FRAGMENTED LEGS

Stop landmines

2009-10-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

Stop landmines

Stop landmines

Stop landmines

Landmines in Egypt

2009-10-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Landmines

Landmines in Egypt

Egypt

16مليون لغم أرضى في مصر

2009-10-29T01:49:00.000-07:00

16مليون لغم أرضى في مصر

Israel Using Cluster Munitions in Gaza

2009-01-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

Is Israel Using Cluster Munitions in Gaza?

Israel has used cluster munitions in its ongoing campaign in Gaza said John Holmes, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today, a claim also reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the Turkish Today’s Zamen.

Given the high population density of the Gaza strip, sources say there is a dangerous risk of high numbers of civilian casualties, since cluster munitions scatter over a wide area and leave behind deadly unexploded ‘duds’ that act as de facto landmines.

Israel’s extensive use of cluster munitions during its Lebanon invasion in 2006 was widely condemned for the resultant civilian casualties and galvanized the nascent campaign to ban cluster bombs. Click here to read a Landmine Action report on the impact of cluster munitions in Lebanon. For a similar report from Human Rights Watch, click here. For a particularly good short documentary film on the impact of Israel’s use of cluster bombs in Lebanon, click here.

Israel was not among the some 100 countries that signed the Cluster Munitions Treaty in December, that outlawed the transfer, production and stockpiling of such weapons and called on states to help mitigate the impact of ongoing contamination.

For more information on cluster munitions, see the previous posts on Political Minefields, or click here to view a short informational web video.

UPDATE 7 January 2009: Sources with a presence in Gaza are currently telling me that the claim that Israel is using cluster munitions may be incorrect, and may be a misinterpretation of pictures showing air burst weapons used to create smoke clouds to reduce visability. If any readers have any more information on this issue, please post a comment. Thanks - PM.

source

Political Minefields

الألغام فى صحراء الإسماعيلية تهدد الأرواح والتنمية

2009-01-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

اليوم السابع

المحافظ بدأ بمساحة 16 فدانا شرق القناة وجارى مسح باقى المناطق

الألغام فى صحراء الإسماعيلية تهدد الأرواح والتنمية

مازالت مخلفات الحرب تهدد التنمية

الإسماعيلية - محمد فوزى

مازالت قضية اتساع المساحة الصحراوية بمحافظة الإسماعيلية تثير القلق، لاسيما داخل مدينتى القنطرة شرق وفايد، مع الأخذ فى الاعتبار أن المدينتين على خط المواجهة وشهدتا الكثير من المعارك على أرضهما، سواء خلال حرب يونيو 1967 أو حرب أكتوبر 1973، حيث مازالت تلك المناطق تضم ألغاماً مدفونة من مخلفات الحروب.

ذكرى الحرب الأليمة فى القنطرة وفايد
فمدينة القنطرة شرق التى تضم مساحات صحراوية كبيرة شهدت أكثر من حادث انفجار لغم أو شظية راح ضحيتها العشرات من أبناء المدينة من رجال ونساء وأطفال على مدار السنوات الأخيرة منذ عودة المهجرين، وقد شهدت المدينة خلال الثلاث سنوات الأخيرة ما لا يقل عن عشر حوادث انفجار ألغام فى أجساد أبناء المدينة.

أما مدينة فايد فقد فجر الحادث الأخير بقرية عبد الناصر بفايد، والذى راح ضحيته ثلاثة طلاب بالمرحلة الإعدادية قضية مسح وتطهير المناطق الصحراوية بالمدينة، خاصة المناطق السكنية، لاسيما وأن المنطقة التى وقع فيها الحادث مخططة لإقامة مجمع سكنى ومدرسة للتربية الفكرية على مساحة سبعة عشر فدانا منها، تم بالفعل تخصيصها للوحدة المحلية بفايد.

خطر يهدد البناء والاستثمار
محمد أبو العنين عضو مجلس محلى محافظة الإسماعيلية عن مركز القنطرة شرق، أكد أن الألغام ومخلفات الحروب حصدت العشرات من أبناء القنطرة، حيث لا يمر عام إلا وتقع إكثر من حادثة انفجار لغم فى المواطنين لاسيما الأطفال، وللأسف فإن هذا الملف الشائك لم يقترب منه أحد طوال السنوات الماضية، ربما بسبب حساسية القضية، حيث إن أغلب تلك المناطق تقع فى حوزة جهات سيادية.

وأصاف أبو العنين أن محافظ الإسماعيلية الحالى اللواء عبد الجليل الفخرانى، تنبه لتلك المشكلة، حيث قامت المحافظة بالاشتراك مع القوات المسلحة بتطهير مساحة من الأرض شرق قناة السويس، لكن مطلوب تطهير باقى المناطق لاسيما وأن شرق قناة السويس تضم مشروعات مستقبلية إستراتيجية مثل مشروع الإسماعيلية الجديدة ونفق أسفل قناة السويس.

فيما يرى محمد غنام عضو مجلس محلى محافظة الإسماعيلية عن مركز فايد، أن حادث قرية عبد الناصر الذى راح ضحيته طلاب فى عمر الزهور، يعد جريمة ولابد إعادة النظر فى تخصيص الأرض لمشروعات مستقبلية سكنية وتعليمية دون أن يتم تطهيرها والتأكد من خلوها من الألغام، خاصة وأنها كانت مناطق عسكرية ومازالت آثار الحرب عالقة بها.

جهود بطيئة بدعم المحافظة
اللواء عبد الجليل الفخرانى محافظ الإسماعيلية، أكد أن قضية الألغام الموجودة بشرق قناة السويس من القضايا التى تستحوذ على اهتمام المحافظة، وقال قمنا بالتنسيق مع القوات المسلحة واستطعنا تطهير حوالى 16 فدانا بشرق قناة السويس خلف مشروع وادى التكنولوجيا بتكلفة 200 ألف جنيه تحملتها المحافظة وجارى تطهير مناطق أخرى بالاشتراك مع القوات المسلحة، أما بخصوص الحادث الأخير بمدينة فايد فجارى الاتصال حاليا والتنسيق مع القوات المسلحة لمسح وتطهير منطقة قرية عبد الناصر، خاصة وأنها تضم مساحة عليها مشروعات قد نضطر لتجميد تنفيذها لحين الانتهاء من تطهير المنطقة.

Active landmines thread on desert

2008-08-29T00:50:00.000-07:00

This is an extract from Sahara Overland II

Link below September 2007
Active landmines thread on desert-info.ch with maps (mostly in German)

Landmines

It's well known that certain areas of the Sahara are scattered with minefields, some dating back to WWII, but most laid during more recent conflicts. Anti-personnel mines will blow off your legs and possibly kill you if you step on one, but if you drive over such a mine, you could get away with just a ruined tyre. Larger anti-tank mines will destroy both you and your vehicle. In In Search of the Sahara Quentin Crewe described driving his Unimog over a mine near Nouadhibou in the 1970s. The heavy vehicle was destroyed but saved the occupants from injury. Most years a Saharan party sets off a mine somewhere, all known cases being in the areas listed below.

The best way to avoid setting off a mine is to avoid known minefields altogether. However, if you can't or don't want to do that, hire a relibale local guide to steer you through the danger zone. If you decide to go it alone using someone else's GPS waypoints through a minefield, be aware that the slightest deviation could result in a fatal accident. Follow any existing tracks and be wary of any unnatural barriers across a piste.

Known mined areas in the Sahara

Apart from the Atlantic Route (p.464), Route L6 and routes in Egypt's Western Desert, all the pistes in this book avoid mined areas so you should have little to worry about. Nevertheless, it's prudent to list the known locations of Saharan minefields, though this list should not be taken as a guarantee that mines do not exist elsewhere.

Starting from the far west, the horizontal border between Western Sahara and Mauritania is mined. Even though by now everyone knows the risks of leaving the piste when crossing the border and a new sealed road is complete, deadly accidents still happen as late as Feb 2007. There is no danger if you directly follow the couple of kilometres of stony track from leaving the tarmac at the Moroccan frontier to rejoining the tarmac at the Mauritanian frontier. Stay on the clearest direct tracks. The 2007 death occured way east of this route - no one knows why they are there but sadly they asked for it.

It's very likely that the entire Mauritanian border north with Morocco is left mined from a time when Polisario raiders got as far south as Chinguetti. There are certainly mines alongside the Layounne-Bir Mogrein road; a Paris-Dakar truck caught one here in the late nineties.

Still in Mauritania, areas east and south of Ouadane are also said to be mined although Route R8 to Guelb is safe. Again there are said to be mines north of Guelb near the El Beyyid well and rock paintings.

There are also mines between Algeria and Morocco in the Hamada du Draa and Guir region between Tindouf and Bechar, though no regular pistes cross this area. If they exist they are all well south of the Moroccan routes given in this book.

Mali is thought to be mine-free as is Algeria. In Niger Tubu rebels laid mines in the Djado region in 1997-8. They were cleared in 2001 after the rebels came to an agreement with the Niger government but in March 2003 three Italians tourists were killed when they hit an anti-tank mine north of Djado. After the accident the military post at Chirfa confirmed there were mines in the area on the route into Enneri Blaka where the former base of the FANS Tubu rebels was located until 2001. There are apparently three routes into the valley of Enneri Blaka, one is the regular route from the south via Seguidine, one from the north which cuts north east of Djaba and then goes south down the Enneri Domo, and a new one which cuts directly eastwards from Chirfa. It was this latter route which was reported to be mined.

Besides this, the far eastern reaches of the Seguedine-Zouar piste are mined around Col de Yei Lulu just before the Chad border, and also reports of wired-off mine fields further north.

Libya

Libya has plenty of mines from both WWII (mostly in the east) and along its southern border following the war with Chad and related to the current Tibesti rebellion. WWII still exist east of the line from Ajdabija (south of Benghazi) to Jalu as well as further south. A surveyor working in southeast of Libya reported that 'Many areas of country to east of Kufra-Benghazi road are mined' although the run from Al Jakbub close to the border across a passable 'neck' of the Calansho Sand Sea down to Kufra is becoming a popular off-piste excursion with no known reports of mines (see also 'Egypt' below). These mines have long been a sore point with Libya who've insisted Germany and Britain pay for their clearance and as a result of Libya's continuted rehabilitation, in March 2003 the Virgin Group announced a deal where they would sell an airship-based landmine clearance system using radar to Libya.

It's also been reported that in the broad plain leading from the tarmac road about 90km north of Sebha. southeast to the Sarir al Qattusah is mined (in 1989 a traveller was warned by a Libyan police patrol who followed).

In southern Libya between Serir Tibesti and the Rebiana Erg in the Dohone region, the Passe de Klingue on Route L6, KM409 has mines from several periods and wrecked vehicles to prove it. Mines located at this point damaged a truck in 1991, nearby in 2001 and again in 2003.

In August 2000 a Swiss party hit a mine on the way back from the well at Gongom on the western side of Dohone. The mine was located in the Oued Oyouroum (N22° 40' E18° 45'), which was not known to be mined.The travellers were returning along their own three-day-old tracks. Later they met an Chadian army patrol near Kilingue looking for Chadian rebels who probably laid the mines, thinking the new tracks belonged to rebels using the well. It seems the Chadian army has permission from Libya to venture into deep southern Libya to lay mines in theor operations against the Tubu rebels so it's simply best to avoid this part of Libya.

Chad

Chad, or to be precise the north as far south as Faya and up to and beyond the Libyan border is the most mined region in the Saharan, dating from the Libyan war of the 1980s and, as you've just read, still being mined today. Mines exist alongside tracks, some are well marked, others are not. In August 2002 the leader of the rebel MDJT movement himself was among the dead in a landmine incident. Near the Libyan border the mines at the Passe de Korizo are well-known with a well developed alternative piste. A truck hit a mine on the track south of the Pass on the Arkiafera Plain north of Wour. Mines also wrecked a Unimog at N22° 19' E17° 25' on the way to Aozou and other tracks in this region are well known to be mined, such as the track between Ouri and Aozi, east of the Dohone spur.

There are said to be mines around Ounianga Kebir and the piste northwest to Gouro as well as the piste between Faya and Fada through the Kora dunes (just above N18°). They block the line of least resistance which everyone would follow and you must know the places to avoid by crossing a 50m-high dune belt. South of Ounianga Kebir the ominously named Wadi Doum (N18° 22' E20° 23') - where the Libyans lost the 1980s war and now a Chadian military base - is littered abandoned military hardware, UXO and is heavily mined. Those minefields which are crossed by the clear piste are carefully fenced off with barbed wire. You may by quite safe staying on the piste but walking around to a look to the military equipment is dangerous.

In January 2003 in the first reported mine clearance operation in Chad, the head of the anti mine unit funded by a UN development programme announced that they had removed some five hundred mines from around Faya Largeau and the area was mine free up to 10kms from the town.

In this region as well as the western Ennedi it is wise to travel with an experienced guide. Even the sides of the well-used piste about 20km WNW of Fada are mined at a narrow passage. This list is far from exhaustive and sticking to previous tracks or travelling with a guide if coming down from Al Gatrun all the way to Faya (should it even be safe enough to do so) seems to be the only advice. Guides however are not a guarantee that you will avoid mines which, along with its other dangers, is why northern Chad is the least visited Saharan country.

Egypt

The Western Desert of Egypt saw fierce fighting in WWII and its northern part, between El Alamein and the Libyan border, as well as the Qattara depression, was heavily mined. All mines have been eliminated between the coastal road and the sea, but further inland any number may still remain. The Qattara Depression was never cleared, and both the German and the British armies mined the northern parts, below the cliffs, to prevent the other from getting behind their lines. Given this situation, all parts of the Depression away from travelled roads and tracks are best avoided.

Tensions between Egypt and Libya resulted in some of the border areas being mined. At Jebel Uweinat there is a marked minefield (with large anti-tank mines) blocking the west side of the entrance of Karkur Talh (N22° 02.7' E25° 07.9'), and also at the low pass where the track skirts the northern spur of the mountain and continues towards the Libyan border at N22° 04.5' E25° 02.8'. It's also reported that there are mines near tracks passing a series of hills at N22° 04' E25° 16', about 20km NE of Uweinat where two red tracks join on the 1942 Uweinat map.

There are unconfirmed reports of mines at the pass between Peter and Paul, and mines may be expected at any easily blockable route close to the border. In February 1999 German tourists ran over a mine in the southern Gilf Kebir at the western entrance of the Wadi Wassa (N23 00.2', E25 51.3'), and it may be expected that the western reaches of the Wadi el Firaq are also mined; a vehicle hit a mine here in 1983 around N22° 53' E25° 47', half a kilometre from some iron poles and near a yellow drum.

There have been reports of the Aqaba Pass at the central Gilf Kebir being mined, however this seems extremely unlikely as countless vehicles have gone through this narrow pass overr recent years. Old reports suggested that the western entrance of Wadi el Gubba in the northern Gilf Kebir was also mined, but this too is unlikely. A Dakar Rally passed through here in 2000 as have several travellers since, taking the track rounding the western Gilf and heading for the entrance to Silica Glass valley (see p.000).

The recent minefields placed by the Egyptian army are marked with posts and barbed wire, and small stone cairns. If you see any obviously man-placed object (piles of stones, big slabs, steel drum, etc.) directly across the track, this is likely to be a warning sign for mines.

