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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
Afghan Landmines Focus of Conference
KABUL, Afghanistan, 26 july 02 (AP)--
In the quiet after dawn, a few solitary men inched their separate ways up
the backside of a ridge overlooking Kabul, each draped in sky-blue armor
topped by visored helmets.
Suddenly an electronic whining cut through the still air, and one man, in
slow motion, turned to shout down the rocky slope.
``Mine!\'\'
That scene from a village outside Kabul this week is repeated daily across
Afghanistan as its government, the United Nations and international
activists prepare to open a headline conference on Sunday to focus the
world\'s attention on what is probably its most landmine-afflicted country.
One indicator of that status: The 7,000 de-miners at work under the U.N.
umbrella are believed to be the largest non-government work force in
Afghanistan.
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 aftermath can
be seen on the streets of this capital city, in legless children on crutches
and men in wheelchairs. But even uninjured Afghans are touched by the
aftermath of mine warfare.
``It will have a tremendous effect on economic reconstruction of the
country,\'\' said Tammy Hall, external relations director for the U.N.
mine-clearance program in Afghanistan. ``This is predominantly an
agriculturally based economy, and there\'s simply less land available for
cultivation because of the danger of landmines.\'\'
The three-day conference opening Sunday will, among other things, assess how
the latest episode in the long-running Afghan conflict -- the U.S.-led
campaign that ousted the Taliban from power last December -- has added to
the problem of lethal leftovers from war.
American warplanes dropped thousands of tons of bombs across Afghanistan,
and some remain unexploded and dangerous on the ground, including countless
small bomblets spread by anti-personnel cluster bombs.
International organizations participating in the conference also will focus
on winning the new Afghan government\'s accession to the 1997 treaty banning
use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines, a treaty
signed by 143 other countries, not including the United States.
The United Nations\' de-mining experts estimate that altogether 300 square
miles of Afghan territory is ``contaminated\'\' by landmines after two decades
of civil war that also embroiled Soviet troops in the 1980s and most
recently U.S. and allied forces.
Since 1990, mine-clearing efforts have found and destroyed more than 200,000
antipersonnel landmines in Afghanistan, reports the International Campaign
to Ban Landmines. Still, experts estimate that simply clearing high-priority
areas, about half the mined land, will take 10 more years.
The economic impact extends beyond cultivatable land -- to pastureland where
livestock regularly are killed by exploding mines or other leftover
ordnance, to irrigation canals that were mined, and to Afghanistan\'s vital
but minimal road system.
A week ago, a bus carrying people to a picnic area in central Afghanistan
struck a mine, and 13 people were killed. Authorities said the driver,
disregarding passengers\' advice, risked mines along a two-hour route to the
destination, rather than take a six-hour detour route.
Such a country might seem a natural supporter of the treaty banning mines.
But U.N. official Hall pointed out that Afghanistan ``lives in a tough
neighborhood,\'\' in which only one of its six immediate neighbors and
potential adversaries, Turkmenistan, has ratified the pact.
European and other governments that help finance Afghan de-mining, at a cost
of up to $60 million this year, have encouraged Kabul to join the treaty, as
insurance against seeing mines replanted in the future and their money
wasted. Activists and diplomats will listen closely to President Hamid
Karzai\'s conference-opening remarks Sunday for a clue to his intentions.
Accepting the treaty will, for one thing, obligate Karzai\'s government to
destroy unused stocks of landmines left over from the ebb and flow of war
over many years.
Out on the ridgeline, in the Kabul Province village of Tangi Saidan, area
de-mining coordinator Sayed Hashim on Thursday reflected on his country\'s
long familiarity with the deadly problem.
``Look.\'\' He pointed over to a PMN-2, a Soviet-made pressure mine lying
exposed on uncleared land. ``That may have been planted 15 years ago, but
it\'s still as deadly as ever.\'\'
These mines were laid down by Soviet-allied Afghan defenders manning hilltop
positions against ``mujahedeen\'\' rebels, who attacked Kabul\'s outskirts
repeatedly in the 1980s in the name of Islam and anti-communism.
Mohammad Ewaz, the man whose electronic detector found the mine Thursday,
feels some religious fulfillment in his more peaceful work today.
``Even when you move a prickly branch out of someone\'s way,\'\' he said, ``you
get a little `sawab\' `` -- an Islamic term for spiritual rewards. ``How much
more sawab you must get when you destroy a landmine. We feel we\'re doing a
lot for our country.\'\'
Copyright © 2002 Associated Press Information Services, all rights reserved.
Posted: Monday, July 29, 2002
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