LANDMINES
Facts
• Landmines were first used during World War II to protect areas from enemy tanks.
• The German “Bouncing Betty” was often used during World War II and received its name because it would catapult out of the ground to waist height and explode when triggered.
• A person is killed or maimed by a mine explosion every 30 minutes.
• 20,000 civilians are injured or killed every year by landmines.
• An estimated 70,000,000 landmines are embedded in the ground in approximately 80 countries.
• Landmines are designed to inflict maximum pain, not just to kill the victim.
• Landmines cost approximately $1.00 to make but $1,000.00 to find and destroy.
• Mine death over the past decades now total in the hundreds of thousands.
• Children are the most vulnerable as their small size brings them closer to the source of the explosion.
• Children who are injured by landmines are a financial burden to poor families and sometimes are no longer perceived as being productive.
• In Cambodia, there are over 45,000 landmine survivors recorded between 1979 and 2005. Approximately 20,000 people were killed by landmines during this period, 75% of the total being civilians.
• Land in some of the poorest areas cannot be farmed because of contamination by landmines (silent killers).
• Mines do not recognise ceasefires; they keep killing long after peace is declared.
• Landmines injure or kill livestock and wild animals.
• Children typically tend to livestock that wander into remote areas where mines haven’t been cleared.
• Some landmines are colourful and resemble a toy more than a deadly weapon. <- appealing to kids as like toys
• Children’s natural curiosity makes them more vulnerable, especially when they explore in areas with landmines.
• Rain can wash landmines into fields that have already been cleared.
• Some of the countries most contaminated are Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chechnya, Colombia, Iraq, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
• At present, 38 nations have stopped production and global trade of landmines.
• 13 countries continue to produce and trade landmines: Burma, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, United States & Vietnam
Ref: International Campaign to Ban Landmines www.icbl.org