Landmines and Cluster Bombs: An Enduring Problem

1. Landmines and Cluster Bombs:An Enduring Problem

2. Brief History of Landmines • 14th century Chinese text, the Huolongjing, describes a mine made of bamboo, black powder, and lead pellets. It was placed underground. • Detonated by a flint device that directed sparks onto a series of fuses

3. Brief History of Landmines • In 1500s, fougasse mines were developed. • Buried explosives, covered with rocks or metal • Detonated by tripwires or by long fuses • High maintenance, and due to susceptibility of black powder to dampness.

4. Brief History of Landmines • First modern, mechanically detonated anti-personnel mines created by Confederate troops under Brigadier General Gabriel Raines • Raines had begun working with explosive booby traps in the Seminole Wars in Florida in 1849 • Used more reliable and reproducible mechanical detonation devices

5. Brief History of Landmines • Improved mines were designed in Imperial Germany around 1912 • Designs were copied and manufactured by all major participants in the First World War

6. Brief History of Landmines • Antipersonnel mines were first used on a large scale in WWII • Initially used to protect antitank mines, to stop them from being removed by enemy soldiers • Later antipersonnel mines used to slow or halt enemy movement, by being placed in great numbers

7. Design • Triggered by a variety of means (pressure, vibration, movement, magnetism) • Many have an additional touch or tilt trigger, to prevent enemy engineers from defusing it.

8. Design • Use as little metal as possible, to make location by metal detectors more difficult. • Mines made mostly from plastic are also very cheap to produce

9. Design • Wide variety of designs • Makes detection and disarming very difficult

10. Design • Claymores

11. Design • Claymores • Stake mines

12. Design • Claymores • Stake mines • Bounding fragmentation mines

13. Design • Often deliberately designed to maim, rather than kill • Stabilizing and evacuating an injured soldier hampers an actively fighting force • More resources are taking up by caring for an injured solder than dealing with a dead soldier • Cheap and easy to make, around $1 each (can cost more than $1000 to find and destroy)

14. Marking minefields • Ideally, minefields laid by armies should be well marked, to prevent friendly troops from entering • All mines locations should be recorded, since warning signs can be removed or destroyed, and so safe routes through the mine fields can be followed by friendly soldiers

15. Unreliable marking • In the “fog of war” protocols are not always accurately followed • New landmines designed to be scattered by helicopter, plane, by artillery, or ejected from cruise missiles, make precise recording impossible (US air deployed mines have a self-deactivating design, but reliability is uncertain)

16. Deliberately unmarked fields • Non-state armies (rebel groups, guerilla fighters) do not reliably uphold these conventions • Often, their goal is to spread fear and panic in the community, and deliberately terrorize civilians. So mined areas are deliberately not marked • Such tactics were regularly employed in the Southern African conflicts throughout the ’70s and 80’s: Angola, Mozambique, Nambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, are still plagued with landmines as a result.

17. Landmines are indiscriminate • The vast majority of victims are civilians, not soldiers. • According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2003, only 15% of reported casualties were military personnel

18. Mines remain after conflict ends • Most of the countries where casualties are reported are at peace • In 2002-2003, 41 of the 65 countries that reported new mine casualties were not experiencing any armed conflict • Landmines placed during WWI sometimes still cause deaths in parts of Europe and North Africa

19. Long term costs to survivors • Permanent disability is almost certain • A growing child needs a prosthetic limb frequently refitted each year, and few can afford this • Many face social exclusion, such as being seen as unfit to marry • Some children never return to school after their accident

20. Long term costs to survivors • A death might cost a family their primary breadwinner • For survivors, vocational training and support is often unavailable • Many struggle to make a living after their accident, and become a burden on their families • Victims often end up begging on the streets

21. Mines hamper recovery after conflict ends • People in some of the poorest countries are deprived of their productive land and infrastructure • Farm lands, orchards, irrigation canals, and wells may no longer be accessible • Mines cut off access to economically important areas, such as roads, dams, and electricity towers

22. Mines hamper recovery after conflict ends • Landmines slow repatriation of refugees after a conflict ceases, or prevent it altogether • They hamper the delivery of relief services, and injure or kill aid workers

23. Widespread problem • More than 75 countries are affected by undetonated mines • Some of the most contaminated places: • Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chechnya, Colombia, Iraq, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, and Pakistan

24. Widespread problem • Nobody knows how many mines are still in the ground worldwide • The actual number is less important than their impact: It can only take a few mines, or just the suspicion of their presence, to make an area unusable

25. Treaties • Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons • AKA “Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects” • AKA “The CCW” • Was an amendment to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 • Concluded in Geneva on October 1980, went in to force in December 1983 • Amended again in 1996

26. CCW • Consisted of 5 protocols • Protocol II concerns “Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps, and Other Devices” • Prohibits the use of non-self-destructing or non-self-deactivating mines outside fenced, monitored, and marked areas

