Interesting. Are these people so confident that they are willing to risk they lives searching for mines or did they somehow done it from a safe distance?

The Iraqi government spent $85m on bogus bomb detectors that were just dowsing rods in a fancy box. Nobody at the interior ministry bothered to do any testing, or even to take the devices apart - they contained no electronics that could possibly have detected anything. Several other governments have purchased similar devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651

I believe 'dowsing for bombs' is a reference to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22380368. In which case the perpetrators sold the kits to governments/agencies i.e. third parties were being exposed to the bombs.