U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines
E-mail Newsletter
September 20, 2001
In this edition . . .
• Medical Group Calls for Landmine and Cluster Bomb
Moratorium
• Spotlight on Hosts of a "Thousand Dinners"
• 10 Million Mines Makes Foot Travel a Risky Business
• Contact White House and Legislators About Mines in
Afghanistan
MEDICAL GROUP CALLS FOR LANDMINE AND CLUSTER BOMB MORATORIUM
News Release on Physicians for Human Rights letterhead
November 2, 2001
MEDICAL GROUP CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON USE OF CLUSTER BOMBS AND ANTIPERSONNEL LANDMINES IN AFGHANISTAN; US MUST DISCLOSE MUNITIONS INFORMATION TO UN
Islamabad, Pakistan-- Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today called on the United States to impose an immediate moratorium on the deployment of cluster bombs and antipersonnel landmines in Afghanistan. The group also called on the U.S. to comply with the request by the UN Mine Action Program for Afghanistan (UNMAPA) to be informed of the targets, types, and quantities of munitions used so far during coalition air strikes. Lastly, PHR called on the US to commit to and implement full clearance of all unexploded munitions deployed during the military campaign in Afghanistan.
US military have confirmed the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan. PHR has not been able to resolve conflicting reports about US landmine deployment in Afghanistan, but US military leaders recently indicated that they have not ruled out using antipersonnel landmines in the military campaign.
As a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its founding role in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, PHR has documented the indiscriminate nature of this weapon that leads to thousands of civilian deaths each year. With the current high dud rate of cluster bombs estimated to be between 5 and 30%, the group believes that cluster submunitions, like antipersonnel landmines, could result in loss of human life, threaten refugee movement, obstruct farming, and hinder aid delivery. Cluster bombs have reportedly killed 9 Afghan civilians in recent weeks near Herat. Landmines and NATO-dropped cluster bombs also caused high rates of civilian casualties in Kosovo in 1999.
"The world has condemned the use of antipersonnel landmines. It is now time for all nations, including the United States, to recognize that both antipersonnel mines and cluster bombs are indiscriminate and cause a devastating civilian toll," said Leonard S. Rubenstein, executive director of PHR.
Even before the current conflict, landmines led to tremendous civilian casualties in 27 out of 29 Afghan provinces. Eight to ten million landmines remain in the ground after two decades of war in the country. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines reports that in Afghanistan in the year 2000, there were 88 casualties each month. Reports from UNMAPA indicate that this number has increased dramatically since the US aerial bombing commenced.
The US government reports that one third of US military casualties in the Vietnam Conflict and the Persian Gulf War were due to antipersonnel landmines. Additionally, at least 25 U.S. military personnel were killed and others injured by submunitions fired by their own forces in Operation Desert Storm. Similarly, the hidden weapons could pose a serious threat to US soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.
Since September 11, UNMAPA's regular mine clearance operations have ground to a halt. Emergency teams are in desperate need of information to identify and defuse new weapons on the ground.
According to PHR interviews, UNMAPA's 4,800 mine clearance specialists are unable to prevent civilian casualties by safely disposing of new unexploded ordnance (UXO), especially cluster sub-munitions, because they lack detailed information about the weapons on the ground. Without full knowledge of the types of weapons that planes are dropping, how these weapons are defused, and where and in what quantities they are being deployed, clearance specialists are unable to proceed with their life-saving work. This information can also be used by the seven non-governmental groups that conduct mine awareness classes for Afghans, teaching them how to identify and avoid UXO that they may be encountering for the first time.
UNMAPA's mine detection dogs are unable to effectively discriminate between mined and non-mined areas due to the explosive residue and multiple munitions spread by cluster bombs. Thus, human mine removal teams must find each landmine or bomb, putting them at an increased risk of detonating the devices.
"The United States must demonstrate true concern for the impact that the air campaign is having on the Afghan people by giving UN demining teams the information they need to save civilian lives," stated Dr. Lynn Amowitz of PHR, currently on the Afghan border. "Coalition stalling only prolongs the inability of Afghan deminers to remove the weapons that Afghan men, women and children fear everyday they step outside their homes, never knowing if their next step is their last," she said.
The CBU-87 cluster bomb is reportedly being deployed in Afghanistan. Each canister can hold up to 250 "bomblets." Cluster submunitions are distinct from other ordnance because of their unusual shape and bright colors, making children particularly susceptible. Clusters are also the same bright yellow color as the humanitarian daily rations being airdropped by the US, though military officials have indicated that they will change the color of future food packets.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) promotes health by protecting human rights. The organization has documented health and human rights in Afghanistan since 1998. Currently, PHR coordinates the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition working towards United States accession to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
SPOTLIGHT ON HOSTS OF A "THOUSAND DINNERS"
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What do U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Former Beatle Paul McCartney, and a priest in Maine have in common? They will all be hosting events in late November in honor of "A Night of a Thousand Dinners" to raise funds, awareness, and action on the landmines issue. U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines member Father Jim Gower will bring together his Pax Christi group in Bangor, Maine to learn about the global landmines crisis and what they can do to help ban and clear the weapon. Eighteen other USCBL members and hundreds of others affiliated with various landmine action groups will also host events to educate and activate their communities on or around November 30, 2001. They will show videos, collect funds, share refreshments, and write letters to their legislators. Some events will host 5 people, some 50.
