From Seeds of Terror to Seeds of Hope

More than 80 countries contain buried landmines and other explosive remnants of war, which together kill or maim between 15,000 and 20,000 people annually, according to the Landmine Monitor Report (LMR) 2005. At least 20 percent of the victims are children, and 80 percent are civilians.

Launched by the U.N. to raise public awareness about landmines and efforts for their eradication, the first International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on Apr. 4 brought reason for hope. Thanks to international efforts, the number of mine-affected countries has fallen in recent years, as well as the number of those killed or injured, which hit 26,000 in 1999.

{josquote}The problem of landmines and other remnants of war or unexploded ordnance can be solved in years rather than decades, says Paula Claycombe, senior programme officer at the United Nations children's agency UNICEF{/josquote}.

But for thousands of landmine survivors, "Progress is not evident, they don't feel that their daily lives have been significantly altered yet," Cameron Macauley, who has 25 years of experience helping landmine victims, told IPS.

Working with the Landmine Survivors Network (LSN), an international organisation created by and for survivors to help victims reclaim their lives, Macauley stressed that the international community must further recognise the needs of survivors in many post-conflict and developing countries.

Only about 10 percent of landmine victims have access to basic health care and rehabilitation. And for those who need sophisticated post-trauma care, the numbers are even lower, according to LSN.

In Ethiopia, for example, there are only two orthopedic surgeons for 71 million people.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, where the problem is at its worst today, many people do not even have information about necessary health care," said Macauley.

"Landmines [also] bring about a nutritional risk, as food security is endangered. If farmers believe that there is a single landmine in an area, that land will be abandoned, crops left un-harvested and food sources will be resultantly scarce," he told IPS.

The fear of mines in the countryside "also forces people to move to overcrowded cities nearby, where they likely become viewed as a burden rather than a workforce," he added.

LSN's institutional advancement director Rachael Galoob Ortega agreed, telling IPS that, "The loss of a limb or the loss of an arm or sight is actually often not [the worst part], but rather the loss of their place in family or in society,"

"Landmines are a mass destruction weapon in slow motion," and as long as there is even a single mine left in the ground, "children cannot return to their playyards, families can not cultivate their fields and the seeds of democracy can not be sown," said the founder of Roots of Peace, Heidi Kühn.

The U.S.-based organisation, which runs projects in post-conflict countries, was established to rid the world of landmines and aims to demine, replant and rebuild. "We have the moral obligation to remove these seeds of destruction and terror, and turn them into seeds of hope," she told IPS.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of mine-affected countries are involved in efforts to clear and destroy landmines and explosive remnants of war, to mark and fence off dangerous areas, educate people on the dangers of mines, and to assist victims.

Since 2003, nations such as Djibouti, El Salvador and Honduras have been declared mine-free, and Guatemala and Namibia are almost there.

"The battle against landmines is being won," said director of the U.N. Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Max Gaylard, adding that victory will depend on the unflagging commitment of the governments of those countries where mines still exist, and on the sustained support of the international community.

But despite tremendous progress, Scott Stedjan, coordinator of the U.S.-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), told IPS that he does not believe "a mine-free world is within sight as long as the most powerful states, such as the U.S., China and Russia, reserve their right to produce and use landmines".

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning ICBL was launched in October 1992 and has grown to a network of more than 1,400 non-governmental organisations in 90 countries. The ICBL lobbied to create the Mine Ban Treaty, which was signed in Ottawa, Canada in 1997 and became binding under international law in 1999.

The treaty is the most comprehensive international instrument for ridding the world of the scourge of mines, and covers everything from mine use, production and trade, to victim assistance, mine clearance and stockpile destruction. It has also served as an effective global moral condemnation of anti-personnel landmines.

Two-thirds of the world's nations have joined the international agreement, but 40 countries have still not signed the Mine Ban Treaty, including the United States.

"The U.S. is playing on the bargain of putting a lot of money in demining activities instead of signing the treaty, which provides a cover for other nations to not sign," Stedjan told IPS.

While 80 percent of the U.S. public believes that the U.S. government should support the treaty banning landmines, according to a 2004 poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, "I do not see that happening as long as the George W. Bush administration is in power," said Stedjan. "The world is becoming safer -- yet not mine-free."

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency

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