U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
E-Mail Newsletter
January 31, 2002

In this edition. . .

Action Alert: Help the Campaign Get Media Attention!
Four Boys Killed in Mine Accident in Eritria
Landmines and Rebuilding Afghanistan
   Article by Landmine Survivor Jerry White
$27 Million Pledged for Afghan Demining
Mine Clearing Dogs

ACTION ALERT: HELP THE LANDMINES CAMPAIGN GET MEDIA ATTENTION!

As the Bush Administration creates new U.S. policies on the landmines issue, we are working to get as much media and public attention as possible. The more media attention we get, the better chance we will have at convincing policy-makers of the serious dangers of rolling back landmine-related U.S. progress, which we expect the Bush Administration to do. Please help us! If you think you can do any of the following, please call us at 617-6950041 or email us at landmines@fcnl.org.

• Help us set up an editorial board meeting with the major newspaper in your area. Would you be willing to attend such a meeting with one or two other campaign members in your area? Do you know anyone on the editorial board?
• Provide us with the contact names and information of reporters you've worked with whom you think would be receptive to information about the issue.
• Help us set up interviews with radio and television stations in your area, including cable stations.
• Submit a letter to the editor. Visit www.banminesusa.org/urg_act/983.htm for a sample letter.
• Invite the local media to your own landmines related event.

FOUR BOYS KILLED IN MINE ACCIDENT IN ERITRIA
Nairobi, Kenya, Jan 28, 2002 (IRIN)--

Four Eritrean teenage boys were killed in a mine accident near the town of Senafe last week, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has announced.

UNMEE spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo told a press briefing on Friday that three more boys were seriously injured in the accident, which occurred in a "marked minefield" on 22 January. He said the children had been given mine awareness training. An investigation into the incident is underway.

"All possible means will be used to try to prevent a recurrence of this tragic accident," UNMEE said in a statement. It added that 69 people had so far been killed by mines in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) since the two countries ended their border war in 2000.

By Jerry White

As governments and non-governmental organizations look at the many huge tasks involved in nation building in Afghanistan, three challenges loom largest and may take longest: restoring roads and irrigation systems destroyed by 23 years of war, and clearing vast stretches of the country infested with deadly land mines.

The land mine crisis also presents President Bush with the opportunity to reverse the hollow and bankrupt land mine policies of the Clinton era.

Afghanistan, where the World Bank says demining efforts so far show the overall cost will be about $500 million, is but one example of the plight of 80 land mine-contaminated countries around the world.

In Afghanistan, if fighting ends tomorrow, the deadly threats facing Afghan families, American soldiers, peacekeeping units and everyone attempting agricultural recovery will continue for decades. U.N. experts estimate 4 million to 8 million mines litter the country — a lurking subterranean terror certain to inflict fear, injury and death for years.

The carnage is already increasing. Land mine injuries have jumped from three to 10 a day the last few months, including several U.S. Marines wounded in December. Since 1991, more than 400,000 Afghans have become mine victims. From 100 to 300 Afghans each month are known to step on a land mine or unexploded pieces of ordnance.

But an estimated 50 percent of landmine casualties are never reported. No one hears about the victims who die before reaching a hospital. At present, more than 200,000 Afghans live with lost limbs and eyes. Even more tragically, about 15 percent of Afghan mine victims are children, according to the United Nations' Afghanistan Mine Action Center. Mines designed to

blast shrapnel into an adult's waist explode in a child's face.

About 30 different types of mines are buried in Afghanistan, including millions dropped by air by the Soviet army, plus large numbers of U.S.-made mines left over from the Cold War. Add to those the vast numbers laid by warring Afghan factions during years of civil war and battles with the Soviet army, which estimated that 33 percent of its casualties were from mines. (Most mines in Afghanistan are Soviet made, but they also come from China, Britain, Italy, Belgium, the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Iran, the United States and elsewhere.)

In his inaugural address, President Bush said, "Where there is suffering, there is duty. All of us are diminished when any are hopeless. And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side." But globally, the roads to many Jerichos have become minefields.

Bush has pledged to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Land mines are weapons of mass destruction in slow motion. They have killed more people than nuclear, chemical and biological weapons combined. Tens of millions of these silent killers have been left as military litter in more than 80 countries. Mines daily threaten innocent civilians, including thousands of children. Ninety percent of the survivors of land mines do not receive medical care or rehabilitation.

