Yesterday
two US soldiers joined about 20 other people killed daily by land mines. The soldiers were in Iraq where years of war and conflict have left the land strewn with mines. 80 percent of those killed by landmines are civilians and 60 percent of mines are laid by armed non-state actors. Landmines are a threat that will require global coordination to eradicate.
I am writing at the request of my 9 year old son. This week he has been learning about land mines in school. [Do they do this in America?] He has made a poster to increase awareness and has asked me to share it with you.
Over 500,000 landmines were cleared worldwide last year. While this is good progress, nations that do not subscribe to the
1997 Mine Ban Treaty continue to supply landmines to both state and non-state actors and so contribute to future carnage. 154 countries have signed the treaty, committing them to elimination of landmines by 2009. Among the 40 nations who have not signed, the largest holdouts are unsurprisingly the leading international arms dealers: the United States, Russia and China.
I urge you to see the first movie filmed in post-invasion Iraq, Turtles Can Fly. Turtles Can Fly is set in a Kurdish refugee camp among the orphan children who eke out a meagre survival by clearing landmines from the fields of farmers near the Turkish border. It is an uplifting and lyrical movie, despite its somber themes. The children in the movie were not actors, but real refugees living in the camp where the movie was filmed - missing real arms, real legs, real eyes. Their beauty and grace despite the harshness of their young lives give a wonderful depth to the characters they play. It will change the way you think about the longer term echoes of armed conflicts and those who will suffer years after the last of our troops returns home.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition to promote the banning of landmines globally. It's biggest success is the Mine Ban Treaty, but it also monitors the harm caused by landmines and the progress made toward their eradication.
* In 2005 the Landmine Monitor identified at least 84 countries and eight areas contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO); 54 of the affected countries are States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty
* As of 2005, more than 200,000 square kilometers are suspected to be contaminated by landmines and UXO.
* Since May 2004 three governments have been confirmed to use antipersonnel landmines: Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, and Russia.
* The use of antipersonnel mines and mine-like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) have been reported in five States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty (Burundi, Colombia, Philippines, Turkey and Uganda) and in eight non-States Parties (Myanmar, Georgia, India, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Somalia and Russia).
* There are 13 countries that continue to produce antipersonnel landmines: Myanmar, China, Cuba, India, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam.
* Since the mid-1990s there has been a de facto ban on the transfer or export of antipersonnel mines. There have been no documented state-to-state transfers since then. It is believed that the trade of antipersonnel mines has dwindled to a very low level of illicit trafficking and unacknowledged trade.
* Prior to the Mine Ban Treaty, 131 states possessed stockpiles, estimated at over 260 million antipersonnel mines. The Landmine Monitor now estimates that 54 countries have stockpiles, totaling 180 million antipersonnel mines.
My children and yours are lucky to live in nations where they can play without the risk of a landmine taking their limbs or lives. Once we restore democracy and governance to the United States, let's try to restore its international image by agreeing the importance of banning weapons with disproportionate harm to innocent civilians years after conflicts end.