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Created by and for survivors, LSN empowers individuals and communities affected by landmines to recover from trauma, reclaim their lives and fulfill their rights.
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World Landmine News
Cleaning-Up Time
UK, 2-8 feb 02 (Economist)--
While tending his flock in a mountain pasture in Anar Bagh, a village in Kabul province, Said Kareem Meherdel stepped on a landmine. He lost his right leg and severely injured the other. He was lucky to be alive, as one in three similar victims are not, but he is now wondering how his wife and five children, who live on his income, will survive.
After 20 years of war, Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Most mines were laid during the Soviet occupation of 1979-88 and during the internal fighting that broke out after they left. Although the Taliban declared landmines unIslamic in 1998, each side has accused the other of using them, and landmines planted over the past three years are now being unearthed around what used to be the front line.
Before mine-clearance programmes stopped in September, over 220 square kilometres (85 square miles) of land had been cleared, but another 724 square kilometres remained. Clearing half this area would allow most Afghans to resume a normal life but is likely to take seven to ten years. Work has now resumed, and new surveys, which are now possible in areas that used to be too dangerous to visit, suggest that another 100 square kilometres will need to be cleaned. Although small when compared with the scale of the landmine problem, unexploded duds from American cluster bombs are also adding to the workload. The bill for clearing the entire country is put at $500m.
The UN Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA), which co-ordinates landmine work, believes mines claimed 150 to 300 victims every month in 2000, half of them children. With more people now on the move, the toll is likely to go up. The Halo Trust, a mine-clearing organisation working in northern and central Afghanistan, surveys villages and suggests safe routes for homeward-bound refugees to follow. The trust reports that some Afghans returning from exile step on landmines they themselves laid around their houses before leaving, to deter looters.
Added to the human tragedy is the economic loss, as mined roads and fields are hardly good for transport and farming. A square kilometre of irrigation works put out of action by mines costs as much as $1m annually in lost crops, while the benefits of every 50km of cleared roads come to over $250,000 a year.
Preventing people stepping on the deadly devices, and helping those who have, is also crucial. Together with other groups, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tries to tell people about mines, using radio programmes or puppet shows for children, while helping villagers who take risks by cultivating mined areas to find other ways to make a living. The ICRC also operates six centres in Afghanistan, which produce and fit artificial limbs, and helps victims find jobs. Most employees are disabled.
Before September 11th, international money was getting scarce and MAPA had to scale back its operations. With the spotlight on Afghanistan, mine-clearing operations are likely to receive more generous contributions, at least for a few years. It may be too late for Mr Meherdel, but, with luck, not for his children.
Posted: Friday, March 1, 2002
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