SOURCE

http://www.sahara-overland.com/mines/index.htm

EGYPT GEOLOGY

2008-08-29T00:46:00.001-07:00

EGYPT GEOLOGY

Egypt

Stop !! its a landmine

2008-08-29T00:44:00.001-07:00

Stop !! its a landmine

When wars end,

2008-08-29T00:39:00.000-07:00

When wars end,
landmines and bombs remain.

clear path international

the most wanted by egyption

2008-08-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan teenage cluster bomb victim battling for ban

2008-07-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Afghan teenage cluster bomb victim battling for ban

By Robin Millard
Agence France Presse

Afghan teenager Soraj Ghulam Habib, whose legs were blown off by a cluster bomb, is campaigning hard for a ban on such lethal munitions that would spare other children from his tragic fate.

A 10-year-old boy when the unexploded bomblet left him close to death, Habib, now 17 and wheelchair-bound, is in Dublin to press officials from 109 countries who have gathered to thrash out a landmark ban on cluster bombs.

The conference, due to conclude on May 30, is aiming for a wide-ranging international pact that would completely eliminate the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions among signatories.

Habib’s childhood curiosity with a funny-looking object left him a whisker from death, yet another innocent civilian victim of deadly cluster bombs.

“One day, I went out with some of my cousins for a picnic in a public park,” the softly-spoken teenager, from Herat province in north-western Afghanistan, told AFP through a Dari-speaking interpreter.

“It was the beginning of New Year in Afghanistan and on the way home, on the sidewalk, I saw a yellow can. I picked it up and wanted to open it. When I threw it down, it exploded.”

The same colour as the emergency food parcels air-dropped by US planes, the yellow can was in fact a BLU-97, a sub-munition dropped in a cluster bomb during the US aerial bombing campaign to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

“It’s a dangerous weapon but it looks nice, it looks very interesting to a child,” he said.

Taken to hospital, the doctors wanted to give the 10-year-old a lethal injection, judging that his life was not worth living given the extent of his injuries.

“He said to my father, ‘it’s not good for his future life to be like this, let’s let him die,’” Habib said.

But the boy’s father disagreed and the youth was operated on. A week later, a small piece of sub-munition was found in his stomach, which had entered his body through his leg. Again, the medics operated.

After four months, he was allowed to return home, with daily visits from the doctors. Further operations followed.

The physical horror of his ordeal is visible, but the emotional and social damage is not.

Leaving hospital, the destruction of his childhood became clear.

“Cluster munitions injure but also do not lead us to be in society,” Habib said.

“I wanted to go outside and play with my friends, but they did not want to play with me. They said that now I was a wheelchair user, I was not able to do anything.”

Fighting his corner, his uncle pushed for him to be allowed in school.

“It was a social problem that nobody would play with me,” he said.

“I had a lot of dreams, to do for my friends, my family, my community and my country; it destroyed all my dreams and all my wishes.”

He is not the only one whose childhood has been wrecked by cluster bombs. Campaigners say they disproportionately affect civilians, with Handicap International estimating that 60 percent of civilian casualties are children.

“There are a lot of people affected by cluster munitions in Afghanistan, especially in Herat,” Habib said.

“In my rehabilitation centre, one of my classmates also lost both his legs.”

Habib is clear about the outcome he wants from the talks at Croke Park stadium in Dublin.

“I’m calling on all the states, especially those here, to stop it, join with us and let the children have peace and a life without cluster munitions.

“I hope from this conference that we come out with good results to save future lives,” he said.

“It’s the responsibility of those countries … save the lives of children and give them a brilliant future.”

Habib now works in Herat with the Kabul-based ALSO, the Afghan Landmine Survivors’ Organisation.

“I try to bring back the dreams I had before: to work hard and offer the help that I can to my people, my community and my country,” he said.

VOICE FOR VICTIMS

2008-07-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

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Civilian casualties are often forgotten, overshadowed in the news coming out of conflict zones by more sensational stories. CIVIC believes victims of war deserve a voice.

Telling their stories…
CIVIC makes sure media and public attention is paid to the civilians suffering every day. Just back from a trip to Nepal and Sri Lanka, we will soon tell the stories of war victims in those places and many others through video – helping to shine a spotlight on the commonality of how suffering civilians around the world experience war. Read Arifa's story.

When they’re harmed…
CIVIC fills gaps in support for civilians harmed in war zones, including for severely injured children and adults who cannot receive the care they need inside their home countries. Several years ago, Marla Ruzicka recognized this oversight in the humanitarian community and began to bring children to the United States for free treatment. CIVIC continues that work, coordinating care for the severely injured, maintaining about a dozen cases at any one time. Click here to read their stories.

Starting a youth revolution…
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Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance: A Resource Book

2008-07-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

Linked with the international campaign to outlaw landmines, this is the most comprehensive study of landmines in the post-conflict situation ever published. Written by one of the leading voices of the anti-landmining campaign, this book also ties in with a growing and widespread understanding of landmines and their destructive capacity, providing a wide range of data on all aspects of land mining and the motions for abolition.

http://books.google.com.eg/books?id=wi5jcrg_BfAC&dq=how+do+soldiers+define+mine+fields&source=gbs_summary_s&hl=en

« less

Minefield Areas in Egypt

2008-07-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

Photographs of Minefield Areas in Egypt

Western Desert Problems

Each region of Egypt has special technical problems. The principal technical problems in the Western Desert are:

Wind blown sand burying mines and fragments up to 2 metres deep in places, though mostly less than that.

High fragment density in many areas.

Age of mines - up to 60 years.

Unknown, or partially known location of minefields.

Many, large and sometimes unstable UXO's distributed across area, many UXO's considered to be more dangerous than the mines.

Drawing: Typical ground structure in Alamein area. Windblown sand surrounds small bushes in shallow soil over limestone bedrock. This shows typical demining problems in the Western Desert: mines lie close to bedrock, and UXO's lie in minefield area. Extensive frag from fighting, lying on what was the surface in 1941-1943, generates many false alarms. In places, the sand has drifted to depths of up to 2 metres.


Photo: eg24-19a: The back end of a large British bomb can be seen inside the hole. The bomb was dropped on a British position heading south. The bomb was discovered during routine mine clearance in the area. It is awaiting an EOD team to destroy it in place, and the evacuation of the adjacent bedouin camp.	Photo: eg24-18a: Close up of bomb in hole showing compacted sand with small limestone pebbles embedded in it.


Photo: eg24-27a: Minefield being cleared. Each red flag denotes the position of a mine, all AT mines in this instance. Each mine has been located and removed from its position and placed alongside each hole. This can be a dangerous procedure as some mines have mechanisms which, if badly corroded, can activate the mine with the slightest movement.	Photo: eg24-22a: Mk 4 AT mine removed from hole. The depth of sand above the mine was approximately 320mm here. Normal metal detectors should have no difficulty locating this kind of target.


Photo: eg24-21a: Close up of hole showing lower layers of compacted sand which can easily be rubbed away by fingers. The upper 10 cm of sand is loose. All this sand would blow away under appropriate conditions.	Photo: eg24-23a: Typical small bush. On the downwind side sand has built up in the bush. The prevailing winds are from the north west.


Photo: eg24-24a: British Mk 5 AT mine removed from its hole.	Photo: eg24-25a: Close up of Mk 5 AT mine showing advanced corrosion.


Photo: eg24-28a: Hole where a large fragment was found. This is one of very few such holes, indicating that there were few false alarms in searching for mines here.	Photo: eg24-29a: Metal spring (found by deminers). The white flag behind the red flag indicates the edge of the minefield boundary.


Photo: eg24-30a: New irrigation canal under construction through mined areas. The government wants to release land here for irrigated crops, using underground water. Note the blown sand indicating that sand is very mobile here under the right conditions.	Photo: eg24-31a: Col. Mahrous, Commanding Officer, Engineers Brigade responsible for demining Alamein area, echanging gifts with author.

Drawing: Map of area drawn from memory. Shapes are indicative only of minefield records which are partly misleading because of the limited accuracy of those records. UXO (and some mines) lie scattered across entire area

so the entire area has to be cleared.

you can have detailed information from

Photo Album - Pictures from the Western Desert Minefields

there you can find

Landmines in Egypt

Explosive Remnants of War in North Africa

2008-07-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

I have read about this in a copyright protected site

here

Journal Of Mine Action

really it is a rich content site

there are people who would like to help

I hope you find it interesting as i did

Hidden Menace of “Iron Soldiers”

2008-06-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Nearly four years ago, Ali Haq was playing near his home in the western Iranian province of Ilam when an explosion left him disabled for life.

Now 11, Ali Haq has to cope with life with one leg and one eye, and deal with the daily expressions of sympathy – and occasional mockery too – from his classmates, teachers and relatives.

Born long after the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, Ali Haq nevertheless counts as a victim of that devastating conflict.

His home in the village of Firuz Abad lies close to the border with Iraq and was in the zone of territory heavily strewn with landmines. Two decades on, millions of these deadly devices are still there – and it was one of them that injured Ali Haq.

He is just one of thousands of children injured by unexploded munitions left behind in the war zone. It is estimated that 10,000 people have died in mine blasts in the last 14 years alone.

Iranians call the unexploded mines “iron soldiers”, buried weapons waiting in the ground to kill or maim a curious child, a farmer or a careless passer-by.

There are an estimated 110 million landmines in 64 countries of the world, and according to the trauma research centre at the Sina Hospital in Tehran, Iran’s share is 16 million – a huge proportion of the total.

That puts Iran in second place, after Afghanistan, for the number of unexploded landmines. Egypt follows in third place.

Iran is also among the seven countries with the highest number of casualties of mine explosions, the others being Iraq, Cambodia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Columbia and Angola.

On a visit to mined areas of Iran in November 2004, the head of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, Stephen Nellan, said the volume of mines in the country was beyond compare.

According to the former secretary of the country’s National Demining Committee, General Hossein Vaziri, the Iranian government would need 300 billion tomans, or 324 million US dollar, to clear mined areas completely.

The main provinces affected are Khuzestan, Ilam, West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah, all in the frontline zone of the war with Iraq.

As Vaziri said, “The landmines have made two million hectares of land unusable and dangerous.”

The Mine Clearing Collaboration Association, an active non-government group, estimates that there are an average of 2.2 cases a day where individuals are left permanently disabled by landmines.

The current head of the official Demining Committee, Brigadier-General Murtaza Habibi, says that as a result of government measures, the latest figures indicated that this casualty rate had fallen to 1.5 a day.

As in other countries with large numbers of landmines in the soil, a substantial proportion of fatalities and injuries involve children who come across a mine while playing, or women who are out farming the land. Often the villages they live in are remote and poorly provided for, so casualties have to make a long journey to get to hospital and some die on the way.

A study conducted about six years ago by the University for the War Disabled, an average of 7,000 mines have exploded annually over the last 16 years. Ninety-five per cent of the casualties were civilians.

Demining in any country is a costly and time-consuming business. In Iran, though, international politics have added to the problems – not least because sanctions make it harder to bring in the right equipment.

“Not having access to the latest available technology for identifying and neutralising mines has created a host of difficulties for Iranian deminers,” said Shirin Ebadi, the noted human rights activist who set up and now runs the Mine Clearing Collaboration Association,

She noted also that demining is made more complex because even after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iran and Iraq have not yet exchanged maps of the minefields they laid during the war.

It should cost between 300 and 500 dollars to make a landmine safe. In Iran, however, this can rise as high as 1,000 dollars because of the obstacles to importing modern technology, the lack of maps, and the fact that landmines may have shifted position over the years.

The defence ministry currently has overall responsibility for mine-clearing, but has devolved some of the work to seven private companies.

Brig-Gen Habibi, who is in charge of the Demining Committee and is also deputy head of the ministry’s engineering department, says the international community has tended to ignore Iran.

“International organisations have not paid the required attention towards Iranian minefields, and do not do so now,” he said. “And this is despite the United Nation’s statement that Iran is far more hard-hit by landmines than its neighbour Afghanistan.”

Habibi conceded that the Iranian authorities used to view the landmine problem as a security issue, and this made it difficult for both domestic and international non-government groups to get involved.

Now, though, he said, “Our view has changed, and we are also waiting for a change of view from international and human rights organisations.”

He added that as part of new plans to reduce the number of mine casualties, monthly training and education programmes were being run in frontier areas, in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Iranian Red Crescent,.

The training is designed to familiarise people with the various types of landmines they might encounter, and their relative risks.

Mostafa Salimi, who worked in demining during the war with Iraq and is currently using these skills with a non-government group, explains that the classes teach children not to go near, let alone enter, areas where there are warning signposts.

It may be too late, but Ali Haq is among the children attending the classes, although he says he does not understand much.

The longest crime in history

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There are approximately 110 million landmines lying in wait for victims in 70 nations. This enormous number alone serves as a daily reminder of the hundreds of thousands of dead and the 125 million maimed by these deadly weapons.

To Egypt, World War II bequeathed some 17.5 million landmines in the area extending from Al-Alamein to Egypt's western border. The wars between Israel and Egypt have left some 5.5 million landmines in the Sinai and the Suez Canal zone. In other words, Egypt alone hosts 20 per cent of the total amount of landmines in the world.

It is perhaps the late Princess Diana who did the most to bring the tragedies caused by landmines into the limelight, thus popularising a much-neglected cause. In Egypt, where funds are lacking for the location and removal of mines planted by Germany, but mainly by the Allies, in the run-up to the Battle of Al-Alamein, it is the Bedouins of the Northern Coast who have suffered the most. Now, however, local efforts are beginning to bear some fruit. A recent conference on Minefield Eradication for Community and Environment, held under the sponsorship of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, could mark a significant first step.

In the opening address, Nadia Makram Ebeid, minister of state for environmental affairs, noted that the eradication of landmines is, in a sense, something of a minefield itself, demanding integrated, concerted efforts to address the political, military, legal, moral, environmental, technical, economic and developmental aspects of the problem. The Ministry of Environment, she said, is concerned with the eradication of landmines not only because it seeks to optimise land use (one of the mainstays of sustainable development), but, more importantly, because these mines continue to pose an ever-present threat to the lives of innocent civilians.

The international community has a major onus to bear in the eradication of this threat. In this regard, Ebeid urged international NGOs and associations to lobby their governments so that the necessary technology, expertise and financial assistance may be extended to those countries that are still paying the price of wars for which they were not responsible.

The governor of Alexandria emphasised the fact that the Egyptian people, who can hardly be blamed for the presence of landmines, continue to be the principal victims of these silent, deadly weapons. "It is up to those responsible for planting these mines to offer compensation to the victims and the governments of those countries in which these mines are located," he stressed. The issue of compensation and responsibility was raised at the recent disarmament conference in Geneva, he added. As one form of compensation to the people of the Governorate of Marsa Matruh, he proposed that the countries responsible for planting these "fields of death" undertake an agricultural reclamation project and create an international park in Al-Alamein as an enduring symbol of peace.

Almost every inhabitant of Al-Alamein knows someone who has been killed or maimed by a landmine, the deadly legacy of World War II. While the problem remains a "global humanitarian concern", little concrete assistance has been offered to countries like Egypt, for which the elimination of landmines would make all the difference

Soheila Nazmi of Al-Ahram's Alexandria bureau, the author of a documentary film on the tragedies landmines have inflicted upon Egypt and the Egyptian people, said: "We must promote this cause at the international level in order to obtain the rights of landmine victims." Various publications on the issue, a specialised Internet site as well as frank, in-depth televised interviews with political and media personalities from the countries responsible for planting the minefields were suggested as means of publicising the issue.