The United States must share responsibility for this century-long humanitarian disaster. Between 1969 and 1990, the United States exported millions of mines, which continue to show up in the killing fields of 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Angola, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.

Recognizing this insidious terror and carnage must end, nations of the world created the 1997 Treaty to Ban Landmines, which has now been signed by 142 countries. The United States is not one of them. President Bush can reverse the deadly and profit-driven policies of the Clinton administration, which claimed that the United States used land mines "responsibly."

He could start by signing the land mine treaty and by ordering the destruction of our stockpile of 11 million mines. Even our top soldiers say they have outlived their military usefulness. Moreover, there is no such thing as "responsible" use of mines. When peace is declared, no one turns them off or removes them. They are "brainless" — cannot distinguish between civilian and soldier, ally or enemy, adult or child. And because they are small, and destroy lives one by one, their horrific consequences often go unreported.

Here lies a crucial test of U.S. compassion, courage and leadership: sign the treaty to ban land mines and urge all countries in the world to follow this lead — including the new leaders in Afghanistan.

White is co-founder and executive director of the Washington-based Landmine Survivors Network (www.landminesurvivors.org <http://www.landminesurvivors.org> ). [A landmine survivor himself, he is also former Chair of the USCBL and a Coordinating Committee Member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.]

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

By Mark Magnier

Officials from 24 nations and international organizations pledged $27.2 million--including $7 million by the U.S.--for de-mining Afghanistan, as a two-day conference on rebuilding the country came to a close Tuesday.

Although the funds were welcomed by Afghan officials, they are a fraction of the $668 million over seven years that U.N. experts say is needed to eliminate the nation's land mine and unexploded ordnance problem.

Ridding Afghanistan of these time bombs, or at least minimizing their ability to inflict damage, is an ambitious goal. By some estimates, as many as 10 million land mines and other unexploded munitions litter the Central Asian country after decades of war and instability.

An estimated 300 Afghans are killed every month by the deadly leftovers, including children scavenging for the 25 cents' worth of metal in each mine, according to the United Nations. Half of the victims die instantly or succumb to their wounds on the way to doctors, who are often several days of hard travel away, land mine experts here say. That compares with about 30 people a month killed nowadays in Cambodia, a past poster child for anti-mine campaigns, the U.N. says.

At the conference in Tokyo, officials from contributing nations and Afghanistan pressed for a fast, concerted de-mining campaign. "The need for action is great," said interim Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai. "Our citizens are falling victim to them daily."

Experts argue that the $668 million price tag compares favorably with the more than $700 million spent de-mining Kuwait after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the $70 million spent so far in Kosovo, the Serbian province that sparked a battle between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Yugoslavia in 1999.

"Kosovo is a postage stamp," said Richard Daniel Kelly, mine action program director with the Office of the U.N. Coordinator for Afghanistan. "It's the size of one province in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan has 31 provinces."

Money spent to de-mine the country has secondary benefits. With nearly 5,000 Afghans now working to identify and deactivate mines, the campaign ranks as the nation's largest single source of employment, U.S. and U.N. officials say. A portion of the money pledged Tuesday by the United States, which is to be routed through the HALO Trust, a nonprofit de-mining group, is expected to employ 800 more.

Torek Farhadi, an economic advisor to the interim government, said mines take a huge psychological toll on Afghans, killing people years after fighting has stopped. In addition to preventing such tragedies, mine clearing allows refugees to cross back into Afghanistan, helps put farmland back into production and gives children and adults the confidence to walk roads to schools and markets, he added.

Some of the money pledged Tuesday is expected to go to UNICEF for an intensive education campaign timed to coincide with the scheduled reopening of schools in March. The campaign will cover what mines look like, how to avoid them and how to report them to authorities.

In the last six months, about $10 million in land mine detection equipment has been stolen, vandalized or destroyed in Afghanistan, officials said. Japan will spend $15.4 million to pay for new equipment.

The U.S. has refused to sign a 1997 international accord banning land mines, arguing that the weapons are necessary in certain places such as the border between North and South Korea. But Washington is reviewing its position, with a decision expected within a few months, a senior U.S. official said. He added that the government has destroyed about 3.3 million of its own stockpiled land mines and banned the weapons' export. Karzai said Monday that his government plans to sign the accord. . .

