Menstuff® has compiled the following information concerning
Land Mines. Remember, that all landmines kill civilians. None stops
an army in its tracks.
US Not a Signator
Murder and mutilation
The Basics
Why They Don't Make Sense
Where the Mines Came From
The Worst Affected
Who They Kill
The Social Cost
The Medical Costs
Mine Field History
Land Mine Facts
Land Mines and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Adopt A Mine
Field
Resources
Source: Landmines Monitor Report, 2001. Please
note that the report on the United States compiled by Landmines
Monitor goes into great detail and explanation with regard to
American mine policy. The above serves only as a very brief
explanation of the American stance with regard to landmines. For
further information, the Landmines Monitor Report, 2000 is highly
recommended. See also Bush
backs away from international ban on land mines
These are the hallmarks of this indiscriminate weapon that can lie in wait for decades after a conflict has ended. In the heat of battle armies rarely keep track of minefields, let alone the numbers of mines they have deployed. As for mines in stockpiles - the usual reluctance of politicians and defence personnel prevents accurate disclosure. For these reasons landmine estimates are very rough. Figures relating to the wounded and the devastation caused in their lives are more reliable.1
The most commonly used mines are cheap between $3 and $30 each but removing them can cost 50 times as much.
In 1996 the UN Secretary General increased his estimate of the resources needed to clear all existing mines from $33 billion to over $50 billion. In the same year funding for demining was less than $150 million.3
None of this includes the costs of injury, the denial of land, the loss of trade, the impassable roads.
One study endorsed by high-ranking military officers from several countries found that among 26 conflicts examined since 1940 no case was found in which the use of landmines played a major role in determining the outcome. 4
In most arenas of conflict, the mines used are not indigenously produced. Click here to see a large map of the world that illustrates the sources for the landmines in a handful of countries where the problem is particularly severe.
Under normal circumstances amputations are very rare. In the US, which does not have a landmines problem, the rate is 1 per 22,000 people.
The leader in sheer number of mines in the ground is Egypt with 23 million (a mixture of anti-tank and antipersonnel), many left over from World War Two, but they haven't caused large-scale havoc because they are confined to border regions.
The vast majority of casualties are men, often soldiers 87% in Cambodia and 76% in Afghanistan are men. But in some countries women and children account for over 30%.
In some cases the overwhelming number of casualties have been civilians, this often coincides with a period of refugee return to heavily mined areas. In Namibia 88% of post-1980 casualties were civilians, in Mozambique (1994) 68%, and in Georgia (1994-95) 80%.
Children can be undercounted as it is estimated that 85% die before reaching a hospital. In one instance, when refugees returned to Hargeisa in northern Somalia in 1991, 75% of mine victims were children, whose natural playfulness and herding and wood-gathering occupations put them at greater risk.5
Landmines are found along roads, in fields and forests, beside power pylons, near wells and river banks, in homes and public buildings. As a result they can cause economic paralysis by restricting movement in what are usually agriculture-based economies.
Without landmines agricultural production could more than double in both Afghanistan and Cambodia.
In Libya 27% of the total arable land is unusable - due to mines left behind from World War Two, over 50 years ago.
In Somalia grazing land and water sources have been badly hit. The mining of roads made inflation shoot up.
In one region of Angola in 1988 the ICRC estimated the cost of delivering one tonne of relief supplies by rail and truck would have been $89 by aircraft it was $2,200. Similarly in Sudan in 1995, overland aid had to be replaced by air shipments costing $2,000 per tonne.
In war-torn countries medical services are ill-equipped and in disarray. Landmine injuries present a drain on available resources as they require complex surgery and more inputs. Surgical care and the fitting of an orthopaedic appliance cost at least $3,000 per amputee in 'developing' countries. For the 250,000 amputees estimated worldwide by the UN this means a bill of $750 million.
In Cambodia 61% of mine victims went into debt to pay for their medical treatment. In Afghanistan the proportion was even higher, at 84%.
A growing child's artificial limb should be replaced every six months; adults need a new one once every three to five years. Prostheses cost around $125: for a child of ten with a life expectancy of another 50 years the total cost is about $3,125.
In most affected countries rehabilitation services are limited and care for psychological trauma is non-existent.
1 Land mines refers to both antipersonnel and antitank mines. In recent conflicts the former variety has predominated. Unless otherwise indicated, all figures are from the International Committee of the Red Cross document Anti-personnel Mines: An Overview, 1996. The ICRC bases all its figures on land mine numbers on the UN Demining Database.
2 ICRC pamphlet Land mines must be Stopped, 1997.
3 ICRC Position Paper Land mines: crucial decisions in 1997, 1997.
4 ICRC, Anti-personnel Land mines: Friend or Foe?, 1996.
5 Red Cross, Red Crescent, 1997, Issue 2
6 Shawn Roberts and Jody Williams, å, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Washington DC, 1995.
Source: www.newint.org/issue294/facts.html
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