The United Nations Association's Adopt a Minefield Program and the Canadian Landmine Foundation initiated Night of a Thousand Dinners. U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines members who host events, in late November/early December will send their proceeds to the USCBL. The USCBL will then send 15% of the total proceeds to the Adopt a Minefield program for the mine removal program. With an estimated 80 million landmines in the ground threatening civilians in more than 80 countries, it can cost as much as $1,000 to remove just one mine. It's not too late for you to plan an event in your community for late November or early December. Go to www.banminesusa.org for information on how you can host or email landmines@fcnl.org or call 617-695-0041.
10 MILLION MINES MAKES FOOT TRAVEL A RISKY BUSINESS
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Chicago Tribune
October 29, 2001
By Stephen Franklin
KHWAJA BAHAUDDIN, Afghanistan -- Abdul Magid knew well the risk when he set out. He had faced it many times before. To cross the Taliban's lines, he had to pass their land mines, and they were scattered everywhere on his way to the bazaar. But what choice did he have, Magid would ask later from his hospital bed. He is a poor merchant who must travel to and from the market to buy and sell goods. And he was trying to be careful the night that he or a friend stepped on a mine.
About midnight, he and two friends were walking very slowly with their donkeys when someone tripped the mine. Luckily when it exploded, passersby quickly strapped him to their donkey and took him to the nearest hospital, a two-day journey in the baking sun.
The small, grizzled 60-year-old merchant lost his right leg. But he is still a lucky man in an unlucky land. Most land mine victims, if not killed in the blast, die before they can reach one of the few hospital or clinics in the country, said Dr. Said Ibrahim Kowit, acting minister of public health for the government driven into refuge in northern Afghanistan in 1996 by the Taliban.
Haunted by war and mayhem for more than 20 years, Afghanistan has an estimated 10 million unexploded mines, according to various United Nations agencies. While the counts vary, there is no ignoring the potential threat of these mines to U.S. ground forces and others involved in the anti-terrorism offensive in Afghanistan. They would be fighting on unfamiliar terrain and in winter conditions that might hinder the detection of mines and other unexploded ordnance.
During the past decade, UN organizations have defused or exploded 650,000 mines in Afghanistan. But many have not been detected or surveyed, according to the Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation, a UN-sponsored agency.
The UN estimates that 881 million square yards of minefields exist in Afghanistan. It also notes unexploded munitions from the U.S.-led bombing campaign endanger civilians.
The UN said Wednesday that nearly 200 pieces of unexploded ordnance about the size of soft drink cans are scattered around the Afghan city of Herat.
OMAR reports an estimated 400,000 Afghans have died over the years from land mines, with four out of five being civilians like Magid. About 4,000 die yearly from land mines, OMAR says. But that number may be low, health officials caution, because record keeping is far from complete.
Nor is the problem likely to fade away. In addition to the mines planted during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation and the civil war that followed, the Taliban continued to mine roads and fields near their front lines against an attack by opposition forces of the Northern Alliance.
The tragedy is compounded by the lack of roads, the lack of hospitals and the danger that mine victims face in traveling to areas close to the Taliban's lines. In northern Afghanistan there was only one facility that helped replace lost limbs for land-mines victims until recently, but it was a four-day trip away from Khwaja Bahauddin across difficult and dangerous roads. Another facility opened recently in a city that is only a day's ride away.
The facility that has been treating Abdul for the past month has only four rooms with beds. The emergency room is outside, shielded by straw mats barely able to keep out the powerful dust clouds. There is hardly any examination equipment, hardly any medicine, hardly anything. There are, however, two young doctors and their assistants.
It is the only so-called public hospital for eight surrounding districts in the Tarhar province, which has more than 100,000 inhabitants. The Iranian government recently set up a more impressive hospital, but it focuses on caring for soldiers from the Northern Alliance.
The tiny facility is nearly always busy treating people with malaria or tuberculosis, treating land-mine victims and treating people wounded in the Taliban shelling of villages under the control of the Northern Alliance. In the room where Magid, the merchant, was resting recently were two such victims of village attacks. One young man was injured by shell fragments and another shot by a Taliban sniper. They were villagers, not fighters.
As Magid uncomfortably turned in his bed, Abdul Sattar, a hospital worker, showed a pair of crutches that had been prepared for him. They were crudely cut from wood.
"I was afraid that night," Magid said as he recalled the incident one month ago. "But I had to find food for my family. I have five to feed," he continued. "Now what can I do? I will be like this for the future. I have no future. I have nobody to help me."
Still, he was lucky. The night of the land-mine explosion, he survived. His two friends did not.
Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune
CONTACT WHITE HOUSE AND LEGISLATORS ABOUT MINES IN AFGHANISTAN
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U.S. military leaders have publically said that they have not ruled out the use of landmines in Afghanistan, despite the threat they would pose to Afghan civilians and U.S. troops.Urge U.S. policy-makers to issue a moratorium on the deployment of antipersonnel landmines in Afghanistan. See www.banminesusa.org for full action alert and sample fax.
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For more information about the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, visit www.banminesusa.org.
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