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Activity 2, Land-Mines: The Art of Modern Warfare

Primary Source: United Nations Mine Clearance and Policy Unit, Department of Humanitarian Affairs, September 1997.

1. Land-Mines are cheap weapons which are planted in the ground during wartime, or times of conflict, often on roads or in fields (agricultural or other), and explode upon contact.  They are either intended to stop and destroy tanks or other vehicles (anti-tank), or to kill or maim people (anti-personnel mines which can be made cheaply at $3 to $30 each.).  While initially introduced for use against armies, the greatest threat is to civilians, especially after a conflict has ended.  Land-mine usage has dramatically increased over the past 20 years, capitalizing on its potential as a weapon to terrorize civilians.  Mines are used to deny access to or usage of farmlands, irrigation channels, roads, waterways and public utilities.

2. Mines may be laid by hand or "seeded" from an aircraft or by artillery.  Once the mines have been activated they become extremely dangerous.  Mines are often buried or hidden so as not to be detected and may be laid in regular patterns around a village, along a road, on bridges, near single trees or along river banks.  They may also be laid at random, and due to weather conditions, may move.  Many mines are light enough to float.  After heavy rains they can be found in different and unexpected areas.  Mines continue to be dangerous even if they have been in the ground a long time.  As time goes by, they may explode more easily as they become corroded or fragile.

3. It is estimated that more than 110 million active mines are scattered in 68 countries with an equal number stockpiled around the world waiting to be planted.  While scattered in all areas where conflict exists or once existed, the majority of these hidden devices are to be found in less developed countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Vietnam.

4. Every month, over 2,000 people are killed or maimed by mine explosions.  Most of the casualties are civilians who are killed or injured after hostilities have ended; they were killed or injured trying to reestablish their livelihood in or near the lands that were previously been their source of income and well-being.  Land-mine victims need blood transfusions twice as often as people injured by bullets or fragments.  The number of units of blood to operate on patients with mine injuries is between 2 and 6 times greater than that needed by other war casualties.  Surgical care and the fitting of an orthopedic appliance cost about $3,000 per amputee in developing countries.  This means a total expenditure of $750 million for the 250,000 amputees registered worldwide by the United Nations.

5. The cost to remove all 110 million active mines is estimated at approximately $33 billion.  Many experts believe that under current conditions it would take more than 1,100 years to clear the entire world of mines provided that no additional mines are planted.  For every mine cleared, 20 are laid.  In 1994, approximately 100,000 were removed, while an additional 2 million were planted.  The cost to the international community of neutralizing them ranges from $300 to $1,000.  Manual mine clearance is extremely dangerous.  Accidents occur at a rate of one every 1-2,000 mines destroyed.

6. Children are especially vulnerable to land-mines because of their curiosity and love of play.  Children often cannot read the warning signs about mined fields.  The mines are difficult to see, especially from a child's vantage point.  Children often believe these metal object are play toys.  Because of their small size, children are often most unable to withstand injury and blood loss if they are hurt in a land-mine explosion.  Programs such as the Land-Mines Education Project, of the Save the Children Alliance, established first in Kabul, Afghanistan, attempt to provide children and young adults with specific information about the nature of land-mines, what they look like and what to do if one is seen.  A series of activities and games is designed to help children learn the most common shapes, sizes and colors of land-mines.  They learn to recognize danger signs and avoid the most dangerous areas and behaviors, and to test their decision-making skills.

7. Buried land-mines can remain active for over 50 years.  The threat they pose thus lingers long after hostilities have ceased.  Mines maim and kill tens of thousands of people each year, most of them women and children.  In addition to inflicting physical and psychological damage on civilians, land-mines disrupt social services, threaten food security by preventing thousands of hectares of productive land from being farmed, and hinder the return and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons.  Sometimes mines are placed in farmer's fields.  Arable (agricultural) land becomes dangerously unuseable.  As more agricultural land is taken out of production, regions which were once self-sufficient are now dependent upon outside sources for their food.  In one part of African Angola alone, land-mines have reduced food production by more than 25%.  In Mozambique, also in Africa, the drought and the mining of arable land and the road system have had a serious impact.  In other countries, the mining of irrigation systems and water-delivery plants makes farming mine-infested fields impossible.  Delivery and distribution of relief assistance for emergency situations are affected when mines prevent or slow down provision of relief supplies.  This increases the incidence of hunger and starvation among isolated populations.

8. The only effective way to stop trade in mines is to halt production.  Where do these mines come from?  The question is not so easy to answer.  The trade in mines, like all aspects of the arms trade, is cloaked in secrecy.  More than 50 countries are thought to produce between 500,000 and one million mines each year.  Of these countries, 35 are known exporters (including the United States, and other major industrialized nations.)  Increasingly, the less developed, poorer nations are producing mines locally and regionally.  Currently several hundred types of mines are in production by approximately 100 companies worldwide.  The exact numbers cannot be determined because simple devices are easily produced without being registered, licensed or declared; even sophisticated mines can be copied and produced in secret.  When the export of mines from one country to another is banned, producers often deal through intermediaries to get around the laws.

9. Manual mine clearance is extremely dangerous-currently accidents occur at a rate of one every 1-2,000 mines destroyed.  Though new technology is vital to improving mine clearance, there has been little research with few advances since 1942.  This is true because mine accidents get little public notice and rarely happen in developed countries.  Presently, mines are detected individually by prodding-either with metal detectors or some type of automated or robotic device-or by sniffer dogs.

10. Prodding is slow, confusing and dangerous, especially when the mines are laid in hard-packed or stony soil or when they are fitted with anti-disturbance fuses.  Metal detection works well with metal-cased mines, but metal in modern mines has been increasingly replaced by plastic.  New mines will soon be undetectable by their metallic content.  Dogs can detect the vapor coming from the explosive filling of mines, but they are temperamental, require long training and tire quickly.  Dogs have been involved in the clearance of mines in Afghanistan since 1989.  Dogs are not the answer to all de-mining problems, but they are useful in a well-balanced approach to de-mining.  They are more than just man's best friend.  They are lifesavers.

11. President Bill Clinton announced a major US policy decision to send a delegation to the Oslo meeting in September, 1997.  The Clinton Administration has been accused by critics at home and abroad of dragging its feet on the land-mines ban.  US officials in Washington predicted tough negotiations as the Administration insists on an exception for the Korean peninsula, where 37,000 troops in South Korea face the threat of a possible invasion from Communist North Korea.  It also wants to delay a ban on "smart land-mines, which self-destruct after a set time period, until it has developed alternative weapons.  The efforts toward disarmament (to include a ban on land-mines) have been hamstrung by disputes between the five known nuclear powers states (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and developing countries over priorities.  The major powers have refused a demand by developing countries, led by India, to launch wider talks aimed at the total elimination of nuclear weapons.  As of this date, no agreement has been reached-in spite of continued casualties and the backing of such distinguished groups as the United Nations, Vietnam Veterans and the International Red Cross.  A Voluntary Trust Fund has also been established to receive voluntary contributions.  While this fund can generate only meager funds, it is vivid testimony to the potential power of individual involvement in a global issue.

12. Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations says:"The use of a weapon whose victims are overwhelmingly women and children is fundamentally immoral."  Under his leadership, the United Nations has called for a total ban on the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of land-mines.

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