IPS reports on the ongoing scourge of landmines being used by various countries - and how the funds available to eradicate them is falling:
"Ten years after an international ban on the use of landmines was agreed, the weapons still claimed thousands of lives during 2007, a new report has calculated.
Even though only two countries -- Burma and Russia -- continue to use landmines, deaths and injuries are still being caused by those set during a large number of conflicts around the world, and that have never been deactivated.
According to the annual Landmine Monitor report, landmines and other 'explosive remnants of war' such as grenades, mortars and cluster bombs killed 5,426 people last year.
Stan Brabant, a spokesman for Handicap International, which launched the report in Brussels Nov. 21, described this finding as "very scary". The true number of lives lost is likely to be considerably higher.
Nonetheless, he noted that steady progress has been made in reducing casualties caused by landmines since an international mine ban treaty was agreed in 1997. During the 1990s mines and related weapons caused about 26,000 deaths per year.
Under the treaty, which has been ratified by 156 nations, governments have 10 years to clear landmines on their territory. Britain is among a coterie of states to be "at risk of violating the treaty," said Brabant, because it has made little progress in clearing mines in the Falkland Islands, a territory in the South Atlantic over which former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's government went to war with Argentina in 1982.
One of the most positive effects of the treaty is that it appears to have 'stigmatised' landmines to the point that it has even deterred many of those countries which have refused to sign it to destroy at least part of their stockpiles. Some 42 million landmines were destroyed last year. And while Russia has used landmines in the recent conflict in Chechnya, it destroyed about a million of these weapons.
The report also notes that international aid for dealing with the consequences of landmines totalled 431 million dollars in 2007, a drop of 45 million dollars from the previous year. The European Union, which is the largest donor, contributed 200 million dollars, a 25 percent decrease from 2006."
"Ten years after an international ban on the use of landmines was agreed, the weapons still claimed thousands of lives during 2007, a new report has calculated.
Even though only two countries -- Burma and Russia -- continue to use landmines, deaths and injuries are still being caused by those set during a large number of conflicts around the world, and that have never been deactivated.
According to the annual Landmine Monitor report, landmines and other 'explosive remnants of war' such as grenades, mortars and cluster bombs killed 5,426 people last year.
Stan Brabant, a spokesman for Handicap International, which launched the report in Brussels Nov. 21, described this finding as "very scary". The true number of lives lost is likely to be considerably higher.
Nonetheless, he noted that steady progress has been made in reducing casualties caused by landmines since an international mine ban treaty was agreed in 1997. During the 1990s mines and related weapons caused about 26,000 deaths per year.
Under the treaty, which has been ratified by 156 nations, governments have 10 years to clear landmines on their territory. Britain is among a coterie of states to be "at risk of violating the treaty," said Brabant, because it has made little progress in clearing mines in the Falkland Islands, a territory in the South Atlantic over which former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's government went to war with Argentina in 1982.
One of the most positive effects of the treaty is that it appears to have 'stigmatised' landmines to the point that it has even deterred many of those countries which have refused to sign it to destroy at least part of their stockpiles. Some 42 million landmines were destroyed last year. And while Russia has used landmines in the recent conflict in Chechnya, it destroyed about a million of these weapons.
The report also notes that international aid for dealing with the consequences of landmines totalled 431 million dollars in 2007, a drop of 45 million dollars from the previous year. The European Union, which is the largest donor, contributed 200 million dollars, a 25 percent decrease from 2006."
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