- Landmines = death + suffering +
mutilation
- Landmines Must Be Stopped
-
Britain's Princess Diana talks to
amputees Jan. 14, 1997, at the Neves Bendinha Orthopedic
Workshop on the outskirts of Luanda, Angola. Sitting on
Diana's lap is 13-year-old Sandra Thijica, who lost her
left leg to a land mine while working the land with her
mother in Saurimo, eastern Angola, in 1994.
- Landmines = death + suffering +
mutilation
- Landmines = kill and maim
indiscriminately
- Landmines = most of the victims are civilians, Livestock
and wildlife
- Landmines = large number of the victims are children and
farmers
- Landmines = the victims face huge difficulties carrying
out their normal tasks - to function and live with
dignity.
- Landmines = one victim every 15 minutes
- Landmines = 70 victim a day
- Landmines = 26,000 victim a year
- Landmines = Over 1 million victim in last few decades in
70 countries
- Landmines = over 300,000 children are severely disabled
- Landmines = over 627,000 animals killed in 25 countries
- Landmines = Today there are an estimated 110 million
anti-personnel mines in the ground around the world +
another 100 million in stockpiles.
- Landmines = Lay one landmine in the ground cost up to $15
- Landmines = Remove one landmine from the ground - cost up
to $1000
- Landmines = Weapons that cost as little as $3 each to
manufacture can cost up to $1,000 to remove.
- Landmines = For every one mine lifted there are - 23.5
mines being laid
- Landmines = For every one mine lifted there are - 117
mines being manufactured.
- Landmines = If the rate of removal were to remain at the
present UN level of 85,000
- per year it will take us 1176 years to
remove the 100,000,000 mines still in the ground.
- Landmines = To clear the world from the land-mines
presently buried will cost up to USD $100 billion
=(100,000,000 * $1000).
- Landmines = 10 million more mines are produced each year
- Landmines = The producers of landmines make huge profits.
- Landmines = Mine removal is a lengthy and expensive
business
- Landmines = Land-mines can be blithely spread at rates of
over 1,000 per minute, but it may take a skilled expert
an entire day just to clear by hand 20-50 square meter of
mine-contaminated land.
- Landmines = The task of clearing and destroying the mines
is almost beyond comprehension; it is costly, dangerous
and extremely tedious.
- Landmines = Symbol of shame in this planet
-
- The Landmines warfare violates the
fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and
must be stopped without any exceptions and excuses.
UNESCO Director General
Declaration
- Mr. Federico Mayor, UNESCO Director
General, September 12, 97 statement, who launched an
" appeal to all countries for a total ban, without
delay or exception, of anti-personnel landmines."
- "The combat to ban anti-personnel
landmines does not bear any exception. This appalling
weapon causes death and irreversible handicap to many
innocent people. It perpetuates war after war; stops
farmers from returning to their fields; its threat
prevents a return to normality and the start of economic
recovery in countries or regions badly affected by months
or years of conflict."
- Mr. Mayor stressed that the ban of
anti-personnel landmines must be complete: "Any
waiver, any delay - in the name of so-called national
security interest or for base economic reasons - would be
a dangerous exception, a denial of justice and an
intolerable attack on the right of all to life, security
and peace."
-
- HOW MANY VICTIMS ARE THERE?
- Over 1 million people have been killed and
maimed by anti-personnel mines. At present 26,000 people
a year become victims: that's 70 people a day, or around
one person every fifteen minutes. Over 300,000 children
are severely disabled because of landmines. Half the
people who stand on an anti-personnel mine die from their
injuries before they are found or taken to hospital. An
even higher percentage of children die because, being
smaller, their vital organs are closer to the blast.
There is at the present time over 100,000,000 landmines
in the ground throughout the world. Most of these laid in
the last ten years, whence landmines became a tool of
terrorism rather than a tool of war. There is approx.
2,000,000 mines laid annually. There are approx.
10,000,000 landmines manufactured every year.The UN
through its efforts clears 85,000 mines annually.
- It costs from $300 - $1,000 dollars to
remove a mine. It costs as little as $3.00 - $30.00+ to
manufacture a mine. In addition to the above figures,
over 100,000,000 mines are stockpiled in various nations
for future use. considering the simple arithmetic of this
data we come up with a figure thus:
Remove one landmine from the ground - cost up to $1000
Lay one landmine in the ground - cost = $15 (average)
For every one mine lifted there are - 23.5 mines being
laid
- For every one mine lifted there are - 117
mines being manufactured. If the rate of removal were to
remain at the present UN level of 85,000 per year it will
take us 1176 years to remove the 100,000,000 mines still
in the ground!
-
- In Mozambique 11 children killed for few
cents
- In a Mozambique village in 1995, several
children collected scrap iron to sell in the local
market. When placed on a scale in the marketplace for
weighing, the metal -- a landmine -- exploded, killing 11
children.
-
- British Government
- Tory journalist Lord Deedes, who
accompanied Diana to Angola, defended her remarks. He
said: "It's incredible that governments should show
such indifference towards the scandal of landmines for so
long."I myself had struggles with the last
government to try to draw attention to this, and
failed."