Nazmi reminded participants that, until September 1998, Germany had paid $75 billion in compensation to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, while Swiss banks have paid an additional $1,250 million in compensation to the victims of Nazism. Such compensation would not have been possible without the sustained efforts of Jewish groups taking full advantage of media opportunities.

Supporting the participants' appeal to international NGOs, Hamdi Alawani, professor of engineering at Alexandria University and president of the San Stefano Rotary Club, the main organiser of the conference, said the club's connection with other rotary clubs and various NGOs in Egypt and abroad could be put to good use. The problem of landmines, he noted, is a global humanitarian concern that should mobilise domestic and international resources. Landmines, he added, pose a major obstacle to comprehensive and sustained development in an area covering approximately 16,000 square kilometres.

"Although the Second World War ended in 1945, its aftermath persists in Egypt," said Omar El-Hadidi, of the Finnish Consulate, referring to "the most atrocious traditional weapon of warfare, whose threat to human and animal life has remained dangerously latent for decades after the official cessation of hostilities." In recent years, El-Hadidi said, the growing numbers of victims claimed by landmines have prompted the international community to react. Numerous conferences and seminars have been held worldwide with the aim of prohibiting the production and use of these weapons. In 1995, the Brussels Declaration called for the ban of landmines. This was followed, in 1996, by the UN General Assembly resolution of 2 February 1996 calling for international assistance in the eradication of minefields. In December 1997, another declaration banning landmines, issued in Oslo, was signed by all nations with the exception of a handful of major powers. According to the most credible statistics, landmines claim the lives of 70 innocent people a day, or one every 15 minutes. Most of these victims are children. Yet, El-Hadidi remarked, "even as yesterday's enemies gather as today's allies in October every year to commemorate those who fell at Al-Alamein, and to appeal for the protection of mankind from the horrors of war, they stand at the very edge of the minefields they planted during that war, and which continue to claim Egyptian lives every day." Alluding to President Mubarak's statement to the international disarmament conference in Geneva in February, when he said that the European nations should bear full responsibility for removing the mines they planted in Egypt and for repairing the damage caused by these mines since 1942, El-Hadidi added: "These countries have continued to ignore this problem for over half a century, making it the longest sustained crime in history."

Ayman Surour, executive director of the Centre for Combating Landmines, remarked on what he termed a "strange coincidence": of the three permanent members of the Security Council (the US, Russia and China) and the three nuclear nations (Israel, Pakistan and India) that refused to sign the Ottawa Declaration on the eradication of landmines, four of these (US, Russia, China and Israel) also opposed the establishment of an International Court of Justice responsible for implementing the provisions of the Ottawa Declaration, which would have obliged the parties that planted the mines to remove them or offer financial and technical assistance.

One participant likened the presence of landmines in Egypt to the dumping of poisonous waste in countries like Thailand, Benin, Guinea, Nigeria and Venezuela. The same moral and legal standards that apply in these cases should also apply in the case of minefields in Egypt, he said. When Egypt first began to request the removal of landmines, the nations responsible for planting them claimed that the maps showing the location of the mines had been lost in the war, explained Mohieddin Mosaad of the Court of Appeals. Mosaad pointed out that the danger posed by landmines increases with time, since they are subject to continual displacement due to the effects of rain, wind and the movement of the desert sand. Tangible evidence of this phenomenon was offered recently in Burg Al-Arab, which falls outside the Western Desert battlefields, but where a mine caused several casualties.

Another participant, Mohi Mohamed, focused again on the obstacles minefields pose to development. In the Western Desert, he noted, they continue to discourage investors who would otherwise be keen to establish tourist, agricultural, industrial and petroleum projects. The loss is two-fold: the government is unable to sustain the exorbitant costs of eliminating the hazard, and no investor would be willing to establish a project without necessary safety guarantees. The random explosion of a mine in a tourist spot, for example, would set back the tourist industry in that area for decades.

Egypt would need at least 2,000 mine sweepers to clear the mines that threaten it. Against this figure, Great Britain's offer of 50 mine sweepers was lamentably paltry; its grant of 500,000 sterling pounds, made between 1981 and '91, similarly fell far short of the bill. While it costs only $3 to produce a mine, it costs in the neighbourhood of $1,000 to remove one. Multiplying this by the 23 million mines still existing in Egypt gives a rough estimate of the billions of dollars entailed. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government began to implement an ambitious project in July 1991, targeted for completion in 2006. The removal of mines -- and the killing and maiming of innocent people -- must, however, remain contingent on the government's limited financial and technical resources for the time being.

Signatories to the Ottawa Convention and Their Alternatives to Landmines

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The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (known as the Ottawa Convention) was open for signature from December 3, 1997, until its entry into force on March 1, 1999, six months after it had been ratified, accepted, approved, or acceded to by 40 countries. After that date, no country was allowed to sign it and ratify it later. Countries could join (become a party to) the treaty, however, through a one-step procedure known as accession.

As of September 2000, 107 countries had ratified, accepted, approved or acceded to the convention. Although few of these countries are actively searching for or developing alternatives to landmines, many are monitoring international developments in this area; several countries are participating in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) study on the consequences of the APL ban and possible technological alternatives that do not have the negative effects of APL. The Committee on Alternative Technologies to Replace Antipersonnel Landmines found a few instances of countries other than the United States identifying or working to identify alternatives to APL.

AUSTRALIA

An Australian company, Metal Storm, has developed an all-electronic firing system that represents a breakthrough in gun technology, which the company believes could lead to “the development of an area denial weapons system to replace antipersonnel landmines” (Metal Storm, 2000a). The Australian Army has approved a three-year program for the development of a prototype minefield-replacement mortarbox system, utilizing Metal Storm technology (Metal Storm, 2000b). Conceptually, this application would be similar in operation to the U.S. Claymore and the French Sphinx-Moder. According to the company's description, a man-inthe-loop, after observing and identifying a target, would fire a launcher sending a variety of projectiles into the protected area.

CANADA

The Canadian Centre for Mine-Action Technologies (CCMAT), a joint initiative of the Department of National Defence and Industry Canada, is mandated to “conduct research and gather information to show that viable and more humane alternatives [to APL], which do not target civilians, can be developed.” CCMAT also conducts research on demining technologies, medical treatment, and the rehabilitation of mine victims (CDND, 1998). CCMAT is exploring nonlethal alternatives only (ICBL, 2000). It is also conducting a series of studies “to determine the impact of removing antipersonnel landmines on land force operations and to determine if replacement technologies are necessary” (Roy and Friesen, 1999). The first volume in this series, a study on the historical uses of APL, was made available to the Committee on Alternative Technologies to Replace Antipersonnel Landmines.

According to the Antipersonnel Mine Operational Planning and Policy Guidelines for the Canadian Forces, Canada would replace its APL with “a mix of sensors, commanddetonated weapons [such as the M-18 Claymore reclassified as C19s], additional infantry, artillery, armour and air-delivered weapons” (Fredenburg, 1997).

FRANCE

The Sphinx-Moder (described in Chapter 6) is designed to fire wounding, warning, or practice munitions. It is being produced in series and has been adopted by the French Army to take the place of antipersonnel mines.

JAPAN

The Japanese Defense Agency is developing an alternative weapon system to APL called the “antipersonnel obstacle system,” which combines sensors and remote control.

Blowing up the Myths of America's Landmine Policy

2008-06-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

Global landmine contamination has been recognized by the international community as a pressing humanitarian crisis. Each year sixty-four countries care for or stockpile over two hundred million extant landmines, lay two to five new million landmines, and clear only one hundred thousand old landmines from their territories. Landmines caused thirty-three percent of all total American casualties in the Vietnam Conflict and caused thirty-four percent of all American causalities during the Gulf War. Fifty-five percent of landmine victims die before receiving medical assistance, twenty-eight percent of mine survivors lose one or both limbs after amputations, and seventy-five percent of amputees require blood transfusions, straining on global blood supply. The U.S. State Department estimates that landmines kill or injure one civilian worldwide every twenty-two minutes-totaling nearly twenty-six thousand victims per year. Landmines also pose a threat to global economies and ecosystems, particularly of third world countries. Landmines render large tracts of agricultural land unusable, often causing malnutrition or starvation among agrarian populations. A posted sign may warn people that one landmines lies buried within a village field, but since the exact location of that landmine is difficult and expensive to determine, the entire field must be avoided. Because of this phenomenon, many third world countries, particularly Afghanistan and Cambodia, simply cannot establish an agrarian base necessary for them stabilize their national economies. Likewise, as especially seen in Mozambique, landmine corruption can also lead to severe drought and famine because landmines consume large amounts of otherwise farmable land. Not only do landmines limit economic production, but also burden these countries with enormous medical problems. For example, within the past ten years landmines have reduced the population of Angola by twenty-five percent. In Cambodia, one out of every two hundred thirty-six citizens is a landmine amputee. Because of these trends, the international community has reassessed the ethicality of anti-personnel landmines. Many argue that landmine usage violates Article 22 of the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare, part of the Hague Convention of 1907 which set specific limits on military conduct. These laws have been expanded in modern times to prohibit the attack of set civilian objectives, to require the cancellation of a mission if more civilians than troops would likely be harmed, and to limit superfluous suffering during war, both to combatants and civilians. For these reasons, the international community-approximately 190 countries (through the "Ottawa Process")-has concluded that anti-personnel landmines contradict our sense of humanitarian and military ethics, and has therefore agreed to stop producing, trading and/or planting new landmines. The United States government, not officially joining Ottawa, has taken many actions on its own to address American landmine usage. In 1993, under the leadership of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Congress adopted a one-year moratorium on American exports of anti-personnel landmines, a law which President Clinton made permanent in January 1998. As of May 1998, the Department of Defense announced that in 1997 the United States removed approximately two and a half million non self-destructing APL from current American stockpiles, drastically improved de-mining technology, and increased funding for international de-mining efforts. The Clinton administration has reaffirmed "America's strong commitment to…sign the Ottawa Convention." America's commitment to the landmine treaty, however, remains ambivalent. Although the Clinton administration has taken a more active role in landmine negotiations, (attending, most recently, the Oslo, Norway phase of Ottawa in September 1997), it has jeopardized the integrity of the treaty itself. America entered these conferences with a series of new conditions which arguably undermine the intent of Ottawa. Specifically, these American representatives demanded that the current landmine treaty allow the unlimited use of "smart mines," future landmine technology which would deactivate landmines after a specified length of time, and allow America to use both smart and "dumb" mines, current landmine technology, to protect the North Korean peninsula. The American representatives also insisted that America should receive special exemptions from the treaty until the year 2006, or until India, Russia and China also sign and ratify the treaty. There are a number of inaccuracies in this current American stance on smart mines. Although smart mines may eventually reduce accidental civilian landmine casualties, smart mines do not make landmines more humane to ground troops as defined by the Hague Resolutions. Besides, even if the landmines are "programmed" to self-detonate after a given amount of time, while they remain active smart antipersonnel landmines still cannot distinguish between a soldier and a civilian. An exception allowing America to lay smart mines means an exception for everybody to lay smart mines, thus defeating the spirit of the treaty. Also, America has historically used unilateral disarmament as a successful military tactic. President Kennedy led the United States to a unilateral ban on nuclear testing. Similarly, in the 1980s President Reagan initiated the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). These actions forced the international community, including the Soviet Union, to join us in productive negotiations. Both these examples also illustrate the impact the United States has on global demilitarization. There are many other, more self-interested, motives behind America's reluctance to agree to the Ottawa Process. The American military wants to continue the use of a proven tactical weapon as well as maintain its overwhelming advantage in strategic posturing. Landmines, besides stabilizing the balance of global power, also save the lives of American troops when in combat. However, America's massive production and exportation of landmines may be a more accurate reason why America refuses to participate in Ottawa. From 1969 to 1992 the United States exported nearly four and a half million antipersonnel landmines to at least thirty-four different countries (including Afghanistan, Angola, Vietnam and Iraq). For these landmines America received on average one hundred twenty-five million dollars per year. Over forty-seven American companies manufacture APL, their components or delivery systems. Landmine production contracts in the late 1980s and early 1990s have earned companies upwards of three hundred thirty-six million dollars (Alliant technologies; 1985-95). While currently American corporations are adhering to the American moratorium on landmine production (America's stockpiles are full), the American defense industry is no doubt reluctant to lose such lucrative business relationships with the Pentagon and the foreign countries who also purchase these landmines. The United States must put aside mere self interest and do what is best for the world. Although the Ottawa Process can succeed without the United States' approval, the treaty would have greater legitimacy and more enforceability if the world's superpower also ratified and followed it. The United States alone has the power to end the use of landmines, cruel devices which breach military ethics, impede international progress and violate human dignity.

China and Anti-Personnel Landmines (APLs)

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China's APL Production, Stockpiling and Domestic Use
Summary of the APL Ban
Chinese Views on the APL Ban
Full Chinese Statements on the APL Ban

Background Information:

APL Production and Proliferation
China is reportedly the largest producer of APLs in the world. Chinese factories linked to the China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) produce most APLs; the Technical Equipment Research Institute of Wuxi serves as the center for APL research and development. In accordance with the revised Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), China should have already halted the production and export of its most heavily produced APL called Type 72. By 2007, China must completely cease to use the Type 72. Currently, China's Type 72 is one of the cheapest in the world, costing only US$3 per landmine. In addition to the Type 72, China has independently produced 22 types of APLs. Aside from a few APLs of Russian design, China has designed most of the APLs it produces. Some of these APLs include the PPM-2 blast mine, POMZ-2 and –2M fragmentation stake mines, Type 58 fragmentation stake mine, Type 59 wooden box mine, Type 68 and Type 69 bounding fragmentation mines, and Type 66 Claymore-type directed fragmentation mine. China also produces remotely delivered APLs such as the GLD 112 and three similar unnamed models. The latter four types of APLs were initially developed in the 1970s to be dropped by parachute, rocket, ground vehicle and several types of aircraft.

Chinese mines have been used in parts of South Asia, the Middle East and as far as Africa. In particular, the Type 72 has been used in Iraq, Kuwait, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Angola, Rwanda, Zambia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Africa and Mozambique and the Type 69 has been uncovered in Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and South Africa. At the CCW Review Conference on the 22nd of April, 1996 representative Wong Jon indicated that China would cease exports of the Type 72 APL and all "scatterable" APLs without self-deactivating mechanisms. However, despite these concessions, the Chinese delegation made no statement on the export of detectable APLs without self-deactivating mechanisms. According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2003, there has been no evidence of Chinese APL exports since China's 1996 pledge.

Stockpiling
Estimates of China's inventory of APLs indicate that China has 110 million APLs, 100 million of which are Type 72. Since China may not use the latter after 2007, the stock of Type 72 APLs must either by replaced, destroyed or re-constructed to meet CCW specifications. China has not indicated its planned course of action.