. . .Deciding where to start demining in Afghanistan is a problem. The Russian government gave 350 battle plans, showing some minefields, to the Afghan government in the early 1990s, but they were lost. The Russians have now found 150 more maps that will be handed over to the U.N. de-mining authority, a senior U.N. official said. The U.S. has provided a list of 188 locations where it dropped cluster bombs, the official added.

According to U.N. estimates, more than 320 square miles of the country are riddled with mines, with nearly half that in heavily populated areas.

In some places, surveyors catalog where land mine accidents have occurred, and computers correlate the data with road, electricity and water grids. This allows planners to identify the worst dangers in the most populated areas.

"It's impossible to clear every ordnance in Afghanistan," said Donald K. Steinberg, deputy director of policy planning with the State Department. "The goal is to figure out where you're going to get the best results quickly and also where there are no land mines." . . .

By Margaret Coker

Fanny, Kenny and Buck stood in perfect drill formation, their tails wagging and furry faces filled with anticipation for the order to hunt down the enemy.

Ripping off excited barks, the German shepherds raced through the brown grass and mud, in training to search for land mines hidden throughout Afghanistan --- a scourge that maims, wounds or kills as many as 30 civilians every day.

More than 200 German shepherds and another breed, the Belgian malinois, along with their dedicated Afghan handlers, are instrumental in the effort to clear the country, among the most densely mined on Earth.

"The dogs are doing an important job," said Bismullah Kalandari, a canine trainer at the Afghan Mine Detection Center in Kabul. "Together, we are making the land safe for our children again."

The State Department estimated more than 10 million land mines were sown from 1979 to 1989, when the Soviets occupied Afghanistan.

More mines followed. Afghan warlords fought a five-year civil war. It was followed by on-again, off-again battles between the Taliban and Northern Alliance that lasted until November, when the Taliban forces were routed from Kabul with the help of U.S. air power.

The mine detection center, a non-governmental organization that receives assistance from the United Nations and Germany, was started in 1989 by Afghans horrified by the death toll.

"Each day, I hear about or see a child wounded by a land mine," said Shah Wali Ayubi, the manager of the center. "In villages, there are many people without arms or legs."

At least six different aid organizations, with 4,000 de-miners, are working in Afghanistan, but the mine-detection center is the only one that uses dogs.

The most prevalent threat is a Soviet-era anti-personnel mine known as the PMN-2. Made of steel, the PMN-2 is the size of two hockey pucks stacked one on the other. It has a plastic-covered top, which makes it difficult for a metal detector to find.

"The only way to find these hidden menaces is with a dog," Ayubi said. "They are the only ones who can sniff them out."

The dogs are trained to search in a straight line, as far as 15 feet from their handler. A minefield is designated with a grid, so handlers and dogs move in tight rectangles. The dog, on a leash, is trained to walk slowly, without jumping. The handler reads its body language to tell when it is

getting close to a mine --- a prick of the ears, a quickly moving tail and then a bark.

When the bark comes, the handler immediately calls the dog back and notes how far ahead it had moved by the length of the leash.

While the dog enjoys hugs and a rest, a second handler brings his dog over to the same spot. If the second dog verifies the presence of a mine, then the ground is flagged and a de-miner will start the dangerous work of digging out the mine and setting a controlled explosion to detonate it.

Ten handlers and seven dogs have died in work-related accidents since the center was founded. Twelve puppies were born Oct. 1, but two were killed days later when a U.S. warplane mistakenly bombed their kennels.

"It was a very sad day," Kalandari said. "We are working very hard to expand our program, and that was a terrible blow." He became the head puppy trainer five years ago after losing his left eye and his own dog, Axel, when an unstable mine the dog had found blew up in their faces.

At the training facility, the daily routine starts at 6 a.m., rain or shine. Puppies are schooled, and working dogs return every six months for a refresher course. In all, the program has 244 dogs and an equal number of handlers. . .

. . .Puppies born here spend their first six to eight months in socialization courses, followed by six to eight months of ball training, in which they learn simple obedience and fetching. Dogs that show exceptional aptitude graduate to the next level.

The next stage matches dogs with their handlers, forming a team that will work together for about six years, the average dog's working life. (At retirement, dogs are placed with private owners and are never destroyed, Ayubi said. The same goes for puppies who fail to show aptitude for the work.)…