the West Bank.Led by the U.S. Department of State and in partnership with the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,the United States is proud to support the Halo Trust’s humanitarian mine action program in the West Bank.
在过去的5年，美国已经为约旦河西岸的人道主义排雷行动提供了410多万美元。由美国国务院领导，并在荷兰政府和英国政府的共同努力下，美国为支持光环信托组织在约旦河西岸的人道主义排雷行动而感到骄傲。