- Canada, United States, Russia and China
Positions
- Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of
Vermont, and Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska,
proposed legislation to ban deployment of landmines by
the year 2000, but they have been unsuccessful in
garnering significant support. As of July 1997, ninety-
seven countries had endorsed a Canadian sponsored
campaign called "Ban Landmines," but the United
States, Russia, and China had yet to sign.
-
- WASHINGTON _ President Bill Clinton said
Wednesday (9/17/07) the United States will not sign a
treaty to immediately ban all land mines worldwide.
Refusing to bend to global pressure, Clinton said he
supports a ban with several exceptions, particularly a
nine-year delay on a ban in the Korean Peninsula.
- U.S. Must Take Lead to Ban Land Mines By Jimmy
Carter (June 23, 1997) Full
Text
- Part of article by former President Jimmy
Carter states:
- Fortunately, influential military voices
are increasingly opposing APLs. Retired Gen. H. Norman
Schwarzkopf and 14 other senior U.S. military
officers--including two former commanders of U.S. forces
in South Korea--now publicly support a total ban. In an
open letter to Mr. Clinton last year, they said such a
ban would be "humane and militarily
responsible" and "would not undermine the
military effectiveness or safety of our forces, nor those
of other nations."
Regrettably, real progress within the UN toward a
comprehensive ban is highly unlikely in the foreseeable
future. The Geneva process requires consensus and thus
guarantees effective veto power to those who oppose a ban
and profit from the sale of mines, notably China and
Russia.
Related Sites
- Images Caused by Anti-Personnel Landmines
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
Geneva, Switzerland
- Landmines must be stopped
- Oslo Conference: Landmines banned
- Latest news
- The Facts We Need To Know
- Livestock and Landmines
- A study by the VVAF in Afghanistan found
that 48 823 sheep, 14 985 goats, 6297 cows, 576 horses,
3615 donkeys, and 1267 camels were lost to landmines for
a total of 75 563 animals. The report also cites a study
by the Mine Clearance Planning Agency.The survey of 949
villages documented 264 136 sheep and goats, 55 369 cows
and oxen, 36 276 horses and donkeys, and 5354 camels
killed by landmines since the beginning of the war.
Soures: (Roberts and Williams, p.49)
- Afghanistan (CNN) Mines continue to kill,maim
long after war By Christiane Amanpour
- Wildlife and Landmines
- "Two wild elephants were killed by
land mines in eastern Bangladesh along the border with
Burma." Source: Edmonton Journal, Earthwatch; Oct.
6, 1996, p. F7
- By the way it is known fact when Elephants
and Camels are killed the family members like human cry
and mourn.
-
- Population control and terrorism
- The following information is from the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva .
39. One of the most pernicious uses of AP mines has been
for purposes of population control and terrorism.
Population control through use of AP mines is often
carried out by irregular forces, who are unaware of
or deliberately defy humanitarian law governing the
treatment of civilians. As recently as 1992 the Khmer
Rouge in Cambodia used mines to "fence off''
villagers' land, which was then "leased" back
to the villagers on the understanding that the major
proportion of the crops now belonged to the Khmer Rouge.
Having opened up one area, they sealed off the one next
to it, and thus came to control major tracts of land
[30]. During the war in Mozambique, RENAMO cut off and
destroyed many villages and often kept them depopulated
by the threat of mines. In some countries where mines are
widely available, even individual civilians have begun to
use mines to protect their homes, goods or crops.
40. However, mine use against the population has also
been practiced by governments. The Iraqi government
(Sadam) is reported to have used mines as weapons of
terror in Kurdistan, where many villages had their fields
sown with AP mines [31]. Siad Barre used mines in
northern Somalia to deny access to wells and
watercourses, nomadic tracks and villages [32]. An early
use of mines for this purpose was by the East German
government in establishing a barrier between East and
West Germany. In that case the mines were used in
conjunction with an obvious fence and guard system,
indicating that AP mines in themselves were considered
insufficient to discourage escape to the West. Since
German reunification these border minefields have been
removed [33].
- To Protect Children From Landmines
- An estimated 110 million land-mines, the
vast majority of them anti-personnel mines, are killing
and maiming children in
approximately 60 countries. Mines have frequently been
used indiscriminately, particularly in internal
conflicts, in direct
violation of international humanitarian law and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. In some instances,
warring parties have specifically targeted children.
Rwandan children returning to Kigali after the end of the
recent conflict found that many of their homes and
schools had been mined by the departing armed forces.
Even when used in accordance with the rules of
international humanitarian law, mines still pose a
significant risk to children. Mines remain active for
decades. An anti-personnel mine deployed today may still
be lethal in the middle of the next century. In the
mid-1980s, civilians in Poland were still being killed
and injured by land-mines laid during the Second World
War. Eighty per cent of the victims were children.
- The Scourge of Land Mines
- Due to extensive landmine pollution, vast
areas of land have been made permanently inaccessible,
and taken out of productive use. An estimated 110 million
land-mines in more than 60 countries represent a constant
threat to the life, health and property of millions of
people. Fear of returning to and utilizing land means
that the scourge of landmines often is a severe obstacle
to rehabilitation and development.
The
First Declaration of Human Rights By Cyrus The Great
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