Domestic Use and Cleanup
China has used APLs along its borders in clashes with Russia, India and Vietnam. Estimates indicate that over 10 million APLs line China's borders with the latter three nations. China's greatest APL problem lies in Yunnan province and the Guangxi National Autonomous Region. It was in these areas, during China's confrontations with Vietnam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, that over 800,000 APLs were laid, covering over 270 square kilometers. Known as "the region of death", the Chinese government admits that there is a threat to civilians in the two regions. Though the Chinese government has not shared landmine casualty data it may be collecting, surveys carried out by Landmine Monitor researchers in 2001 revealed that in several counties of Yunnan and Guangxi provinces most casualties occurred in the late 1970s to early 1980s. The researchers found that survivor treatment and rehabilitation services are often lacking due to excessive distances to adequate facilities.

The PLA undertook its first large-scale demining effort in 1992 and 1994, resulting in the clearing of 108 square kilometers. The second demining effort, initiated in 1997 and continuing into 1999, is intended to clear an additional 100 square kilometers and permanently seal off more than 50 square kilometers in an effort to protect civilians from danger. The UN commented that the PLA demining operations were exceptionally executed. Xinhua reported in August 1999 that Chinese officials reported that the mine threat was mostly eliminated from its 2,000 km border with Vietnam. This demining effort reportedly cost China 200 million yuan and required 2,000 soldiers, but generated a significant economic gain for the provinces involved. The revenues from seven border counties in Guangxi Province increased from 200 million yuan to 500 million yuan between 1993 and 1999. ["Further on Clearing Last Landmines on Vietnamese Border," Xinhua, 11 August 1999.] New mine clearance activities reportedly began in December 2002, after China and Vietnam pledged to complete, by 2005, surveys of mined zones along their borders.

Recently, the Beijing Xinhua reported that Chinese scientists have developed, after ten years of research, a new mine detector that can be utilized in a variety of climates and terrain and will detect even the smallest quantities of metal. The PLA has used the new mine detector to successfully clear a 2000 sq km area.

Summary of the Anti-Personnel Landmine (APL) Ban:

The international anti-personnel landmine (APL) ban prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of APLs.

Efforts toward an APL ban have been pursued in three main forums: (1) the Geneva Conference on Disarmament (CD), (2) as part of the review process of the Inhumane Weapons Convention (IWC)/Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) (1980 landmine protocol and revised version), and (3) as part of the so-called "Ottawa Process"--1997 multilateral negotiations on a total APL ban taking place in Oslo, Sweden.

The more than 90 countries that participated in the 1997 Ottawa Process accepted a final APL ban treaty text on 18 September 1997--the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction." The treaty was open for signature at Ottawa starting in December 1997. As of October 2003, 136 countries were States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, and 11 had signed but not yet ratified. This total constitutes some three-fourths of the world's nations.

For more in-depth information, please consult the Inventory of Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes, which can be found on the CNS website at: http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/.

China and the APL Ban:

China opposes a total ban on APLs, arguing that landmines are a legitimate means of self-defense for many countries and that a total ban on APLs would violate the basic principle that arms control should not decrease a country's security. China's position is governed by such issues as its long land border, its status as a major mine producer and exporter, and its large stocks of APLs. In particular, the Chinese military sees landmines as key to China's national security given its large and highly contested land borders with countries such as India, Vietnam and Russia.

China reiterated its position on anti-personnel landmines in its July 1998 white paper called "China's National Defense", stating:

"China has all along attached great importance to the problem of threat to innocent people caused by the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel landmines (APLs). It is in favor of imposing proper and rational restrictions on the use and transfer of APLs in a bid to achieve the ultimate objective of comprehensive prohibition of such landmines through a phased approach. In the meantime, the Chinese government maintains that, in addressing the problem of APLs, consideration should be given to both humanitarian concern and the legitimate defense requirements of sovereign states. To safeguard the safety of their people by sovereign states through legitimate military means, including the use of APLs in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations itself is part and parcel of humanitarianism."

In March 1998, Chinese Disarmament Ambassador Li Changhe stated similar policy goals:

[Statement by Li Changhe, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, to the Conference on Disarmament, at the Plenary Meeting, 12 March 1998.]

Elaborating Li Changhe's statements, Mr. Song Rong Hua, the Second Secretary of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, submitted a statement at the 3rd NGO Conference on AP mines explaining China's limitations as a developing nation. Until China develops the technology to produce a feasible alternative, China is dependent upon landmines for the protection of its national security, especially along the borders.

China has stated that it will support practical restrictions on APLs and humanitarian efforts to help civilian victims of landmines.

China has also supported a "phased" ban, but it cannot agree to an immediate and total ban of APLs, saying:

"China is not opposed to the objective of prohibition of APLs realized in a phased approach, but cannot agree to an immediate total ban. In order to meet its legitimate territorial defense requirements, China cannot but reserve its legitimate right to use APLs on its own territories before alternative means are found and defensive capabilities established. China can only accept an international APL agreement that fully accommodates its above-mentioned security concerns. China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and never engaged in overseas aggression. We have no intention of using landmines in other countries. Should China use APLs in legitimate circumstances, it would be for the purpose of defense against foreign military intervention or aggression, safeguarding its national unification and territorial integrity and ensuring a peaceful life for its own people."

[Statement by Sha Zukang, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, to the Conference on Disarmament, on an APL ban, 26 June 1997.]

China prefers that the APL issue be addressed in the context of the the IWC/CCW and its protocols, stating that its "prefers achieving the ultimate total prohibition of APLs in a phased approach within the CCW framework." [Statement by Sha Zukang, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, to the Conference on Disarmament, on an APL ban, 26 June 1997.] China participated in the negotiation of the new landmine protocol to the IWC/CCW and signed it. China has instituted a moratorium on exports of APLs that do not comply with the requirements of the protocol.

China is not against the APL issue being addressed in the Conference on Disarmament (CD), but prefers that the CD "concentrate on arms control and disarmament issues that have a significant impact on international security and stability." China refused to endorse or take part in the "Ottawa Process," stating that the process "focuses solely on humanitarian concerns while neglecting or not adequately taking into account many countries' legitimate military requirements for the use of APLs in defending their territories." China has not signed the Convention that resulted from the Ottawa Process. China did, however, send a delegation to the December 1997 signing conference of the Ottawa Treaty--the delegation participated in round-table discussions on mine removal and the provision of aid to mine victims.

In October 1997, China elaborated its position on APLs:

"The Chinese Delegation holds that APL is a weapon of pure defensive nature, and that the humanitarian concern caused by it is exclusively due to two reasons: the shortcomings of old-type APLs and their indiscriminate use; and inadequate post-conflict demining efforts. The elimination of civilian casualties should be our sole objective. The fundamental way to achieve that objective should be to clear the old-type APLs left over from the past, while overcoming their shortcomings to ban the further use of such types of APLs."

"China is in favor of imposing strict and feasible restrictions on APLs and their use, with a view to achieving the objective of an ultimate ban in a step-by-step manner. In order to meet its legitimate defense requirements, China can not but reserve its legitimate right to use APLs on its own territories before alternative means are found and defensive capabilities established. China can only accept an international APLs agreement that fully accommodates its above-mentioned security concerns. China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace. It has never engaged in overseas aggression, nor does it have any intention to use landmines in other countries. Should China use APLs under legitimate circumstances, it would be entirely for the purpose of defending against foreign military intervention and aggression, safeguarding its national unification and territorial integrity and ensuring a peaceful life for its own people."

"We noticed that some countries have concluded a convention on total ban of APLs in Oslo recently. China respects their sovereign choice and understands their humanitarian concern. Meanwhile, China maintains that in addressing the APLs issue, both aspects of humanitarian concerns and legitimate security requirements of the countries concerned have to be taken into account. In the final analysis, security itself is an important aspect of humanitarian concerns." [Statement by Sha Zukang, Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, at the First Committee of the 52nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, 14 October 1997.]

China's restated its position on APLs in the July 1998 defense "white paper" called China's National Defense. The document devoted an entire sub-section to articulating Beijing's current position on APLs. In particular the "white paper" provided new details about China's own demining efforts and its assistance to other countries to de-mine their territories. The document stated:

The Chinese government has always done its utmost to assist APL-affected countries. It furnished Cambodia and some other mine-affected countries with mine-detection/clearance equipment, and also helped train demining personnel for these countries, thus contributing to their smooth post-war rehabilitation. In November 1997, the Chinese President Jiang Zemin declared that China would continue to actively support international demining efforts and cooperation, including donation and provision of assistance in the fields of demining training, technology and equipment through the relevant international demining funds. The Chinese government also sent observers to participate in the Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction and the international demining roundtable (Mine Action Forum) held from 2 to 4 December 1997 in Ottawa."

Furthermore, as part of China's continual support for international mine clearing operations, China's Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Li Changhe outlined the extent of Chinese assistance for demining efforts in a 1999 speech before the UN's Conference on Disarmament. He noted:

[Statement by Li Changhe, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, to the Plenary Meeting of the Conference on Disarmament, 11 February 1999.]

[TEXT OF THE CONVENTION ON THE PROHIBITION OF THE USE, STOCKPILING, PRODUCTION, AND TRANSFER OF ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES AND ON THEIR DESTRUCTION]

Full Chinese Statements on an APL ban:

For more on China and conventional weapons issues, see:

[CHINA AND THE INHUMANE WEAPONS CONVENTION (IWC)]

[CHINA AND CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS NONPROLIFERATION]

[CHRONOLOGY OF CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS-RELATED STATEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS]

Mines Action Canada

2008-06-29T10:49:00.001-07:00

Mines Action Canada (MAC) is a coalition of Canadian non-governmental organizations that came together in 1994. It is affiliated with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The coalition's primary concern is the human and socio-economic impact of landmines. As such, the MAC coalition is committed to a complete ban on the use, production, stockpiling and trade of anti-personnel mines and other weapons which function like anti-personnel mines, including cluster bombs and anti-vehicle/anti-tank mines with anti-personnel effect. The coalition is also committed to ensuring the needs and aspirations of people physically, socially and economically affected by mines are met.

As a member of the ICBL, the MAC coalition supports the general orientation of guidelines and policies adopted by the ICBL and its various Working Groups. MAC coalition activities in support of its objectives include research, public education, policy development, and dialogue with government, private citizens and other parties both nationally and internationally.

As part of its work, nationally and internationally, MAC initiated this site. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to duplicate other sites containing information about landmines, but it does strive to be universal in scope and application. The centerpiece of the site is a map of the world, broken down into the main geographic regions. Those accessing the site will be able to click on any region of the world to obtain country specific information.

Landmines

2008-06-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

An anti-personnel mine is “a mine designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person and that will incapacitate, injure or kill one or more persons.” These hidden, indiscriminate weapons cannot tell the difference between the tread of a soldier or a child. They continue to kill and maim long after wars have ended.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), more than 350 different kinds of anti-personnel mines have been produced by more than 50 countries. AP mines act to injure or kill victims by both the explosive blast and the fragmentary metal debris projected upon detonation.

Generally speaking there are two types of AP mines: blast mines and fragmentation mines. Placed in or on the ground or scattered from the air, blast AP mines are often less than 10 centimetres in diameter and are activated by the weight of a foot. They are the most common type of AP mines. One of the most insidious mines is the "butterfly" mine a blast mine scattered from planes that looks like a toy but which explodes when played with.

Fragmentation mines are generally activated by a trip wire and project shards of metal at incredible speeds toward the victim.

In addition, "bounding mines" are fragmentation mines that jump into the air before exploding, spraying fragments across a large area.

Anti-personnel mines came into widespread use during the Second World War. They were intended to stop the theft of anti-tank mines. Anti-tank mines were intended to destroy battle tanks, but they could be easily seen by foot soldiers, who stole them and implanted them in their own minefields. Anti-tank mines were originally unexploded artillery shells with their fuses exposed. The first anti-personnel mines had the capacity to explode with the weight of a foot. During the Cold War, a number of technological advances were made and the use of these weapons spread.

Used by military forces throughout the world, the low cost and easy deployment of landmines have made them a weapon of choice in the world's poorest countries. In countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Bosnia, the threat of landmines is a terror ordinary people live with every day.

In some situations, various types of AP mines are used together to create an elaborate labyrinth in a mine field, designed to trick even the most skilled demining crews. This may include piling mines on top of each other underground and placing different mines close to each other so that by diffusing one, other nearby mines are detonated.

Anti-personnel mines are not indispensable military tools. According to a 1996 Red Cross study, military experts examining 26 wars where anti-personnel mines were used concluded that mines did not lead to a strategic advantage in war. The reality is that mines do more to create fear and cause suffering in civilian populations than they do to deter the movement of soldiers. According to the United Nations, landmines are at least 10 times more likely to kill or injure a civilian after a conflict than a combatant during hostilities. Once mines have been laid, they are completely indiscriminate in their action. Unless cleared, they continue to have the potential to kill and maim long after the actual fighting has ceased.

In addition, AP mines are often used by warring parties to purposefully induce terror in villages and communities. This is a far stretch from the stated defense uses of AP mines and it affects civilians already caught in the crossfire of surrounding battles.

The major producers of anti-personnel landmines in the last 25 years have included the United States, Italy, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, Vietnam, Germany, Austria, the former Yugoslavia, France, China and the United Kingdom. The most commonly found mines around the world were from China, Italy and the former Soviet Union.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 14 countries had not banned the production of anti-personnel landmines. These were Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United States and Vietnam. Some of these countries have not actually produced AP mines in recent years, but refuse to ban production officially.

The ICBL also points out that with the exception of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, the most mine affected countries in the world received all their mines from sources outside of their borders. While it is difficult to track mine shipments, there are no major AP mine exporters anymore, and Iraq remains the only country that has not made an official statement that they no longer export AP mines.

Canada ceased production of anti-personnel mines in 1992. It had only produced one type of anti-personnel mine, commonly known as the "Elsie" mine a plastic-bodied, cone shaped mine that cost approximately $40 to purchase. The Elsie anti-personnel mine was produced by SNC-Industrial Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of the SNC-Lavalin group. Prior to 1986, the Elsie anti-personnel mine was produced by the crown-owned Canadian Arsenals Ltd, which was then sold to the SNC-Lavalin group. The last export of anti-personnel mines from Canada was completed in 1987 with a shipment to Kuwait.

The widespread use of anti-personnel mines has created a humanitarian crisis of global proportions. Attempts have been made to estimate the number of AP mines in the ground around the world through reporting procedures by countries under the Ottawa Convention. However, it is now apparent that the number of mines in the ground is not an accurate measurement of the landmine problem.

Instead, the most significant measurement of landmine consequences is the amount of high-priority land that contains mines. This is land that is arable, socially and / or economically valuable or essential for transportation to the local residents. The risk of death or injury inhibits use of the land. Whether a field has 2 mines or 10,000 mines means it cannot be used by a community. Since any attempt to determine the number of mines laid around the world will only be an estimate, mine action groups now focus attention on the humanitarian crisis posed by landmines.

The real seriousness of the landmine problem is reflected in the numbers people affected by landmines, especially new victims estimated to be in the tens of thousands each year. Landmines cause huge barriers to social and economic development in some of the world’s poorest countries.

It is estimated that since 1975, there have been more than one million landmine casualties most of them civilians, many of them children. Where they do not kill immediately, landmines severely maim their victims, causing trauma, lifelong pain and often social stigma. World wide there are some 250,000 landmine amputees. Survivors face terrible physical, psychological and socio-economic difficulties.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, there are three types of injury anti-personnel mine injury amongst survivors. The most severe injury results from stepping on a buried anti-personnel mine. This usually results in the amputation of the foot or leg with severe injury of the other leg, genitalia and arms.

