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.
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