27. CCW • Unfortunately, CCW lacked specific mechanisms to ensure verification and enforcement of compliance, and had no formal process for resolving disputes about compliance. • The US only signed 2 of the 5 protocols, the minimum required to be considered a signatory

28. Continue Toll • NGOs continued to see toll mines took in the various communities they had been working in, in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America • They knew only a complete ban would adequately address the problem

29. The ICBL • The International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL) was launched in 1992 • Formed from 6 NGOs (Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation) • Lobbied governments and rallied public support for a complete ban

30. Celebrity Support • The late Princess Diana focused attention on the problem of landmines, and the need for a ban • Visited Angola and Bosnia with mine clearing organizations, and focused the media spotlight on the victims • Her work brought increased public support and pressure on governments to sign the treaty

31. The Mine Ban Treaty • “The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction” • AKA “The Mine Ban Treaty” • Signed by 122 governments in Ottawa, Canada in December 1997

32. The Requirements • Signatories must stop production and deployment of anti-personnel mines • They must destroy all anti-personnel mines in its possession within 4 years (A small number of mines may remain for purposes of training mine detection and clearance) • Within 10 years, the country should have cleared all of its mined areas • Mine affected countries are eligible for international assistance for mine clearance and victim assistance once they sign the Mine Ban Treaty

33. Signatories to the Treaty • As of August 2007, 155 State Parties had signed • Only 40 states remain outside the treaty • Notable exclusions: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and United States

34. US Refusal to Sign • The US refuses to sign the treaty because it does not offer a “Korean exception” • Argues landmines are crucial to its strategy in South Korea • One million mines along the DMZ between North and South Korea • Believes it maintains a delicate peace by deterring a North Korean attack

35. US Contribution to the Problem • U.S. used antipersonnel mines in Vietnam, Korea, and first Gulf War • From 1969-1992, U.S. exported over 5 million antipersonnel mines to over 30 countries • Those include Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam • U.S. made mines have been found in at least 28 of these mine affected countries or regions

36. Worldwide Recognition • The coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams, won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her work

37. Current Status • Landmines continue to pose a threat to citizens • The most landmine affected countries are Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia • The middle east has been called the “landmine heartland,” with tens of millions of buried landmines

38. Current Status • Every 28 minutes, someone steps on a landmine • Landmines are estimated to kill or injure approximately 18,000 people every year

39. Continued Mine Use • Only 2 states continue to deploy new mines • Myanmar’s military forces continue to use antipersonnel mines extensively • Russia continues to use mines, primarily in Chechnya, but also in Dagestan and on the borders of Tajikistan and Georgia

40. Continued Mine Use • Israel may have laid antipersonnel mines in the 2006 conflict with South Lebanon • Russian peacekeepers claim Georgian military forces laid new landmines, despite its moratorium on landmine use

41. Cessation of Use • Nepal, with its cease-fire in 2006 • Angola, since the April 2002 peace agreement • Sri Lanka, since the cease-fire in 2001 • Rebel use has stopped in Angola, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Senegal, and Uganda

42. The Bad News • 13 countries still produce or retain the right to produce antipersonnel mines • Forty countries outside the Mine Ban Treaty together possess 160 million antipersonnel mines

43. New Production • The ICBL identified the following countries as manufacturing landmines as of August 2004: • Singapore • Vietnam • Burma • Nepal • India • Pakistan • Russia • Cuba • Iran • North Korea • United States

44. US Production • US has failed to adopt sign the Mine Ban Treaty, or adopt an official moratorium • Since US stockpiles are at capacity, there had not been any US based production of antipersonnel mines since 1997

45. Bush Administration Policy • February 2004, President Bush announced his landmine policy • No intention of joining the Mine Ban Treaty • Continued development and production of antipersonnel mines (although self-destructing/deactivating)

46. Companies Producing Mines • In the US, no company produces mines from beginning to end • Companies only produce component parts, which are assembled in government-owned, contractor operated army ammunition plants

47. Seventeen US companies, formerly involved in producing antipersonnel mines, declined to renounce future production: AAI Corp Allen-Bradley Alliant Techsystems, Inc. Accudyne Corp Ferrulmatic, Inc. CAPCO, Inc. Dale Electronics, Inc. Ensign-Bickford Industries, Inc. General Electric Lockheed Martin Corp. Mohawk Electrical Systems, Inc. Nomura Enterprise, Inc. Parlex Corp. Quantic Industries, Inc. Raytheon Thiokol Corp. Vishay Sprague Companies Producing Mines

48. New US Production • In July 2006, Pentagon announced it had awarded contracts to two companies or the development of a new landmine system (Alliant Techsystems, and Textron Systems) • Called “the Spider” • Deploys triplines, that can be activated remotely by a monitoring soldier • May also be activated by the victim (as in a conventional mine)

49. New US Production • Congress stalled the production by requiring the Pentagon to first study the possible indiscriminate consequences of deploying this weapon. • The issue is only delayed until the study is submitted to Congress

50. Removing Mines • Even after production is halted, mines must be removed from the ground