The second type of injury occurs when a victim triggers a fragmentation mine. If death is not instant, there are wounds similar to those from any other fragmentation device and can affect any part of the body.

The last type of anti-personnel landmine injury is caused by accidental detonation while handling a mine generally seen among mine-clearers, those planting mines or curious children who pick up or play with mines. This involves severe wounds to the hands and face.

Surgeons with the International Committee of the Red Cross estimate that up to half of all AP mine victims die on site within minutes of a blast and that only 28 per cent of AP mine casualties arrive at a hospital within six hours of the explosion.

Due to their small size and the relative closeness of their vital organs to the mine blast, children are more prone to death and serious injury from landmines than adults. They are more likely than adults to die immediately or shortly after being injured, because they are not able to survive the blood loss during the time it takes to get them to a hospital for emergency treatment.

The suffering of landmine victims is compounded by the lack of medical and transportation infrastructure in most countries that have an AP mine problem. For example, even if the victims survive the blast and make the long, arduous journey to a medical centre, the physical injuries are usually far greater, the emotional trauma much deeper, and the economic prospects significantly bleaker than for an adult.

AP mine injuries for children are most difficult for surgeons to treat because of the need for constant blood transfusions, antibiotics, anaesthetics, X-ray films and follow up medical attention. Children may require ongoing amputations for prosthesis fittings on growing limbs. A 10-year-old amputee may require at least 25 prostheses during his/her lifetime. Artificial limbs cost about $125 each beyond the means of many victims, where average wages are only $10 to $15 a month.

For successful rehabilitation to occur, there must be extensive rehabilitation programming including job, and independent living skills training, at a minimum. In most underdeveloped countries, this is simply not available to children. For example, UNICEF estimates that only 19-20 per cent of disabled children in El Salvador receive rehabilitation therapy. The rest are forced to fend for themselves and often have to steal or beg to survive.

Tropical soils impede landmine detection

2008-06-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Use of a metal detector is the most common technique when searching for landmines, which litter the soil in approximately 90 countries around the world. Many of these countries are located in the tropics where intensively weathered soils are prevalent. These tropical soils have certain properties that can limit the performance of metal detectors due to soil magnetic susceptibility. This problem is enhanced by the spread of minimum-metal mines. Magnetic properties of soils are

caused by ferrimagnetic minerals, such as magnetite and maghemite. The negative effects can result in a reduction of detector sensitivity or cause false alarms. To overcome these problems, the metal detectors have been continuously re-hauled over the years but only now has the geoscientific research of the soil been taken into account. The knowledge of soil magnetic properties may allow detectors to be adapted to meet the local conditions.

Geoscientists at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover, Germany conducted a study on the magnetic susceptibility of tropical soils using the soil archive of the Federal Agency. The magnetic susceptibility of more than 500 soil samples from the entire tropical belt was analyzed with the goal of classifying their impact on landmine detection. The research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and was published in the January-February 2008 issue of the Soil Science Society of America Journal.

The study revealed that the problem of soil influence can occur quite frequently. More than one-third of the measured soil samples may generate severe or very severe limitations when using metal detectors. Soils were grouped according to their parent rocks. On average susceptibility of soils with basaltic origin were higher than those of other origin. However, the variability within the different g

Land Mine-Detecting Flowers

2008-06-27T14:18:00.001-07:00

Bringing a beautiful solution to the tragedy of undetected landmines, Aresa Biodetection has genetically engineered the Thales cress weed to turn red when growing near landmines. The weed is sensitive to nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of mines, 110 million of which are estimated to remain undetected across 45 different countries. While many debate the ethics of bioengineering, this is a poetic solution that we should all agree is worth the science.

+ Aresa Biodetection

Via Christian Science Monitor:
New weed may flag land mines
By John K. Borchardt | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

A weed that turns red when it grows near land mines could help clear dangerous fields in war-torn countries such as Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The genetically modified Thales cress is sensitive to nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of mines, and changes from green to red when the gas is present in soil.

Currently, mines can be detected only by human or canine probing. Scientists hope the plant will show where the land mines are so they can be removed safely, greatly reducing fatalities and injuries among those who hunt for mines and the unsuspecting public.

Danish biotechnology company Aresa Biodetection, which is creating the genetically altered plant, hopes to start selling it within a few years, after researchers complete field tests on its effectiveness.

Lab results so far look promising, says Simon Oestergaard, chief executive of Aresa. He envisions that the plant will be used mostly to clear fields suitable for farming. “The main target of this product is soil that will be used for different agricultural activities,” he says.

Some 110 million land mines are hidden in 45 countries. Many of them have been buried for years. It will cost $33 billion to remove them and take 1,100 years under present demining rates, according to the United Nations. It estimates that governments spend $200 million to $300 million on the removal and detection of 10,000 mines each year.

In addition, the Red Cross estimates that 26,000 people are killed or injured each year by leftover mines. Large areas, as much as 40 percent of all land in Cambodia and 90 percent in Angola, go unused because of land mines.

Currently, explosives experts remove mines by putting a stick into the ground to locate them. They then excavate and detonate them. They also use dogs and metal detectors, but these approaches can be dangerous: For every 5,000 mines removed, one explosive expert is killed and two others are seriously injured, according to the Vietnam Veterans Foundation of America.

Researchers hope the modified Thales cress will offer an easier and safer method of detection. Its seeds can be sprayed over fields from planes or via spray guns at a cost significantly less than conventional methods.

Comparison of Landmine Detection Methods

2008-06-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Mine detection with new level of safety, accuracy and speed:

- Landmines are detected from a safe distance.
- New low level of personnel injury risk.
- The devices are light and small enough to be hand carried.
- Meets the United Nations standards for humanitarian demining.
- Has new low level of false positives, it is more accurate and detection work are completed more quickly.

Better data: Computerized map of landmines and other anti-personnel (AP) and improvised explosive devices (IED).

Research & Development: Considerable R&D resources have been invested into developing this device.

In 2000, a research report discussed the technology needs for humanitarian mine detection and proposed complicated safe detection techniques. This is elegantly answered in 2005 with the Greatcore remote landmine detector.

Greatcore GDM1 Portable remote landmine detector by Greatcore

Risk Comparison of Landmine Detection Methods

Summary

The United Nations has specified a mine clearance standard of 99.6% for humanitarian demining. Currently the only way to achieve this is with manual demining methods. Although we present the breadth of available detection methods below, only the Greatcore remote detector, conventional manual landmine detector and remote unmanned vehicles can possibly meet or exceed this standard. The advantages of the Greatcore GDM1 method are analyzed below.

Methods	Risk Profile
Greatcore GDM1 remote landmine detector	- Detection from up to 30 feet - no injury risk during detection. - Can detect landmines with low metal content, resulting in higher success.
Metal manual landmine detector	- Close proximity to landmines. - False positives of 1000 for every 1 landmine. - Low success with landmines of low metal content.
Use of animals for mine detection	- Time and investment taken to train these animals. - Indeterminate false positives. - Lacking compliance with U.N. standards for humanitarian demining.
Use of plants for landmine detection	- Still experimental with indeterminate false positives. - Issues of ecological control of a new genetically engineered specie. - Question of meeting U.N. standards for humanitarian demining.
Bacteria for landmine detection	- Certain explosive chemicals are yet undetectible. - Question of meeting U.N. standards for humanitarian demining.
Nuclear detection	- Still theoretical.
Unmanned landmine detection vehicles	- Relatively high cost operations. - Logistics of transporting and servicing these vehicles.

Descriptions of other landmine detection methods

Manual detection with metal landmine detector

The typical first step in manual demining is to scan the area with metal detectors, which are sensitive enough to pick up most mines but which also yield about one thousand false positives for every mine, and cannot detect landmines with very low metal content. Areas where metal is detected are carefully probed at close proximity to determine if a mine is present, and must continue until the object that set off the metal detector is found. Technologies that improve safety include large, pillow-like pads strapped to the bottoms of shoes that distribute weight and dull the impact of footsteps, as very slight disturbances of the ground can tip off old, unstable, or intentionally sensitive mine triggers. Safety requires that procedures are followed rigorously. Only one out of 1,000 detections by this method turns out to be landmines. The rest are either metal fragments or ground minerals.

Other manual landmine detection methods

These typical methods are not amenable to zero risk tolerance for human injuries.

Use of animals for mine detection

- Dogs

Several countries have trained dogs to smell explosive chemicals like TNT in landmines.

- Rodents

Specifically, Gambian giant poached rats have been trained to smell landmines, and yet are small and light enough not to set them off. Further experiments hace also guided certain rats into virtually unreachable areas by using electrode to guide them.

- Marine mammals

Sea lions and dolphins are known to have been trained by The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program to detect seamines.

Use of Plants for landmine detection

Landmines release nitrous oxide that turn these plants turn red. The best studied is the specie mustard Arabidopsis thaliana which has been genetically manipulated for this purpose. However, nitrous oxide can also be released by denitrifying bacteria, resulting in the risk of false positives. Researchers are addressing this problem by making the plant less sensitive. In theory , these plants could either be sown from aircraft or by people walking through demined corridors in minefields. No studies have yet been conducted with actual landmines, though successful studies have been done in greenhouse environment.

Use of Bacteria for landmine detection

Scientists have genetically engineered a strain of bacteria to fluoresce under ultraviolet light in the presence of TNT. In tests, the bacteria successfully detected mines when sprayed over simulated minefields. successfully located mines. This method has been found to produce relatively quick results, and could be used over different terrain. Even small amounts of TNT are detected but there are some false positives near plants and water drainage. However, Unfortunately, no strain of bacteria is capable of detecting RDX, another common explosive. They also may not be visible under desert conditions. Newly-laid and well-engineered mines may escape detection under this method due to insufficient corrosion.

Nuclear detection for landmine detection

The concept of detecting explosives through elemental analysis by neutrons to detect nitrogen has been proposed. Majority of explosives are nitrogen rich. The focus has mainly been directed at airport security and hostile trucks although its use for landmine detection has been suggested.

Landmine sensing vehicles for detection

Landmine detection vehicle

Low cost robot

Various types of unmanned vehicles have been considered for landmine detection and clearance on the premise that they keep human beings out of harm's way. The larger landmine sensing vehicles are more appropriate for peace-keeping and military use to clear landmine-free paths. Lower cost robotic vehicles are being developed with wider humanitarian deployment in mind. They are programmed to move in all directions, scanning for the existence of landmines. If any landmine is found, the ULSV sends the information using a FM transmitter interfaced to it. The vehicle is operated with battery power. At the base station a mini-computer receives information about the location and distance of the mine.

RedDetect - Plant for Landmine detection

2008-06-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Aresa has developed a BioSensor for detection of landmines and unexploded ordnance devices on agricultural land. The BioSensor is a genetically modified plant which can sense nitrogen-dioxide in soil and change colour from green to red when growing on or in near proximity of landmines.

In 2005 the company achieved proof-of-concept in a test performed in collaboration with the Danish Demining Centre under the Danish Army. The test showed plants turning red when growing on or close to landmines. A selection of 3 different types of mines was used in ordinary soil.

In 2006 Aresa expanded the testing to include additional types of mines over an area of 1,700m². These tests are still ongoing. Furthermore a new test site in has been set up in September 2006 with the aim to perform plant growth studies in different climatic conditions. The test facilities have been set up in collaboration with the Croatian Mine Action Centre for Testing, Development and Training.

Currently Aresa is considering setting up a third test site, probably in Africa.

Illustration of the principle of the Mine Action Plant.

The explosive inside the landmine contains material that releases NO2 (Nitrogen dioxide) when it has been in the ground for a period of time.

The NO2 moves through the soil and is absorbed by the mine plant, where it starts the production of a red compound. This causes the leaves of the plant to turn red.

Plants That Detect Landmines

2008-06-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Danish researchers said they have produced a plant that can help detect hidden landmines by changing its colour from green to red when its roots come in contact with explosives.

The genetically-modified plant changes its colour from green to red within three to five weeks of growth when its roots come in contact with NO2, a chemical group present in explosives.

Yet another example of the positive use of genetically modified plants. These particular plants cannot spread without human help, thus controlling where they grow so they won’t take over the local ecology.

For several years I’ve been intrigued by revolutionary methods for detecting landmines and buried explosives, because this is such a tough problem from an engineering perspective. The world is littered with landmines left over from forgotten wars, and also in places where hostilities are still active but serve mainly to threaten the lives of innocent civilian populations in rural areas.

Trained dogs are one method, although it is labor intensive to train the animals and they require a skilled handler. There’s the brute force method employed by a mine clearing machine (basically a bulldozer that triggers landmines and safely contains the explosion inside a shielded shell).

More elegant is the portable metal-detector-like device made by Quantum Magnetics, which works using quadrupole resonance technology (it gently disturbs the molecules in explosives with a radio wave and detects the disturbance). It has the significant advantage of being a device that one person can transport and operate over rough terrain, and can be reliably used by someone with minimal training, such as soldiers or civilians.

But something like plants that change color is innovative for many reasons. It’s environmentally non-disruptive, can operate passively for long periods of time (eliminating the need for active scans or patrols), and the signal is pretty much idiot proof even to local residents; the plant turns red.

Land mine detection via plants - from GoodMagazine.com

2008-06-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

GoodMagazine reports that that Denmark-based ARESA has conducted successful field tests with its genetically modified Thale Cress, for use in land mine detection.

Thale Cress, also known as Arabidopsis thaliana, commonly called arabidopsis, or mouse-ear cress, has a short life cycle - six weeks from germination to mature seed.The ARESA modified Thale Cress is very sensitive to nitrogen, which is a component of the explosives in land mines, and emitted in tiny amounts.

Photo (Aresa) by Henrik Freek; via GoodMagazine.

The Thale Cress

has been genetically modified to provide a natural warning in the presence of land mines. Thales cress is inherently sensitive to nitrogen dioxide, a chemical byproduct of land mines. The Copenhagen-based biotech company Aresa tweaked the weed’s genes so that its leaves would turn from their natural green to bright red in the presence of latent explosives. Field tests have thus far been successful, meaning traditional methods of human and canine mine detection may soon have a less dangerous alternative.

From Ben Jervey’s post in Good Magazine .While there are good reasons to have reservations about the genetic modification of plants, until and unless the powers that have been responsible for placing land mines start removing them, this seems an excellent technology.

Mine-sniffing Plants

2008-06-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Left-behind landmines kill or injure about 10,000 people per year world wide, according to U.S. State Department estimates. Landmines also keep people from using large expanses of arable land. The United Nations estimates that nations spend $200 - $300 million each year on de-mining efforts. Getting rid of the mines is dangerous work; some crews probe the ground with sticks or rely on metal detectors or dogs to find the buried mines. A Danish biotech company may have a better solution: a plant that changes color when it grows over buried mines.

The plant in question is a small weed called Arabidopsis thaliana or thale cress. One of the most-studied plants on Earth, it is a member of the mustard family and grows wild everywhere in the world except the poles. It's an annual plant and a thale cress seed can sprout and grow into a mature plant in just six weeks. In some regions, there can be two or three generations in a single summer. In nature the green leaves turn red in autumn, or when the plant is subjected to stress such as cold or drought.

