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6th anniversary of the Ottawa Convention: Ridding the world of landmines, one backyard at a time

(Thursday 19 February 2004 ) Op-ed by Angelina Jolie 3 December 2003 (Bangkok Post)

This year I cleared a bunch of anti-personnel landmines from my backyard. I hired a small team of deminers to detect and remove them. They found and destroyed 48 landmines. It is my home in Cambodia, one of the most mine-devastated spots on earth.

Before I travelled to Cambodia to film Tomb Raider, I hadn't seen what anti-personnel mines could do.

I hadn't yet seen the old man of the village being led around by his grandson: a mine that he set off while working his field blinded him. I hadn't heard the grief of a mother whose child was blown apart by the weapon: her daughter was on her way to the river, to swim with friends. Before that trip I had not learnt about keeping to the footpath and about watching your every step.

Before seeing this with my own eyes, I could not have imagined the enormous impact of these weapons. Neither could I have guessed what a difficult job it is to clear anti-personnel mines once they are laid.

Demining, I learnt, is dangerous and painstaking. It is usually done manually by a group of deminers who comb the land for mines, working inch by inch and metre by metre. A deminer can't afford to make mistakes, there is no such thing as a retake in their business.

These are some of the reasons why I became a staunch supporter of the campaign to rid the world of anti-personnel mines.

Unfortunately, most Cambodians have mines in their backyard too. But unlike me they cannot hire a demining unit to clear their land or wait for this to take place before using the land. That's because mines tend to affect the poorest and the most isolated communities, in turn worsening their problems of poverty and isolation.

Sadly, this desperate situation is not unique to Cambodia. It is the same story elsewhere in Asia, and beyond. Today, 82 countries in the world are affected to some extent by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). Many of these are in Asia. In this region, you'll find some of the most severely contaminated places on earth, such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

In Cambodia, there were 834 new mine and UXO casualties reported last year, though the real figure is probably at least double that. Worldwide, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people lose life and limbs to anti-personnel mines each year. It is mostly ordinary people that become landmine victims. In 2002, only 15% of the reported casualties were military personnel; 25% were children.

Asia is also home to many current users of anti-personnel mines. In the last year and a half, five countries in Asia have used the weapon: Nepal, India, Pakistan, Burma and the Philippines. There is also the problem of ongoing mine production. Asia tops the list here, with more producers than any other region. Nine of the 15 current producers are Asian: China, India, Burma, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam.

Despite this gloomy picture, there are some positive developments. I am pleased that much is being done to tackle landmines in Cambodia and in other countries. The mine clearance there, and in many Asian countries, is helping to turn minefields back into productive land and prevent more casualties. The trade in anti-personnel mines is all but wiped out. Also, stockpiled mines are being destroyed. Both Thailand and Japan, for example, no longer hold stockpiles of anti-personnel mines.

It is also heartening that the treaty that prohibits anti-personnel mines is gaining ground. The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, now has 141 member states and another nine signatories.

The governments that are party to this treaty should be urging others to do the right thing. Those that still use landmines, both government and armed opposition groups, need to be convinced to stop. Producers and stockpilers of anti-personnel mines should be dissuaded from this practice. Assistance to mine victims needs to be bolstered, as does mine clearance.

In sum, there is a great deal of work still to be done at a political level and on the ground. There are many more backyards to be cleared.