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World Landmine News
Afghanistan Joins Mine Ban Treaty
KABUL, Afghanistan, 28 july 02 (AP)--
By Charles J. Hanley
The leaders of Afghanistan ( news - web sites), probably the world's most
land mine-afflicted country, announced Sunday they would join the
five-year-old global treaty banning the weapons.
"Every Afghan woman, man and child will rest assured that no one in this
country will ever again be targeted by antipersonnel land mines," Foreign
Minister Abdullah, speaking with President Hamid Karzai by his side, said at
the opening of an international conference on Afghanistan's scourge of
mines.
The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that 200,000 Afghans
have been killed or wounded by mines in 23 years of war.
The recent anti-Taliban offensive heightened the dangers. Perhaps close to
2,000 U.S. bombs remain unexploded on the ground in Afghanistan, based on
estimates by a U.N. mine-clearance specialist.
Afghanistan would become the 126th country to fully accept the Ottawa
Convention, the 1997 treaty whose parties agree to ban the use, production,
stockpiling and transfer of land mines. The United States, Russia and China
are among the countries that have not signed; another 18 have signed but not
ratified.
In addition to destroying the government's stocks of mines, all armed
factions in Afghanistan will be urged to destroy theirs, Abdullah said.
Karzai's transitional government, successor to the Taliban regime ousted
last December, has yet to disarm the warlord groups that emerged in two
decades of war.
These local commanders "have to turn over their mines," Abdullah, who uses
only one name, told reporters. If they don't, "then we will take more
serious measures to ensure we are following the convention."
He said he expects the Afghan Cabinet to approve accession to the treaty on
Monday. In the absence of an Afghan Parliament during an 18-month
transition, Cabinet approval is all that's required for ratification, he
said.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan, hailed the
Afghan leaders' decision as a recognition that "a comprehensive mine
management strategy is essential for the recovery of this country." Mines
have made agricultural land inaccessible and some roads dangerous, and
generally handicapped the economy.
Anti-mine activists said it was symbolically significant for a nation that
has become almost synonymous with land mines to embrace the treaty. Some
activists said it wasn't an easy move for the Karzai government, since
almost all of Afghanistan's neighbors have not accepted the pact.
The Red Cross estimates land mines continue to kill or wound between 150 and
300 people each month in Afghanistan. Some 7,000 Afghans work as
"de-miners," disabling mines across the country in a U.N.-overseen operation
that will cost up to $60 million this year.
In addition, many of the thousands of missiles and bombs dropped by U.S.
forces since Oct. 7 did not detonate and remain scattered around the
countryside.
"An estimate of at least 10 percent is credible," Tammy Hall, external
relations director of the U.N. Mine Action Program, said of the proportion
of unexploded ordnance.
That would work out to 1,800 unexploded bombs, based on a figure of 18,000
bombs dropped, as reported last February by the war's top U.S. commander,
Gen. Tommy Franks.
A spokesman for Franks' Central Command said the total of bombs dropped has
not been updated since February. As for how many may remain unexploded on
the ground, "we don't track that," said the spokesman, Gunnery Sgt. Charles
A. Portman.
Mine-clearance specialists here are concerned particularly about unexploded
antipersonnel cluster bomblets, more than 200 of which are scattered from
each U.S. cluster bomb. The shape and small size of the bomblets can be
dangerously attractive to children and unwary adults.
Fazel Karim, head of the Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines, said the U.S.
military has directed mine-clearance organizations to some 250 locations
across Afghanistan where cluster bombs were dropped.
"This new technology is unfamiliar and has created a lot of problems for
de-miners and for the surrounding communities," Karim said.
The recent Afghan experience helped spur the ICBL this year to call for a
ban on use of cluster bombs.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Posted: Monday, July 29, 2002
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