Danish biologists Carsten Meier and Simon Østergaard, co-founders of Aresa Biodetection in Copenhagen, are re-engineering thale cress to turn red when exposed to the presence of a land-mine in the soil. Researchers chose natural mutants of the plant that do not turn red in response to these natural stimuli and then re-engineered the mutant's genetic make-up so that it turns red only when the roots come in contact with NO2 (nitrous oxide)—a compound that leaks out of buried land mines.

So far, the team reports they have produced a plant that changes color in greenhouse lab experiments where NO2 is applied to the soil in solution. Aresa says this may be too general a signal (NO2 is often naturally present in the soil), which means there might be the risk of false positives, so they are working to make it more selective in its responses. The next step will be more realistic field trials with actual land mines (mines that lack detonators, however). In actual de-mining applications, researchers anticipate that seeds could be sown over a suspected minefield from an airplane, or spread with a handheld seed sprayer as workers walk along in de-mined corridors

Sean Burke, Program Manager at the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program, says the challenge is how high the stakes are. You have to have a hundred percent detection with the lowest possible false alarms. He says if you miss one mine that could be somebody's life.

Some scientists are also concerned that bioengineered plants could "escape" into the wild and confer undesirable traits on wild plants. In response Aresa has taken these concerns into consideration and has manipulated their plants so they can't sprout unless a growth factor has been applied to the seeds. In addition, they have created plants can’t set seeds unless supplied with another growth hormone. In addition, this plant naturally is a self-pollinator, so it doesn't cross-pollinate with plants growing wild nearby.

Land-mine detecting Plants created

2008-06-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Land-mine detecting Plants created

Image Gallery ( 4 images )

Danish scientists have made a scientific discovery with significant humanitarian and environmental potential. They have shown that it is possible to produce plants which change colour in the presence of specific compounds within the soil, opening the way for the first bomb and land-mine detection plant.

Danish Company Aresa Biodetection has been working on the plant for several years but has now developed the plant to the stage where it is a becoming commercially viable biodetection system and can change colour from green to red within 3-5 weeks of growth.

This technology is being developed to detect explosives present in landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in soil, as well as to detect and remove heavy metals in polluted soil. The invention may significantly speed the removal of landmines and UXO in cultivatable areas to permit the subsequent use of cleared areas for agriculture to maximize socio-economic benefits. The plants will be tested and gradually introduced in landmine and UXO removal operations as the technology matures.

The landmine is one of the most insidious devices ever created by human hands. There are more than 100 million landmines buried and active in the world today. Another 100 million are stockpiled and ten million are produced annually. More than a million people have been killed or maimed by landmines since 1975. Half of all adults who stand on a mine die before they reach hospital. Children, being smaller, are more likely to die from their injuries, though there are still more than 300,000 children alive who have been severely disabled by landmines.

Clearing mines is a dangerous and very costly job. Mines can cost as little as $3 to produce yet the necessary care involved in clearing a landmine costs more than US$2000 a mine. Even then, one accident occurs for every 1800-2000 mines cleared. For every one hour spent in laying mines, over 100 hours are spent de-mining to remove the same number of mines. If we stopped laying mines NOW and continued clearing at current rates, the world would be free of mines in the year 3100. One estimate of the cost of clearing the world' landmines is US$33 Billion. Unfortunately, mines are being laid 25 times faster than they are being cleared.

Accordingly, the Danish discovery is of immense humanitarian value and rates as one of the most important scientific discoveries of recent years and is already being recognized as such. Geir Bj'rsvik, the Senior Advisor on Landmines for humanitarian aid group, Norwegian People Aid, said of the discovery, 'this is a promising development in the efforts to find a safe and cost effective solution to detect mines, and is likely to be a very welcomed addition to current methods if successfully passing further testing in areas of operation.'

The technology is based on genetic engineering of the plant Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). This plant has several advantages in developing this system.

For example, it is naturally selfpollinating and the plants developed by Aresa are conditionally fertile such that they are male-sterile enabling the growth of these Biodetection plants to be strictly controlled.

'This is a pioneering example of how we will see genetically engineered plants applied for humanitarian and environmental purposes in the future', says professor John Mundy, Department of Plant Physiology, University of Copenhagen.

'Our team has set out to develop a technology with large potential benefits all around the world.

Aresa Biodetection CEO PhD Simon 'stergaard said of their new system, 'in time we may contribute to clearing land in large scale projects much faster than is possible today, and reduce the number of people getting injured or killed

The Battle of El Alamein

2008-06-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

This Egyptian desert railway halt, situated about 95 km(60 mi.) west of Alexandria, gave its name to two different encounters between Allied and Axis forces during the Western Desert Campaigns. The first and some say erroneously named, was a defensive battle fought by the British and the Commonwealth Eighth Army from 1 to 4 July 1942. Commanded by General Auchinleck, the Eighth Army prevented Rommel's Panzer Army Africa (renamed German-Italian Panzer Army, 25 October 1942) from breaking through its defensive lines near Ruweisat Ridge when Rommel made a penultimate bid to conquer Egypt and seize the Suez Canal. It is still a matter of debate whether Auchinleck, aided by ULTRA intelligence and Dorman-Smith, was at last able to gain the initiative; or whether Rommel had simply run out of steam.

Before this battle between the two armies, Germany had conquered the whole of Western Europe and had strong allies in Italy and Japan. USA had just entered the fray after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. The war was threatening to enter into a world wide crisis with at least one of the countries in every continent in the world involved.

The Aida Operation Plan was hatched by Axis Powers for the Suez Canal. Italy and Germany combined forces for the first time since war began and they had scored a few victories and wanted to advance north. However, the vital supply route for both the Axis and the Allies, Malta, was ignored by Hitler who wanted to advance right away. Malta, situated at the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, was occupied by the British at that time and they could get their supplies easily. They also raided German ships who were sent to reinforce Rommel. Although the city was devastated by German bombs at first, the British managed to reinforce Malta and in turn aid Montgomery's army.

A Japanese Plane

Rommel tried to break through again and failed, at Alam Halfa in September. Then in the second El Alamein battle, the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lt-General Montgomery, fought successfully between 23 October and 4 November 1942 to pierce Rommel's defences, forcing him to retreat into Tunisia.

Unlike most previous Western Desert battles, this second battle was a set-piece affair against static defences with no turnable flank and lack of fuel and transport prevented Rommel from practising the mobile warfare of which he was a master. Instead, before going on sick leave on 23 September ( he returned on 25 October), he ordered his defences strenghtened by laying half a million anti-tank mines. Within these main minefields smaller ones, comprising anti-personnel devices, were laid. The Germans called them 'the Devil's gardens', and they caused Montgomery's attack serious delays. Rommel also 'corseted' the weaker Italian units with German formations and formed his armour into six groups positioned to counter-attack any breach of his defences. Besides being critically short of fuel, Rommel was outgunned and outmanned by the British.

	Eighth Army	Panzer Army Africa
Men	195,000	104,000(including 50,000 Germans)
Infantry Battalions	85	71 including 31 German
Medium tanks	1029	496
Anti-tank guns	1451	800
Field and Medium artillery	500	908
Aircraft	530	350 (+150 from other)

Montgomery's plan (LIGHTFOOT) was to breach Rommel's northern defences by employing four infantry divisions of Leese's 30th Corps on a 16 km (10 mi.) front. Paths would be cleared through the minefields to enable the two armoured divisions of Lumsden's 10th Corps to pass beyond the infantry's bridgehead, a line codenamed OXALIC, to a line (PIERSON) running south-east from Kidney Ridge. There, they would take up defensive positions against any German armoured attack and would not go on to the offensive until the infantry battle-the 'crumbling' process as Montgomery called it-had been won.

By attacking in the more heavily defended northern sector and by laying on elaborate deception plans and diversionary attacks in the south with 13th Corps, Montgomery achieved initial surprise. His plan envisaged three stages of the battle: the break-in, the 'dogfight' which will last about a week and the break-out.

But the break-in, begun during the night of 23 / 24 October before a rolling barrage from 882 guns, was slowed by the depth of Rommel's defences and Lumsden's armour only reached OXALIC on the first day. However, 9th Australian Division took a key feature in their northern sector and began developing a salient while 1st Armoured Division attacked two centres of resistance (SNIPE and WOODCOCK) either side of Kidney Ridge. Rommel launched fierce counter-attacks there but these were contained and constant Allied air attacks and concentrated artillery bombardments (both features of the battle) aided the infantry's 'crumbling' of his forces. Meanwhile the Australians continued to push out their salient and this siphoned Rommel's best troops away from where Montgomery was about to unleash a second attack (SUPERCHARGE) while it also 'uncorseted' the Italians.

Finding for enemies on the battle front

But the process was slow and the Churchill became agitated when divisions were withdrawn from the front for SUPERCHARGE. This was launched on the night of 1 / 2 November by the New Zealand Division and other infantry units, north of Kidney Ridge and south of where Rommel's elite units had now been drawn. This cleared the way forward for the armour and Rommel, after his forces suffered further attrition, decided the battle was lost and that he must save his mobile troops by withdrawing to Fuka. He warned Hitler on 2 November that his army was without fuel and faced annihilation - a signal which, thanks to ULTRA, was in Montgomery's hands the next morning - but when, in a second signal, he said a withdrawal had begun, Hitler ordered him to stand fast. Rommel tried to do so but once started, the process could not be reversed. A night attack by the 51st Highland Division overran its objectives and at dawn on 4 November it found Tell El Aqqaqir abandoned. At midday, Rommel's defences caved in and that evening Hitler gave him permission to withdraw. But by then Rommel's defeated army had started its headlong retreat across Libya during which Montgomery netted 30,000 prisoners-of-war. Allied casualties during the battle had amounted to 13,560.

El Alamein was the climax of the Western Desert campaigns and one of the turning-points of the war; the victory, as intended, influenced the French to co-operate in the North African campaign after initially opposing the landings there.

Devil Gardens

2008-06-26T13:21:00.001-07:00

A cry

This cry is from the larynxes of people who lost their parts or relatives with the aim of finding an echo.

These are your mines Why?	*Help us!	Egypt is a quiver which carried the banner of civilization for seven thousand years in which Egypt didn't deprive you of its light.	These are our victims What did they do?
	*Help us!	we didn't reap from your civilization but million mines in the Western Desert
	*Help us!	The spirits of innocent victims wonder which sins did they commit
	*Help us!	The cost of planting a mine is one dollar ,but its pulling out is one thousand dollar
	*Help us!	your lethal mines a annihilate life in out western area
	*Help us!	to unleash in this area to achieve prosperity and development so that you may benefit from it
	*Help us!	because we are peace seekers and we ask nothing but disgusting scouring
	* Help us	There are 83133 Egyptian wounded because of mines
	* Help us	Egypt has got 23 million mines and war rubbish scouring and it is high time to displant them

Facts

Matrouh is in need of angels to displant Devil Gardens .

-Mrs. Mubarak gives an interest to this problem with human and national motive.

- A lot of obstacles hinder displanting mine fields.

-Ministry of defense made great efforts to displant some mines but this problem is in need of international society interference.

It is essential to displant mines for saving Egyptian spirits and comprehensive development.

-Mines and its scouring are considered one of the most difficult problems which hinder development and populating in the eastern and western Egyptian deserts 0there are 23 million

mines :17 million mines in the Western Desert and 6 million

mines in the Eastern Desert according to the last statistics.

- There are national committee from ministries of defense and foreign affairs which take over the problem due to its dangerous effects on man and development. There are also a lot of local international and universal authorities and associations which give great and direct interest to this dangerous problem. Mrs, Mubarak is at the front of characters who gives interest to this problem because she is interested in national and social fields .Egyptian armed forces make great efforts to displant some mines in east and west with the aim of increasing areas needed to comprehensive development and other national aims .

Devil Gardens

The Western Egyptian Desert was a stage for decisive period of the second world war between Axis and Allied forces .the Western Dessert in general and El – Alamein in particular has witnessed the climax of planting mines . The famous German leader , Rommel has devised defensive technique which was known by Devil Gardens and it depends on tricks and snares .

It is considered a lot of comected mines . there are seven million mines :-

A – There is 3 million mines in El – Alamein .

B – There is 1.5 million mines in Fouka .

C - There is 1/2 million mines in Marsa Matrouh .

D - There is 1/2 million mines in the west of Marsa Matrouh up to lybian boarders . The rest of mines are scattered .

* The obstacles which hinder displanting mines :.

1- There is no accurate statistics for minefields in Matrouh .

2- They have been planted for 55 years ,50 they became more sensitive because of weather and climate .

3- Moving mines from its places because of wind and rain .

4- Hiding mines under sand dunes and increasing its depth .

The Importance of displanting Mines

• Displanting minefields is very essential to protect the Egyptian people of the Western Desert and with the aim of achieving development projects which are connected with agricultural, industrial , tourist , petroleum and metal activities :

A – Agricultural projects

- Reclaiming and growing one thousand feddan in the following areas :-

*5000 feddans on the right of El – Hammam canal .

*2000 feddans around EL- Nasr canal .

*7000 feddans in EL- Hammam .

*22000 feddans in Abd – EL Aty corner .

*30000 feddans in – EL Daba and EL Alamein .

- Mine fields hinder El – Hammam canal Extension project in west and reclaiming 75 thousand feddans in the south of EL Alamein as pasture for animals .

B - development projects

- Minefields obstacle EL Alamein Extension project in south and excavating petroleum , quarries of gypsum , sand , argil and natural reserves –This problem reduced opportunities of work because of obstacles in reclaiming areas and tourist development projects .

Devil Gardens

2008-06-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

A cry

This cry is from the larynxes of people who lost their parts or relatives with the aim of finding an echo.

These are your mines Why?	*Help us!	Egypt is a quiver which carried the banner of civilization for seven thousand years in which Egypt didn't deprive you of its light.	These are our victims What did they do?
	*Help us!	we didn't reap from your civilization but million mines in the Western Desert
	*Help us!	The spirits of innocent victims wonder which sins did they commit
	*Help us!	The cost of planting a mine is one dollar ,but its pulling out is one thousand dollar
	*Help us!	your lethal mines a annihilate life in out western area
	*Help us!	to unleash in this area to achieve prosperity and development so that you may benefit from it
	*Help us!	because we are peace seekers and we ask nothing but disgusting scouring
	* Help us	There are 83133 Egyptian wounded because of mines
	* Help us	Egypt has got 23 million mines and war rubbish scouring and it is high time to displant them

Facts

Matrouh is in need of angels to displant Devil Gardens .

-Mrs. Mubarak gives an interest to this problem with human and national motive.

- A lot of obstacles hinder displanting mine fields.

-Ministry of defense made great efforts to displant some mines but this problem is in need of international society interference.

It is essential to displant mines for saving Egyptian spirits and comprehensive development.

-Mines and its scouring are considered one of the most difficult problems which hinder development and populating in the eastern and western Egyptian deserts 0there are 23 million

mines :17 million mines in the Western Desert and 6 million

mines in the Eastern Desert according to the last statistics.

Devil Gardens

It is considered a lot of comected mines . there are seven million mines :-

A – There is 3 million mines in El – Alamein .

B – There is 1.5 million mines in Fouka .

C - There is 1/2 million mines in Marsa Matrouh .

D - There is 1/2 million mines in the west of Marsa Matrouh up to lybian boarders . The rest of mines are scattered .

