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Youth Mine Action Ambassador Program |
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Youth Mine Action Ambassador Program |
Landmine Information Sheets
Some facts about anti-personnel landmines (APMs):
APMs are victim-operated traps. Most varieties are designed to maim, not to kill, because a wounded person is a bigger drain on resources.
There are still between 60-100 million landmines contaminating the ground of approximately 90 countries around the world.
There are between 15,000 to 20,000 victims worldwide each year. In some countries, 29% of mine victims lose one or both legs.
Landmines cannot tell the difference between a soldier and a civilian. Indiscriminate weapons are illegal under humanitarian law.
Most victims are civilians who are killed or injured after hostilities come to an end. Landmines cannot tell the difference between war and peace.
The human suffering caused by anti-personnel landmines is disproportionate to their military utility—a violation of International Humanitarian Law.
Landmines cost between US$3-30 to produce, but between US$300-1000 to remove.
10-year old amputee, with a life expectancy of another 40 to 50 years, will need 25 artificial limbs during his or her lifetime.
Artifical limbs cost about US$150, but when all medical and rehabilitation costs are included, it can cost as much as $10,000 to provide adequate care for most survivors.
Some of the most mine-affected countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Somalia, and Sudan.
136 of the world’s countries, including Canada, have ratified the Ottawa Treaty—the Global Ban on Landmines—that bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. (“Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their destruction”)
Signing of the Ottawa Treaty took place in Ottawa, December 3rd, 1997. The Treaty became part of International Law on March 1st, 1999.
The number of anti-personnel landmine producers has dropped in recent years from 54 to 15.
The historical context of anti-personnel landmines:
During the era of the Roman Empire, as well as in conflicts between China and Mongolia in the 13th century, non-explosive “alternatives” to APMs were being used.
The first modern APM appeared during the US Civil War. 20,000 were used as “booby-traps” by the Confederate troops. The weapon was successful as a psychological weapon that generated fear among enemy troops.
APMs were only used in a limited capacity during the First World War, where they were largely ineffective due to the static nature of the war.
During the Second World War, millions were used in North Africa and on the eastern front, between Germany and the USSR, with many resultant victims on either side. APMs become a defensive weapon to protect troops and to provide more time in evading on-coming enemy forces. APMs were more effective than in the First World War due to the mobility of the war.
In the Korean War, both sides used APMs, creating a large defensive border, splitting the North from the South. This mined border area still exists today.
APMs were used in large quantities in the Vietnam War as well. US Claymore mines were, however, often used against them, injuring “friendly” forces.
Limited use in the Arab-Israeli Wars, although APMs can be found along the length of the Suez Canal, and along border territories. APMs did help delay enemy forces.
The 1970s brought about the greatest use of APMs, with massive proliferation throughout many countries in the South.
In the Gulf War, Iraq used APMs in large quantities. The weapon was largely ineffective, because enemy forces relied primarily on air attacks. When ground troops were involved, enemy forces easily performed military breaching across mine fields. Western forces, in fact, incurred losses to their own forces in using APMs in the Gulf War.
APMs are believed to be operationally effective because they have proved to have a significant psychological effect. APMs are flexible, low-cost, good at delaying, and are a not a logistical burden. So, why should militaries give up using APMs?
Studies have shown that APMs have not been a decisive factor in the outcome of any conflict. The very small limited gains that APMs give the military do not out-weigh the humanitarian costs of using such an indiscriminate weapon, making APMs illegal under International Law.
There are more human alternatives. What little military utility APMs have, can be replaced by other weapons that are more humane to non-combatants.
APMs often injure own forces.
The human consequences of the use of anti-personnel landmines:
Physical and social consequences
Diverse physical consequences include amputation, deformation, loss of vision, loss of hearing, etc.
Dependence on family and community members, loss of mobility.
Loss of ability to enjoy hobbies or sports.
Female reproductive organs are often affected, destroying a woman’s ability to bear children.
Women can often no longer marry, especially when cultural and religious stigma are attached to persons who are no longer considered of value.
Men may no longer be able to support their families
Survivors may experience a loss of self-esteem, trauma, depression, fear, and frustration—psychological support is often very limited.
Survivors are often ostracized, finding economic and social reintegration virtually impossible.
The presence of mines may mean that entire communities become displaced.
Economic consequences
Access to natural resources is compromised.
Access to basic needs, such as education, water, and a livelihood, is limited.
Transportation and communication slows drastically.
