Taking the bang out of land mines

(Monday 12 May 2003 ) Editorial from Bangkok Post.

The explosion which shattered the Lop Buri calm on Thursday of last week signified that Thailand had met its most important obligation under the Ottawa Mine Ban Convention and destroyed its remaining stockpile of anti-personnel land mines before the May Day final deadline. This paves the way for Bangkok to host a meeting of representatives of the 146 other signatories in September. Also attending will be observer states, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, representatives of the non-governmental sector and civilian survivors of these dreadful weapons, all of whom have heartrending tales to tell.

One organisation which can take particular pride in heightening public awareness of this issue is the Thai Campaign to Ban Landmines, which helped organise a bicycle rally to Lop Buri to observe and publicly praise the destruction of the lethal stockpile. Thirty-five survivors of mines, representing the areas in eastern Thailand worst-affected, took part in the rally and were joined by military veterans.

Yet much remains to be done before we can declare our part of the world to be mine-free. Mines are estimated to claim at least one victim in the Asean region every two hours and victims often die before reaching hospital. If they survive, the high medical costs involved in rehabilitation can bankrupt the family. There can be no justification in this supposedly civilised day and age for such terrible weapons of war which claim so many innocent civilian lives in peace-time. Over the past 60 years, anti-personnel mines have caused more deaths and injuries than nuclear, biological and chemical weapons combined.

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that at least 800 people are killed by mines every month worldwide and another 1,200 are maimed - a total of 2,000 victims a month and close to 25,000 a year. A frightening number of these are children.

Land mines can be cleared, but only laboriously and at enormous expense. Getting rid of those plaguing us is the unenviable task of the Thailand Mine Action Centre, which is dedicated but so under-funded that it is heavily dependent on aid from Norway and the United States.

Most land mines found in the Asean region were manufactured in the United States, China and the former Soviet Union. Of the three, only the US has donated significantly to land mine eradication in the region. Funds also have to be made available for mine clearance assistance for Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Burma receives nothing because it continues to use mines and, according to NGOs, even produces some, cloaking its shame in the guise of national security.

Each mine costs only a few dollars to produce, but may cost more than $1,000 to clear, and Southeast Asia is littered with anti-personnel mines and other unexploded ordnance, particularly in the form of "bomblets". The armed conflicts that have taken place over the years have infested the region with these barbaric weapons.

Some areas have been particularly plagued. These include Thailand's borders with Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia and Laos, the border region dividing Vietnam and China, and in parts of the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia and Vietnam. Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq are also problem areas. One Iraqi woman, asked by a BBC reporter recently about how it felt to be liberated, pointed to a cluster of unexploded bomblets hanging from a fruit tree in her garden - the legacy of an air raid. "Where can my children play?" she asked plaintively.

This menace has yet to be eradicated but the destruction of our stockpile demonstrated that we are on the right track.