Landmines?

LMBT

Afghanistan: Angola:       Nicaragua:    Mozambique: Bosnia & Herzegovina: Combodia.

What effects it has on Society

An Inisible Barrier in Development

How Many Countries Infected

Lanmines Facts.

Map

So What Can U DO

Land mines exact an enormous toll not only on affected States, but on the international community as a whole. A land mine that brings a vendor $3 in revenue costs the international community between $300 and $1,000 to clear. At a minimum, the 110 million land mines currently buried worldwide will cost approximately $33 billion for clearance alone. In 1994, roughly 100,000 land mines were cleared. However, in that same period 2 million more land mines were laid, leaving the international community with an annual "de-mining deficit" of some 1.9 million mines, adding another $1.4 billion to the cost of clearing the world's land mines.

These costs do not take into account costs associated with programmes to treat victims of mine accidents. It is estimated that each mine victim who survives will incur lifetime costs associated with surgery and prosthetic care of up to $3,000. Currently, it is estimated that there are 250,000 amputee mine victims requiring prosthetics care with an expected increase of about 2,000 persons every month. This further compounds the cost to the international community with surgery and support programmes for victims by adding another $750 million.

MEDICAL CRISIS

Mine casualties themselves place a significant burden upon war-ravaged societies. Generally, those societies with the most severe land mine problems are those least able to deal with the consequences of land mine infestation. The medical infrastructure in such countries is often rudimentary and trained medical personnel and facilities are scarce. The wounds caused by land mines usually require prosthetic devices and intense physical therapy to allow mine victims to return to some semblance of a normal life. Such care is generally beyond the capabilities of many mine-infested countries who lack trained personnel, facilities, equipment and drugs. Large numbers of mine victims drain these fragile medical infrastructures of scarce resources, often causing what is essentially a complete collapse in heavily mined regions. As a consequence many mine victims, who would survive were proper medical help available, die in the field and go unreported.

In addition to the social costs, land mines impose an enormous personal cost on those who survive a mine blast. In almost all cases, victims of land mines suffer the loss of one or more limbs. In Cambodia, one out of every 236 people is an amputee, a rate more than one hundred times higher than in Europe or the United States. In Angola alone there are 20,000 amputees due to land mines. In most agrarian societies, the loss of a limb makes it impossible for a person to carry out normal economic activities. They cannot help in the fields, or carry heavy loads or work in other ways to support their families. Psychologically, these victims come to think of themselves as burdens upon their families and communities. They often turn to begging to survive. In order to rehabilitate these land mine victims and help them to become productive members of their societies once again, appropriate prosthetic devices and extensive physical therapy is needed.

CONSTRAINTS ON HUMAN ACTIVITY

Most minefields are unmarked and become indistinguishable from the surrounding countryside. Generally, the first evidence the local population has of the existence of a minefield is the death or injury of one of their family or friends. From such evidence it is difficult to determine either the extent of the minefield or the number of mines laid. Given the severity of the risk, local civilians are forced to avoid any area in which they know a mine has exploded. This means that the explosion of only one mine in a field or rice paddy is often enough to render that land unusable. In food deficit areas where population pressures force local inhabitants to work or to seek food in mined areas, the borders of minefields are located and marked by deaths and injuries.

In countries where mines have been laid in farmers' fields, arable land becomes unusable. As more agricultural land is taken out of production, regions that were once self-sufficient are forced to depend upon outside shipments of food for sustenance. In Angola, it is estimated that land mines have reduced food production in the areas around Melanje, and other besieged cities, by more than 25 per cent. In Mozambique, the effects of drought have been multiplied by the mining of arable land and the road system; in Sofala and Zambezia provinces, the delivery of food relief shipments to populations unable to farm their mined fields has been impeded and sometimes prevented by the mining of the road system. In other countries, the mining of irrigation systems and water-delivery plants makes it almost impossible to farm even those fields which are not mine-infested.

Sadly, it is common in many conflicts for key elements of the national infrastructure to be mined by both sides to the conflict. Roads, power lines, electric plants, irrigation systems, water plants, dams and industrial plants are often mined during civil conflicts. In the aftermath of those conflicts, it is often impossible to approach such facilities to repair them or to conduct needed maintenance. As a consequence, the delivery of electricity, water and other services becomes sporadic and often ceases in heavily mined areas. Irrigation systems become unusable, with consequent effects on agricultural production. When transportation of goods and services is halted on mined roads local businesses are unable to obtain supplies or ship products and hence cease operations. Subsequently, unemployment in those areas increases and the prices for scarce goods tend to enter an inflationary spiral, increasing the cycle of misery.