* The obstacles which hinder displanting mines :.

1- There is no accurate statistics for minefields in Matrouh .

2- They have been planted for 55 years ,50 they became more sensitive because of weather and climate .

3- Moving mines from its places because of wind and rain .

4- Hiding mines under sand dunes and increasing its depth .

The Importance of displanting Mines

A – Agricultural projects

- Reclaiming and growing one thousand feddan in the following areas :-

*5000 feddans on the right of El – Hammam canal .

*2000 feddans around EL- Nasr canal .

*7000 feddans in EL- Hammam .

*22000 feddans in Abd – EL Aty corner .

*30000 feddans in – EL Daba and EL Alamein .

- Mine fields hinder El – Hammam canal Extension project in west and reclaiming 75 thousand feddans in the south of EL Alamein as pasture for animals .

B - development projects

Egypt's landmines are old and hard to locate in The Devil's Garden

2008-06-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Countries are edging towards signing an international treaty banning anti-personnel land mines in December, but this initiative brings up new problems to be solved.

Egypt's problem stems from the fact that its land mines are old and hard to locate and were designed for use against tanks, whereas international criticism is generally focused on anti-personnel mines. According to the ministry of defense, mines have hampered human and economic development and have killed and injured thousands of civilians.

The western desert, scene of one of the major second world war battles--El Alamine--was littered with 20 million mines by the armies.

Later, Egypt and Israel combined to dump more than 6 million mines in the Sinai desert and the region of the Gulf of Suez during the wars in 1967 and 1973.

Many of those mines are booby-trapped. The nomadic people refer to waste tracks of desert minefields as "The Devil's Garden."

The military analysts said that storms have increased the depth at which many land mines are buried by eight meters, thus ruling out the use of normal mine-detection methods.

The trigger mechanisms on many of the weapons have corroded. Mines that were intended to be set off by the hefty bulk of a tank may be detonated by weight of a baby. And some explode by themselves. Besides nomadic casualties, victims have included soldiers and off-the-beaten-track tourists.

Seven million mines have been cleared from the western desert in the past 15 years and three million from the Sinai desert. That leaves at least 20 million others.

But Egypt has set the year 2006 as the target for finally ridding its sands of land mines, but it is anxious not to left alone in paying for and carrying out this huge task.

While cost of dumping a mine ranges from $5 to $30, clearance costs $300 to $400. In the 1980s, the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Germany contributed about $20 million for training and equipment, in addition to satellite photography to determine the extent of the problem and help locate minefields.

Foreign donations have now dried up, however, and since 1990, Egypt has spent $70 million on de-mining. The government estimates that another $200 million is needed to finish the task.

The establishment has been criticized for taking too long to deal with the problem, but Cairo says it was unable to start tackling the menace until it made peace with Israel.

The Devil's Gardens

2008-06-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

Remains of the Allies armies left in the western Desert to kill the Innocent
Planted by the Allies in the Western Desert, Innocent Egyptians are the Victims
Egypt is the most afflicted country by land mines, suffering for almost half a century from the problem of 22.8 million landmines buried in Egypt's soil; threatening the people and impeding development. It is Egypt's right to have these mines removed by the countries that had laid them in its territory.

Remains of the Allies armies left in the western Desert to kill the Innocent Planted by the Allies in the Western Desert, Innocent Egyptians are the Victims Egypt is the most afflicted country by land mines, suffering for almost half a century from the problem of 22.8 million landmines buried in Egypt's soil; threatening the people and impeding development. It is Egypt's right to have these mines removed by the countries that had laid them in its territory.

Removing a single mine costs 1000 Dollars while laying it costs 10 Dollars only!
Years pass and the danger of mines laid in Egypt's territory still exists. These mines threaten the lives of innocent civilians. Every day, new victims are added to those afflicted by this highly destructive weapon and casualities are in thousands.
These facts reflect the gravity of the problem that was created by both Axis and Allies forces and for which Egypt can not be blamed.
Out of a total of about 110 million landmines planted around the world, Egypt has 23 million, i.e; 20% of the total landmines spreading in the eastern and western parts of the country. Because of this threat a sizable part of Egypt's arable land, amounting to 686,000 feddans or almost 10% of total cultivable area, could not be developed. In addition, landmines have disrupted economic development projects as it constitutes a threat to the life and safety of individuals. Already thousands had died from explosion of mines. Over the past 20 years, about 8000 were victimized.

The Devil's Gardens
The Western Desert is the most afflicted by landmines as its minefields extend from Alamain up to the Egyptian-Libyan borders with a depth of more than 40 km from the Mediterranean coast. The Allies and the Axis troops left behind about 17.5 million mines during the Second World War in June 1942. Most notorious was the Devil's Gardens where landmines were laid by the Axis forces led by the German Commander Rommel to cover up his withdrawal from Alamain and prevent pursuit by the Allies forces.
The landmines planted by the Axis troops were laid in a random cluster-shaped patterns at varying depths. If one landmine is lifted, the others will detonate.

Problems of Clearing Landmines
To remove 17.5 million mines planted in the Western Desert is not an easy task. In addition to the problem of technology and financial support, there is a host of other problems and obstacles that face Egypt in the pursuit of clearing landmines. These can summed up in the following:
a- The presence of various types of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines that were laid by forces of the Allies and Axis forces in Egypt's Western Desert during the World War II.
b- Moving sand dunes and climatic changes over half a century have resulted in moving landmines from their original places.
c- The absence of accurate maps or information about the areas in which they are planted. Furthermore, some countries responsible of planting mines are deliberately hiding these maps. In view of the change of mine locations due to climatic and physical factors, existing maps for these areas are rendered useless.
d- Absence of paved roads leading to the mined areas.
e- The high financial costs needed to remove mines. For example, the el-Alamain fields alone need more than 20 billion dollars to demine 17.5 million mines. While it costs no more than 10 dollars to plant a landmine, it costs from 300 to 1000 Dollar to demine it.
g- Egypt is not listed in the international work plan to combat landmines although landmines planted in Egypt represent 20% of total landmines around the world.

Demining Efforts in Egypt
During the last decades, Egypt exerted sustained efforts to address the problem of land mines implanted in its territory. However, it is very costly to execute a comprehensive plan for demining as it surpasses Egypt's capabilities. Yet Egypt took serious steps to solve this problem, which include:
a- In 1996 at the Geneva Disarmament Conference, Egypt called on countries that had planted landmines in its territory to assume responsibility for clearing them, and to help Egypt with the maps necessary for the demining process.
b- At the meetings of the UN, and at all related occasions, Egypt calls upon the countries that had planted land mines in its territory to provide the maps, records and locations of minefields.
c- The successive symposia about the problem of mines, organized by the armed forces and some concerned bodies and organizations representatives from the whole world are especially countries of the former Allies and Axis to be aware of the gravity of the problem in Egypt. The government has also publicized the problem and published a book entitled “The Iron Killers”, to attract attention to this serious problem.

The Role of the Armed Forces in Demining
The most remarkable national effort recently exerted by Egypt in the process of demining is the role of the Armed Forces from 1973 to 1995. They cleared a vast area of lands reaching to 103,000 hectars; mostly in the Eastern Desert and Sinai. They removed about 11 million mines bringing down the number of planted land mines in Egypt from 34 million to 23 million mines. Mined areas fell to 288,000 hectars from 401,000 hectars. In a later phase, from 1995 up till now, the Armed Forces removed about 1.2 million mines. Thus the number of mines in Egypt fell from 23 million to 21.8 million mines and mined areas from 288,000 hectars to 284,000 hectars.

A Diplomatic Campaign
The efforts of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry during the previous period as its efforts and communications have resulted in tangible progress in the course of work for ending the problem. By the end of the eighties, the Foreign Ministry began to pay attention to the mines issue. At that time the UN had shown an international concern about the issue. The Foreign Ministry succeeded in getting the world community to accept the estimation of the number of mines in Egypt.
The Foreign Ministry sought to confirm the Egyptian right to remove these mines by those countries responsible for such issue and to pay compensation.

The Foreign Ministry succeeded in its sustained campaign for solving the problem to make people aware of gravity of the problem on the local and international level. Egypt emphasizes that planting these mines was not a result of a civil war or an armed struggle but due to military operations during the World War II at a certain time and a certain place by certain countries. Egypt was not, by any means, engaged in that war. In spite of the efforts exerted by the Foreign Ministry with the concerned parties which resulted in some technical and financial contribution by Britain, Australia, Germany and the European Union towards that objective, yet, these contributions are still inadequate compared with the high-cost of removing the mines. The matter requires the cooperation of the international community as a whole to confront this issue not in Egypt alone but in all countries afflicted by this damaging weapon.

International Responsibility
The role of the international community in clearing mines is a pivotal role especially in relation to international finance and technical aid. Because of the size of the problem in Egypt international assistance is vital. We have to keep in mind that mines of the Western Desert were planted totally during World War II and for which Egypt was not at all responsible.
The countries which planted mines in Egypt should shoulder the responsibility and contribute to the cost for clearing these mines. However, there exist a number of difficulties and complexities concerning the international role.

In spite of the Egyptian diplomatic efforts in this respect, the international response has been inadequate and is below expectations. Germany refused to cooperate with Egypt for fear that such a commitment on its part will encourage other countries to establish a similar claim. Italy, an Axis power during the war limited its assistance to training Egyptians in mine removal.
The UN on the other hand has acknowledged the statistics presented by Egypt concerning the number of mines on its territory but has not considered the problem as urgent.

Thus, the question posed now is how can we activate the international role? Several approaches can be adopted but the most immediate task is to confirm the responsibility of responsible countries to clear these mines. Attempts should be made to convince these countries to accept their responsibility under international law.

Landmine detection and discrimination using high-pressure waterjets

2008-06-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

Methods of locating and identifying buried landmines using high-pressure waterjets were investigated. Methods were based on the sound produced when the waterjet strikes a buried object. Three classification techniques were studied, based on temporal, spectral, and a combination of temporal and spectral approaches using weighted density distribution functions, a maximum likelihood approach, and hidden Markov models, respectively. Methods were tested with laboratory data from low-metal content simulants and with field data from inert real landmines. Results show that the sound made when the waterjet hit a buried object could be classified with a 90% detection rate and an 18% false alarm rate. In a blind field test using 3 types of harmless objects and 7 types of landmines, buried objects could be accurately classified as harmful or harmless 60%-90% of the time. High-pressure waterjets may serve as a useful companion to conventional detection and classification methods.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1289340.1289506

land-mine detection technology

2008-06-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

WHILE diplomats work to restrict the manufacture, sale, and use of land mines worldwide, a massive cleanup effort is needed to find and destroy the estimated 100 million land mines still buried in 65 countries. Land mines left behind from wars worldwide are one of the century's main unsolved problems of war and remain the focus of humanitarian mine detection and removal primarily in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
A combination of technologies from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being directed toward the most daunting challenge presented by land mines--quickly determining the location of each individual land mine in an area so all of them can be removed. The Laboratory's patented micropower impulse radar and advanced imaging technologies are being combined in a practical system called the Land-Mine Detection Advanced Radar Concept, or LANDMARC, that is making pivotal advances in meeting the challenge of land-mine detection.

The Detection Dilemma
Effective solution of the problem posed by land mines means that close to 100% of the mines in any area must be detected at the fastest rate possible and with few false alarms (i.e., mistaking a buried object, such as a rock, for a mine). The United Nations, for example, has set the detection goal at 99.6%, and the U.S. Army's allowable false-alarm rate is one false alarm in every 1.25 square meters. No existing land-mine detection system meets these criteria. And the reasons for this failure have as much to do with the mines themselves and the variety of environments in which they are buried as with the limits or flaws in the current technology.
Land mines are of two basic types--antitank and antipersonnel. Antitank mines are larger and more powerful than antipersonnel mines. However, antipersonnel mines are the most common type of mine, yet the most difficult to find because they are small and often made of plastic. Antitank mines generally contain more metal than do antipersonnel mines and are thus more easily detectable by simple metal detectors. Both types are buried as close to the surface as possible and are found in a variety of soils and terrain--rocky or sandy soil, open fields, forested areas, steep terrain, jungle. For both types of mines, detonation is typically caused by pressure, although some are activated by a trip-wire or other mechanisms. Thus, a land-mine detector must do its job without having direct contact with a mine. It also must be able to locate all types of mines individually in a variety of environments.

Other Detection Technologies
Various detection technologies are currently used, each with limits or flaws. Dogs and other "sniffers" have high ongoing expenses, are subject to fatigue, and can be fooled by masked scents. Metal detectors are sensitive to metal mines and firing pins but cannot reliably find plastic mines. Infrared detectors effectively detect recently placed mines, but they are expensive and limited to certain temperature conditions. Thermal neutron activation detectors are accurate but are large for field use, slow, and expensive.
In early attempts, ground-penetrating radar was sensitive to large mines, had good coverage rate at a distance, and with signal processing, could discriminate antitank mines from clutter such as rocks beneath the ground surface. This type of radar, however, remains expensive, cannot detect antipersonnel mines because its resolution is too low, and frequently records false alarms from clutter sources.
Livermore's ongoing LANDMARC project addresses all of these problems and stands a good chance of solving them, especially the problems of detecting small plastic antipersonnel mines and reducing the false-alarm rate.

Livermore's Systems Approach
The LANDMARC system's enabling technology is micropower impulse radar (MIR), which was invented at Livermore in 1993 as an outgrowth of the Nova laser program.¹ The invention, which won an R&D 100 Award in 1993 and an Excellence in Technology Transfer award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium in 1996, led directly to a battery-operated pulsed radar that is remarkably small and inexpensive, has a wide frequency band, and works well at short ranges²--all necessary attributes of land-mine detection systems.
MIR's small size, light weight, and low power requirements make it superior to any previous attempts to use ground-penetrating radar to detect land mines. MIR's ultrawide bandwidth is the source of the high-resolution imaging capabilities that differentiate LANDMARC from similar land-mine-detection technologies. Furthermore, the ability to group individual MIR units in arrays increases the speed and coverage area of LANDMARC's detection work.
Livermore's LANDMARC team has combined MIR units with a high-performance imaging system that uses sophisticated computer algorithms to convert large amounts of raw waveform data from the MIR units to high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images of the subsurface. The prototype systems enable users to visualize both antitank and antipersonnel mines and to differentiate them from rocks and other clutter of similar size and shape by the reflected MIR signal. Once the mines can be "seen" and identified, they can be recovered and destroyed.
LANDMARC prototypes have multiple MIR units that are either configured in a hand-held wand, much like that used for simple metal detectors, or mounted on a small robotic cart (Figure 1). In either configuration, the MIR array is passed over the ground with the antennas of the units about 10 centimeters above the surface. The units rapidly emit microwave impulses with very short risetimes (100 trillionths of a second) that radiate from transmitting antennas and penetrate the ground. These impulses strike and penetrate buried objects, bounce back to a receiving antenna, and are sampled and processed by an onboard computer to measure changes in the dielectric and conductivity properties of the subsurface. In a few seconds, the data reconstruction algorithms convert the raw radar data into high-resolution two- and three-dimensional tomographic images of the subsurface (Figure 2). On the system currently under development, the images will appear on either a laptop computer or the operator's headset screen.

