International Mine Awareness Day - April 4 :

Lend your leg for a mine-free world

By Pramod DE SILVA

A landmine is very cheap to manufacture and buy. It costs next to nothing to bury one. And they stay 'active' for decades. But its 'cost' in terms of lives lost and limbs torn is immeasurable.

Every year, millions of people, mostly non-combatants, accidentally step on these anti-personnel landmines and are either killed or maimed. Although it costs next to nothing to bury them, unearthing them is a costly exercise, in terms of manpower, time and financial resources. Such a labourious process is under way in Northern Sri Lanka as we write.

Every year on April 4, the U.N. and its member countries celebrate the U.N. Day for Mine Action and Mine Awareness to focus the attention of the international community on these issues.

This year, the campaign is themed "Lend your leg for a mine-free world".

On this day people all over the world are asked to roll up their trouser legs to show solidarity with the survivors of landmines and other explosive remnants of military conflicts.

'Lend Your Leg' is a month long call to action - for civil society, governments and partners - to work diligently together to a make a mine free world a reality.

The U.N. has released a video which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli film-maker Oren Moverman, Somalia survivor Muhudin nur Hassan and others rolling up their trouser legs in a show of solidarity with landmine survivors.

In a message on International Mine Awareness Day, Moon said people all over the world are "lending our legs" in a campaign to show support and compassion for survivors.

Working closely with national authorities and Non-Governmental Organisations, the United Nations is implementing mine risk education and victim assistance in more than 40 countries, teaching communities how to live safely in contaminated areas, and assisting survivors with disabilities to obtain access to the full range of services and rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I call for increased support for mine awareness and mine action. Landmines and explosive remnants of war hamper development and endanger lives. Let's eliminate them together for a safe sustainable world."

Every year, there are up to 20,000 casualties caused by landmines, which is around 1,500 incidents a month, or 40 a day. Other estimates say that there are 135 million landmines and UXOs (Unexploded Ordnances) spread over 70 countries.

This means a landmine goes off every 26 minutes somewhere in the world, killing or maiming someone.

It is a scourge that the world should be free of.

The campaign for the abolition of landmines has witnessed significant progress in the past two decades. The most prominent example is the 1999 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

The resulting treaty calls each member state to destroy its stocks of anti-personnel mines within four years of membership, and to clear all active antipersonnel landmines within 10 years.

The treaty was the result of the leadership of the Government of Canada working with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, launched in 1992.

The campaign and its leader, Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

This treaty is a great achievement because 80 percent of all countries have now banned landmines.

Most of them no longer produce them, and 42 million anti-personnel mines have been cleared in Cambodia, Iraq, Egypt, Angola, Mozambique, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Across the world, about 100,000 mines are defused annually.

However, millions more still remain.

Africa is the most severely affected region where 22 countries have a landmine problem. Fifteen countries in Asia, 11 in Europe and eight in the Americas are affected by landmines.

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries with 640,000 mines laid in since 1970s.

For the first time in seven years, the use of landmines by states and non-State actors rose last year. The Landmine Monitor recorded 4,191 new casualties last year, or 12 people every day. Of these casualties, civilians made up 75 percent and 43 percent were children.

Did you know that even if no new mines are planted from now on, it would take about 1,100 years and millions of dollars to defuse the millions of mines buried across the globe? Demining is thus a very challenging, costly and dangerous job. For example, 797 Indian soldiers who were engaged in mine clearance became victims of the very mines they were trying to remove. Although technology such as landmine robots has lessened the risks, it is still a 'hands-on' job that demands patience, determination and excellent observational skills.

The estimated cumulative cost of defusing a mine is U$1,300, which is way higher than the production cost of only US$ 3-10 per unit. And that is without taking into account the current rehabilitation cost for landmine amputees, which is around US$ 750 million.

Sri Lanka has set an example to the rest of the world by expediting the de-mining process in the aftermath of the 30-year conflict.

Around 1,312 square kilometres of the Northern Province has been cleared of landmines by the Army with the help of seven groups.

There are only 103 square kilometres left to be cleared in the Northern Province. Sri Lanka is likely to be landmine free in the not too distant future. Firoz Alizada, Campaign Manager for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, an Afghan landmine survivor, would like to see such an effort all over the world. He said landmines and similar devices wreak havoc on peoples' lives and livelihoods.

"There is still an average of 12 people who are maimed or killed by mines or explosive remnants of war per day or 4,000 per year, which is a lot - some of whom die on the spot, some of whom die in the hospital and cannot make it. Mines are present and still affect people in more than 60 countries," said Alizada.

Juan Pablo, Director of the Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines and creator of the 'Lend your Leg' campaign explains: "Through Lend Your Leg we want to wake the world up and see that by taking part in this simple action and by saying 'no more' to this injustice we truly can put an end to these weapons for good."

"It shocks me that landmines still claim lives every day and yet the majority of people aren't aware of the damage they cause. They kill, they maim people for life and they act as deadly barriers to people struggling to survive the aftermath of war," Pablo says.

In another development, Iran is scheduled to host an international conference on demining early in April with Iranian civilian and military officials as well as representatives of international organisations, scholars, specialists and experts on humanitarian demining efforts in attendance.

The conference is due to be held concurrently with the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on April 4.

An exhibition of modern demining methods and a competition of demining robots will also be held on the sidelines of the conference.

The conference and the sideline programs are sponsored by Iranian Defence Ministry's Engineering and Passive Defence Department, Iran's Demining Centre, and Malek Ashtar University of Technology, which is affiliated to the Defence Ministry. Global efforts of this nature and pro-active campaigns such as 'Lend Your Leg' are essential elements in the drive to rid the world of landmines.

The best answer to the landmine is peace, because that takes away the need for such a destructive and disruptive device. Sans conflict, the landmine has no use.

But the landmines that have already been planted retain their potency long after the conflicts end.

The world must invest more resources for removing these deadly devices and take collective action to stop or limit their manufacture.