A good friend of mine, a medical doctor, once told me she has learned over the years that the essential problem is not to heal the ill but to change what human beings do to one another. Recently, through a book dealing with the deadly legacy of landmines, I have discovered once again how right she was.
Considering that an estimated 100 million unexploded mines are scattered over the face of the earth, that several hundred civilians are killed or maimed by these mines worldwide each month, and that it is virtually impossible that they all will be dismantled during our lifetime, one can easily understand that landmines are a genuine catastrophe confronting humanity.
The book, published by Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, points out that mines are a delayed-action weapon. "Unlike a bomb or artillery shell which explodes when it approaches or hits its target," states Eric Stover, director of Physicians for Human Rights, "a landmine lies dormant until a person, vehicle or animal triggers its firing mechanism. Landmines . . . cannot distinguish between the footfall of a soldier and that of an old woman gathering firewood. They recognize no cease-fire, and long after the fighting has stopped, they can maim or kill the children and grandchildren of the soldiers who laid them." In Poland, for instance, as recently as 1977, 35 people were killed and probably hundreds maimed from landmines seeded during World War II more than 30 years earlier.
As an indiscriminate weapon, the use of landmines is in clear violation of international law, specifically of the United Nations Weapon Convention. Yet international law does not regulate the production, stockpiling, transfer or export of mines. Nor has it impeded the use of these weapons.
The horror of living in a land infested by mines is akin to the terror of the black plague of the Middle Ages. In both instances, anyone living within an infested area is in danger of death. But let's not be deluded by this similarity; unlike plague, landmines are not a natural disease. They're man-made, fashioned to fulfill dual military strategic aims. On the one hand, they are a way of directly combating the enemy's armed forces. On the other, they strike at the opponent indirectly by spreading terror among civilians. Yes, terror -- of a sort that does not always fade as the years go by.
At least 62 countries are infested with landmines, notably Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Iraq, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Northern Somalia, Vietnam and former Yugoslavia. In June 1994, Eric Stover took part in a mission to assess the medical consequences of landmines in Cambodia. "Approximately one in every 236 Cambodians has lost one or more limbs from landmine injuries," he reported. International humanitarian organizations place the number of mine amputees in Cambodia at 36,000.
While the purpose of landmines is to maim rather than kill, doctors estimate that half of those injured by mines die in the field from loss of blood and lack of transportation to medical facilities.
Equally devastating is the fact that large regions of land have become inaccessible due to unexploded mines. During World War II, 87 percent of Libya's rangelands were rendered unusable; 35 years later, only 67 percent of this land could have been called safe. In Afghanistan, the United Nations has 31 de-mining teams working fulltime to dismantle the millions of mines scattered by the Soviet military during its invasion and occupation of that country. The United Nations estimates it will take 15 years to clear the priority zones.
Landmines were used by both sides in the Gulf War. The Iraqis, who had been scattering hundreds of thousands of mines in Kurdistan and along the Iranian border, implemented the same policy when they invaded Kuwait. The military coalition headed by the United States countered with "scatterable mines," developed in the 1960s for the Vietnam War.
Scattering mines from a plane, helicopter or armed vehicle fits the overall strategy of remote-control warfare, and it has become common practice. Many companies are developing sophisticated delivery systems that will ease the seeding of mines from the air. The Italian Fiat group, for instance, produces a system that dispenses up to 1,750 mines per minute. In just six minutes, this system can dispense enough mines to keep de-mining teams busy for approximately a year at a cost of $10 million.
Most of the mines scattered from planes are plastic, so it's almost impossible to detect them. Once they are detected, moreover, plastic mines are exceptionally dangerous to deactivate.
Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Watch estimate the annual worldwide production of landmines at five to 10 million. An average mine costs between $10 to $20, while the cost of removing it ranges from $300 to $1,000. It thus is virtually inconceivable that total clearance can take place unless the international community takes harsh measures restricting the production, sale and use of mines.
While the United States is not the largest exporter of landmines, it still managed to sell over 7.5 million of them to 38 countries between 1969 and 1992. Thirty seven models of mines are produced in this country, but the Claymore has been the best-selling anti-personal mine. The Claymore is probably the only mine still made in this country that lacks a self-destructive mechanism. It can last more than 20 years in any climate, and when it explodes it can kill up to a distance of 50 meters and wound at twice that distance.
In spite of all this, there has been some success in the struggle against the use of landmines. Senator Patrick Leahy, the former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, at the end of 1989 inserted in the U.S. foreign aid budget funds to provide artificial limbs and other assistance to civilian victims of landmines. In 1992, a broad coalition coordinated by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation began a worldwide campaign to ban landmines.
Congressman Lane Evans and Senator Leahy introduced two parallel bills that require a one-year moratorium on the sale, transfer and export of U.S.-made antipersonnel mines. In 1993, Leahy spearheaded an effort to extend this moratorium for three more years, and together with Senator Edward Kennedy sponsored another amendment that authorizes $10 million for humanitarian mine clearing.
The Landmine Moratorium Act, also known as the Leahy-Evans Amendment, was the first legislation of its kind in the world. Thirteen other nations have recently followed suit after pressure from the coalition against landmines.
Nevertheless, the fundamental challenge -- to arrest what humans are capable of doing to one another -- still stands. The fact that landmines are in violation of international law does not seem to hinder their production, sale or use. In September 1994, President Clinton announced that he would promote a policy that effectively exempts "short lived" landmines from the existing ban. But that policy ignores the fundamental problem: Whether mines are active for a day, a month or 10 years does not matter; they still are indiscriminate weapons that kill and injure civilians. Furthermore, experts believe that the control policy envisioned by Clinton could actually increase the production, use and sale of landmines.
In order to clean the earth of mines, much more needs to be done. On the national level, we need to press our representatives to work toward a total ban on landmines. The Senate should add substantial funding for humanitarian de-mining.
On the international level, the United States should end trade with nations that export landmines, and we should not provide foreign aid to such countries. Only a worldwide ban on landmines accompanied by decades of de-mining will stop this plague we have created.