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Annan Reports Progress in Action to Combat Landmines NEW YORK, New York, October 6, 2004 (ENS) - Countries strewn with deadly landmines are becoming better at planning and implementing programs to reduce or eliminate them, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to the General Assembly. Landmines, the ultimate environmental hazard, kill or injure between 15,000 and 20,000 new victims yearly, compared to an average of 26,000 victims seven years ago. Nobody knows how many mines are still out in the environment, but estimates suggest that over 110 million landmines are still in place.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Photo courtesy UN)Tuesday Annan told the General Assembly the work of United Nations agencies has helped many mine affected countries to respond more effectively and quickly to the problem.The Mine Action Service, a part of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, is responsible for the overall coordination of United Nations action on mines and and explosive remnants of war. It coordinates the activities of 13 UN departments, programs, funds and agencies. In Afghanistan, for example, the UN Mine Action Service managed the center that runs the country's anti-mine program. Last year about 78 square kilometers of land were cleared, more than 22 square kilometers returned to local communities for their use and another 160 square kilometers were surveyed, Annan reported. Mine risk education reached nearly 800,000 of the Afghani people.
Deminers from the nongovernmental organization International Mine Initiative clear a minefield in Iraq. (Photo courtesy IMI)There is an improvement in the capacity to respond to emergencies, Annan said in his report, which covers the period from August 2003 to August 2004. The UN rapid response plan was tested in Iraq, reviewed through a formal evaluation, and a revision is in progress.The situation that unfolded in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad was unprecedented, said Jean-Marie Guéhenno, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations in his annual reportto the General Assembly. "Probably never before has so much explosive ordnance simply been abandoned at the end of a conflict," he said. UN officials were deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and established a mine action coordination team in Baghdad and an area mine action coordination team in Basrah to oversee, prioritize and assign tasks. Acting on a Security Council resolution, the two teams also began advising the National Mine Action Authority of Iraq. An emergency survey was conducted - a total of 2,499 Iraqi communities were surveyed and 739 dangerous areas were identified. The next step was clearance. A mine and unexploded ordnance clearance company in southern Iraq has destroyed than 500,000 items of unexploded or abandoned ordnance under contract to the Mine Action Service, Annan reported.
Anti-tank mines designed to detonate at pressure of about 350 pounds. (Photo courtesy U.S. Defense Department)Then the UN agencies worked to educate people about mines to prevent further injuries and deaths. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) funded two nongovernmental organizations to take the lead for mine risk education - the Mines Advisory Group in the south and Handicap International around Baghdad.At the same time, assessments of situations in mine affected countries Liberia, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda have been carried out, Annan reported. New capacity building programs were established in Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Jordan and the Sudan. National programs have benefited from a range of training opportunities and have strengthened field level planning and coordination, the report states.
This woman lost her hand to a land mine in Afghanistan. (Photo by Luke Powell courtesy UN )Annan says countries are now more willing to work collaboratively against landmines, consulting and sharing information not just with nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups but other nations as well.International mine action standards for mine risk education were approved and disseminated this year, Annan reports, and he said that countries are becoming more pro-active about educating their citizens to avoid these explosive devices. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) implements and supports mine risk education and mine accident prevention programs and provides advocacy and survivor assistance in 35 countries and territories. UNICEF assigned mine risk education officers to work in mine action centres in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sudan. In April and May UNICEF ran a project in eastern Chad that taught some 100,000 displaced people from Darfur about the risks. UNICEF is the only United Nations mine action entity working in Georgia, Guatemala, Mauritania, Nicaragua, the occupied Palestinian territories, Panama, Chechnya in the the Russian Federation, the Golan Heights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and Vietnam.
Sophisticated mine detection systems are in development. Phil Rodacy of the U.S. Sandia National Lab demonstrates a mock chemical-sensing detector on an antitank mine. (Photo by Randy Montoya courtesy Sandia)The UN Development Programme has helped many governments, including those of Iraq, Mozambique and Yemen, construct their national strategies, including details about mine clearance and survivor assistance, Annan reported.During the reporting period, UNDP raised more than $70 million for mine action, including more than $30 million through the Thematic Trust Fund for Crisis Prevention and Recovery. Increased financial resources were made available and initiatives were taken to encourage participation in mine action by international financial institutions, Annan reports. But funding for mine action projects still falls far short of the need. Between the launch of the 2004 consolidated appeals process in November 2003 and the mid-year review in June 2004, the secretary-general reports that only $12,708,230 was raised for mine action projects, out of total revised requirement of $40,256,180. The Mine Action Service continued development of the Electronic Mine Information Network (e-Mine) online at: http://www.mineaction.org. Among the estimated 800 new documents uploaded to e-Mine were texts of national mine action legislation, United Nations reports and resolutions, international agreements relating to landmines, and reports from national mine action programs.
Army Spc. Sean Hogan uses a mine detector to search for improvised explosive devices near Baqubah, Iraq, on September 24, 2004 (Photo by Spc. James B. Smith Jr. courtesy U.S. Army)Mines and unexploded ordnance are destructive to the environment as well as to human beings. Wherever they are deployed, mines outlast their military objectives. For decades, waterways, beaches, forests, mountains, deserts and fields remain covered with unmarked mine fields.The environmental impact of landmines can be devastating, as Abdhesh Gangwar, coordinator of the Centre for Environment Education, Himalaya, told a forum on the issue in April 2003 organized by the Indian Institute of Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection and Global Green Peace. "Anti-personnel landmines pose a serious threat to environment, livelihood and process of sustainable development, affecting not only present but also future generations," Gangwar said. "They prejudice economic development by disrupting the biosphere's life support systems and diminishing the capacity of the environment to supply the raw materials and natural resources." "Mines deny access to natural resources, promote the rapid and unsustainable exploitation of marginal and ecologically fragile environments, deplete biological diversity by destroying flora and fauna, contaminate the surrounding soil and water with highly toxic substances, and destroy the ecosystem itself by disrupting soil and water processes," Gangwar told forum delegates. The Summit for a Mine-Free World, the first review conference of Parties to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, will convene in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 20 to December 3. The Convention, known as the Ottawa Convention, has been ratified by 143 countries. A total of 42 countries remain outside the Mine Ban Treaty, including the United States. View the secretary-general's report by clicking here. The Mine Action Service annual report is found here. |
