RIDDING THE WORLD OF LANDMINES
January 24, 2002
San Diego Union Tribune

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.