Reconstruction of damage caused during a conflict is often impossible
Reconstruction of human services infrastructure is slowed as the mobility of teachers, technicians, and health-care workers is impeded.
Return of refugees becomes more complex, and more dangerous.
Scarce resources are redirected away from investment and national development in order to remove mines and help mine-affected communities.
The disruption of internal markets leads to high inflation.
The international community is reluctant to invest in mine-affected countries.
The development of particular industries, including tourism, is often impossible.
International aid efforts are made more complex, expensive, and dangerous.
Mine-affected countries may become dependent on international aid due to a decrease in agricultural production, resulting from lack of safe access to fields.
Medical consequences
Landmine patients need an average of four operations and spend 32 days in hospital.
Materials and instruments needed for operations are often very expensive.
Victims need twice as many blood transfusions as traditional battlefield victims.
Risk of infection is very high, making hospital stays even longer.
Artificial limbs can cost from $125US each; and children need a new one every 6 months, adults every 3-5 years. Surgical care and fitting on an artificial limb costs about $3,000US.
Medical personnel require specialized training to deal with the operations required.
Victims are “those who, either individually, or collectively, have suffered physical, emotional and psychological injury, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights through acts or omissions related to mine utilization.”
Pre-hospital care: healthcare and community workers need expertise in first aid
Hospital care: doctors and facilities must be adequate to deal with the type of injuries caused by landmines.
Rehabilitation: prostheses must be available and adequate for a lifetime.
Social and economic reintegration: peer support groups, psychological and social support. Re-training and other programs must offer an economically viable life for survivors, but must also ensure that an affected communities needs are met.
Disability policy and practice: public access for those with disabilities.
Health and social welfare surveillance and research: data collection in the community must be carried out in a manner that is sympathetic to victims.
Such a wide-range of activities is difficult to coordinate.
Countries face bureaucratic and territorial challenges regarding who should coordinate victim assistance.
It is difficult to monitor how resources are being used in such a varied context.
Survivor Assistance is very long-term.
ICRC and CRC involvement in Survivor Assistance:
Since 1983 the ICRC has operated a Special Fund for the Disabled to ensure continuity of ICRC projects. The fund is used to assist low-income countries with limb-fitting techniques. The ICRC has 40 physical rehab programs worldwide. In 2001: 7,418 amputees fitted with prostheses, 16,501 prostheses made, 16.637 crutches made, 1,163 wheelchairs, 6,772 orthodics newly fitted.
The CRC set up the Landmine Survivors Fund in 1997.
The CRC has a specific project in Tajikistan, where a physical rehabilitation centre was built in Dushanbe, the country’s capital. The CRC built and maintains this facility thanks to an individual Canadian donor.
Goal of Mine Awareness:
To promote safer behaviour in those communities living and working in mine-affected areas and to reduce the number of mine and UXO casualties.
Tools in Mine Awareness:
Programs of information, education, and community liaison with at-risk communities, in order to encourage safe behaviour.
Community-based mine awareness. For example, training of local community members to be able to conduct mine awareness in their local areas.
Appropriate media tools and materials.
Community mine-field mapping.
Culturally appropriate techniques, including plays, traditional songs, and dance.
Mass media used during emergencies
ICRC and CRC involvement in Mine Awareness:
ICRC is active in Mine Awareness programs in: Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Ethiopia, Former Republic of Yugoslavia/Kosovo, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Chechnya, and Tajikistan.
CRC is partnered with Namibia Red Cross and Mozambique Red Cross in Mine Awareness programs.
Web Sites
Canadian Red Cross www.redcross.ca
International Committee of the Red Cross www.icrc.org
Mines Action Canada www.minesactioncanada.org
Canadian Foreign Affairs www.mines.gc.ca
International Campaign to Ban Landmines www.icbl.org
Landmine Survivors Network www.landminesurvivors.org
Publications
“Overview 1999: Landmines Must be Stopped” and many other Red Cross publications are available on the www.icrc.org website
Safelane magazine: Canada’s Landmine Ban Report (Foreign Affairs)
To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines (491pp). Cameron, M., Lawson, R., and Tomlin, B., ed. Oxford University Press, Toronto.
Landmine Monitor Report 2002 (ICBL website)
Today's speaker was McKay Wood; his contact information is:
McKay Wood
Youth Mine Action Ambassador
Lower Mainland Canadian Red Cross
(604) 709-6651 Fax (604) 709-6675
mckay.wood@redcross.ca
www.dangermines.ca
After reading this document, you might like to check your recollection of it against a quiz . (Some questions from this quiz might appear on the final exam.)