LANDMARC Innovations
One of LANDMARC's chief contributions to land-mine detection technology is combining MIR units with a high-performance imaging system.³ LANDMARC's MIR-based imaging software, which was originally developed for radar inspection of steel-reinforced concrete bridge decks, provides a great improvement over previous land-mine detection technology in sorting out clutter--the most difficult of the imaging tasks--and lowering the false-alarm rate.
Central to perfecting LANDMARC's imaging capabilities are the comprehensive signal and noise models being developed by the Livermore team. These models are based on the contributions from temperature differences, inhomogeneity in the soil, increased noise resulting from multiple reflections in MIR arrays, surface reflections, and subsurface clutter such as rocks, roots, and voids. They identify terrain and soil conditions where radar is likely to work well and other situations where different types of sensors would be more appropriate. More important, the models are used to design algorithms to help reduce the false-alarm rate and increase the positive identification rate in laboratory and field tests, both of which, in turn, improve LANDMARC's ability to discriminate between mines and clutter.

Results from Field Testing
Preliminary experiments identified the operational requirements of the prototype systems. The LANDMARC team developed the reconstruction algorithms that generate a three-dimensional image and is using them to investigate design trade-offs such as array size, sampling rate, and overall speed. In laboratory tests, the prototype clearly distinguished plastic antipersonnel mines from surrounding soils. In field tests at Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort A. P. Hill in Virginia, funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the system performed well, though at a slow pace. The images it produced indicated that much progress has been made in removing the strong ground-surface reflection and other noise sources--that is, improving the signal-to-clutter ratio.
Field tests also indicated areas for additional refinement, among them using higher frequencies (that is, wider bandwidth) to improve resolution and better distinguish mines from clutter, and providing the system with a means of communicating a more accurate field position of the imaged mines.

Future Plans
When field tests with the prototypes are complete, the LANDMARC team plans to conduct blind tests at U.S. Army mine fields to measure detection probabilities under realistic conditions. In addition, plans to speed up the scan rate with advanced arrays are under way. Already experienced in industrial licensing of the MIR technology, the team will then direct LANDMARC toward external sponsorship for deployment in actual mine fields. The Department of Defense, U.S. industries, nongovernmental organizations such as Operation USA and the World Bank, and foreign governments have all shown interest in using Livermore's land-mine detection technology.
-Sue Stull

A Method for Detecting Shallowly Buried Landmines Using Sequential GPR Data

2008-06-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

A method for detecting shallowly buried landmines using sequentialground penetrating radar (GPR) data is presented. After removinga dominant coherent component arising from the ground surfacereflection from the GPR data, three kinds of target featuresrelated to wave correlation, energy ratio, and signal arrivaltime are extracted. Since the detection problem treated hereis reduced to a binary hypothesis test, an approach based ona likelihood ratio test is employed as a detection algorithm.In order to check the detection performance, a Monte Carlo simulationis carried out for data generated by a two-dimensional finite-differencetime domain (FDTD) method. Results given in the form of receiveroperating characteristic (ROC) curves show that good detectionperformance is obtained even for landmines buried at shallowdepths under rough ground surfaces, where the responses fromthe landmines and that from the ground surface overlap in time.

LANDMINE AWARENESS MESSAGES

2008-06-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

LANDMINE AWARENESS MESSAGES

The following are the general generic messages used as a basis for most landmine awareness programme curriculum. These messages have come from years of testing and trailing in many different countries and situations. All messages would need to be adapted to specific country conditions.

BE AWARE OF THE THREAT

PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS

IF YOU COME ACROSS A MINE

BE AWARE OF THE THREAT

IDENTIFY MINES/UXO

Mines/UXO come in many different shapes, sizes and colours. They may not always be the brightly coloured objects seen in the posters and displays. Age and weathering can change their appearances with the metal mines rusting and the wooden and plastic mines breaking down.

On arrival in a mined country a person should visit one of the demining and/or mine awareness agencies to find out which types of landmines are found in that country (as well as the location of known mined areas, the official warning signs/clues, etc).

Landmines can be broken into 2 categories as shown on this Cambodian mine/UXO identification leaflet (click on the areas to see more details.)

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BELOW GROUND MINES

ABOVE GROUND MINES

BELOW GROUND MINES

Below ground (buried) mines can be as small as of a cigarette packet - which is capable of blowing off half of one leg, or as large as a car wheel rim (an anti-tank mine) - which will leave no trace of the victim.

Usually these types of mines are difficult, if not impossible to see as they will be buried (usually to depth of 3-5 cm), hidden in tall grass, floating in water or lying under water. Although sometimes they may be exposed through the action of wind or rain.

Below ground mines are designed to detonate when someone applies pressure to the top. The blast action severs the leg, inflicts damage to the lower body sections and drives foreign particles deep into the upper body.

Below ground mines are by far the most commonly used mines as they are cheap to produce, easy to require, light to carry and small enough to effectively hide and lay.

DO NOT TOUCH any mines, even if you are told it is safe (even the experts have accidents). ‘Anti-handling’ devices may be fitted to a mine, for example the Type 72B mine has an anti-tilt mechanism that will cause it to detonate when tilted 10 degrees or more.

Example #1 of a Below Ground Mine: ‘PMN’

An example of a common below ground landmine is the PMN anti-personnel mine. This mine has probably killed and maimed more civilians than any other mine. Originally manufactured in the former Soviet Union, it has also been produced in other countries. PMN mines have been found in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Northern Iraq, Iran, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique and many other countries.

Weight: 600 g
Diameter: 112 mm
Height: 56 mm
Body: Bakelite
Main Charge: TNT
Main Charge Weight: 240 g
Charge: Tetryl
Lethal Range: up to 2 meters

Example #2 of a Below Ground Mine: ‘PMD 6’

Originally developed in World War II, the PMD-6 antipersonnel mine is a rudimentary pressure-activated blast device in a wooden box. As the wood rots, the mine mechanism may shift, and the device even more dangerous, either setting itself off or becoming inoperative. Originally manufactured in the former Soviet Union, it has been widely used in Cambodia.

Weight: 600 g
Diameter: 112 mm
Height: 56 mm
Body: Wood
Main Charge: TNT
Main Charge Weight: 240g
Charge: Tetryl
Lethal Range: up to 2 meters

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ABOVE GROUND MINES

Above ground (surface) mines are designed to kill and cause as much psychical damage as possible. They are also known as ‘fragmentation’ mines because they are made to project large numbers of 4-6 cm sized metal fragments, at a speed of 1,600 m/s, over a large area.

There are several types of above ground mines such as, a ‘stake’ mine, which has a grenade like explosive placed on top of a wooden stake. A ‘directional’ mine concentrates it’s fragments into a predetermined direction so as to enhance the destructiveness and lethal range. A ‘bounding’ mine, will jump out of the ground before it explodes (this is detailed more below see ‘Type 69’).

Above ground mines are usually laid on the surface of the ground, hidden in grass, placed up a tree or behind a bush. Commonly a tripwire is attached and strung across a path, so that when the next unsuspecting person walks along he/she will trip the wire and cause the mine to explode.

Tripwires are thin wires that come in several different colours. so they can blend into the environment, eg. green for forests, tan for sandy areas, white for snow, etc. If you see a tripwire it must not be touched or tugged by any means. It is also important not try to step over the wire but instead go back the way you came.

Above Ground Mine Example #1: ‘Type 69’ ANTIPERSONNEL BOUNDING MINE

An example of a common above ground landmine is the Type 69 'Bounding Mine' which is manufactured in China. This mine is usually buried up to its fuse with a tripwire attached and strung across a path. When the tripwire is pulled the primary charge detonates causing the mine to jump out of the ground to the height of around 1 meter. A secondary charge then detonates and causes it to explode in a 360 degree radius. Anyone within 11 meters be probably be killed outright and those within 100 – 250 meters will be severely injured by hundreds of red hot razor sharp cast iron fragments.

Weight: 1.35 kg
Diameter: 61 mm
Height (with fuse): 168 mm
Body Material: Cast Iron
Main Charge: TNT
Main Charge Weight: 0.105 kg
Booster Charge: Tetryl
Lethal Range: approx. 11 meters
Height of burst: 1-1.5 m

Above Ground Mine Example #2: ‘Claymore’ DIRECTIONAL MINE

The American M-18 Claymore is a directional fragmentation mine. The curved plastic plate is filled with pellets or projectiles in front of the explosive charge. The plastic casing is equipped with two pair of adjustable scissors legs for placement on the ground and is sighted using a slit between the detonator wells. It can be mounted against a round surface such as a tree or can be placed on a small stand-alone stake.

A Claymore Mine contains 700 individual ball bearings tightly packed around an explosive core. The detonator initiates the main charge which spreads metal fragments in a 60 degree arc in a beaten zone approx. 2 m. high and 50 m. wide. It is designed to detonate and propel the bearings towards the target causing death or severe injury. Claymores are light, simple to set up, and very effective against unprotected troops. They are often used in ambushes, or in hasty defences.

Weight: 1.6 kg
Length: 230 mm
Height: 90 mm
Width: 50mm
Body Material: Plastic
Main Charge: P-4 plastic explosive
Main Charge Weight: 0.9 kg
Contents: 700 steel balls
Lethal Range: approx. 50 meters
Blast range: 60 degrees

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UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE (UXO)

Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) are different types of ammunitions fired in battle but do not go off. Some types of UXO are: -

Shells
Grenades
Rockets
Mortars
Bullets, etc

UXOs are designed to explode when they land but sometimes do not detonate immediately. They will remain where they land until they are defused by an expert or detonated by a victim. Because they haven’t detonated as designed they can now be more sensitive and may detonate by just a touch or, as one deminer told me, just by the casting of a shadow onto the casing could be sufficient to cause some bombs to explode.

UXOs come in many different shapes, sizes and colours. They are usually always made of metal which fragments when it explodes. UXOs are usually much more destructive than landmines, for example a common mortar shell has a lethal range of 300 meters, and the largest of the bombs can have a lethal range of up to 1,000 meters.

UXOs, especially grenades, have proven to be of great interest to young boys, who carry them around on their belts to impress their peers. They know that all they have to do is pull out the pin to see it ‘pop’ but few of them fully comprehend the destructive power of these ‘small balls’.

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RECOGNISE AREAS LIKELY TO BE MINED

In a mined country before you travel you must make sure the areas you are travelling to are safe from mines and/or UXO contamination. If there are minefields in area then you should not proceed and instead find a safe location. This information can be gathered from the local mine action organisations, ie. deminers, mine awareness NGOs, military and/or local authorities.

Mines can conceivably be found anywhere, where farmers work, where the villagers build their houses, in the forest where they collect food, around water sources and where they go fishing. There are some areas that are more likely to have landmines than others. Generally people should completely avoid areas where fighting has recently taken place, strategic military locations eg. military hospitals, secret bases, the perimeters of bases, etc. Areas that are overgrown with no signs of people entering should be assumed are mined and not entered.

It is vital to be constantly on the lookout for mine warning signs and clues which might indicate that an area is mined. Suspected mined areas should not be entered until they have been properly checked and cleared. Nonetheless, local people may feel the need to enter known or suspected mined areas in order to gather wood or water. Everyone should therefore be fully informed of mine awareness techniques.

Be especially careful around the following areas :-

Abandoned military outposts
Deserted villages, ruins
Secret bases, high security places, strategic military targets
Areas containing significant infrastructure
Military warehouses
Field hospitals
Entrances to caves
Below and around bridges
Natural shady areas
Overgrown areas
Water sources, wells, river bank

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BE ABLE TO RECOGNISE MINE WARNING SIGNS

Normally the soldier who lays a landmine does not leave any signs to indicate its presence. Although sometimes a temporary warning sign may be placed by someone who discovers the mine at a later date. If you see one of these signs then you must presume it is a mined area and return on the path you came to find a safe route.

There are many different warning signs that are placed to indicate a dangerous area. The unofficial signs made by the locals and the official sign placed by authorities and demining organisations It is advisable that everyone learns all the different types of warning signs used throughout the country. The signs used by the local people may not be the same as those used in other areas or by officials.

UNOFFICIAL SIGNS

These are made by the local population and change from country to country and from area to area. Some of the most commonly use local warning signs are:-

Crossed sticks
Knotted grass
Objects hanging from tree branches or on sticks eg. empty plastic bottles, rags, etc
Broken branches blocking a path

The materials used to make signs need to be large enough so they are clearly seen by others and not easily moved by passing animals/wind. As it is close to a known mined area, care must be taken to collect the materials only from the known safe path areas as you must assume all the other surrounding areas are mined.

If there are no warning signs present DO NOT presume the area is safe.

OFFICIAL SIGNS

These are manufactured signs that are placed around known mined areas by deminers and local military. There are several different signs that are used in different countries, although all official warning signs are usually very clear and are very obvious.

The most common official warning sign used is the skull and cross bones illustration on a bright red square or triangular background with warnings written in the local language and usually also in English.

Normally the whole area is taped off with warning signs placed at regular intervals along the tape fence. The tape is usually made of plastic can be red and white stripped or bright yellow.

If you see such a sign you MUST go back the way you came and do not proceed further. If there are no warning signs present DO NOT presume the area is safe.

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BE ABLE TO RECOGNISE CLUES TO THE PRESENCE OF MINES

Usually mined areas do not appear to be significantly different from areas which are free of mines. Mines are difficult to see as they may be buried, or they may be concealed behind trees or in tall grass. However, there may be clues indicating that there are landmines in an area.

The clues may be quite obvious, such as an exposed mine or the presence of the skeletons of humans or animals. Clues may also be subtle, like a slight change in the vegetation growth pattern, a small mound, or a slight settling of the earth.

They may be man-made clues like the ones some soldiers leave when they lay mines, or clues in nature.

MAN-MADE WARNING CLUES

Look carefully for such thing as:-

Shrapnel
Battle field marks
Exposed mine
Parts of exploded mines/UXO
Trip wires
Fuses sticking out of the ground
Boxes or wrappings used for transporting explosives
Discarded safety pins or initiation keys

NATURAL WARNING CLUES

Look carefully for such thing as:-

Skeletons, injured or dead bodies.
Changes in vegetation, or anything that is out-of-place in nature
A mound of soil or an indent on the surface of the ground
Unnatural disturbances on the ground

If you see a clue or anything you are not sure about, then presume it is a mined area and go straight back the way you came. Do not presume an area is safe if you don't see any warning clues.

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KNOW HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS

KEEP OUT OF KNOWN MINED AREAS

It is vital to be constantly on the lookout for mine warning signs and clues which might indicate that an area is mined. Suspected mined areas should not be entered, nonetheless, some local people may feel the need to enter known or suspected mined areas in order to gather wood or water. These people should be encouraged to seek safer ways to find or pay for food. Some NGOs do provide skills training, food supplements and work-for-food schemes in an attempt to discourage people engaging in unsafe behaviour.

One amputee mine survivor gave me this warning to pass along to others,

“ Do not go into dangerous areas! If you step on a mine and get killed, that is okay. But if you step on a mine and get your legs blown off, like me, then your life will become very difficult. You should try to change your employment now, while you still have the opportunity.”

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IF YOU MUST ENTER, FIND OUT THE SAFE PATHS THROUGH THE MINEFIELD

A safe path is one which is travelled frequently and which is known to be free of mines or UXO. When travelling far from home, one should regularly inquire about the location of mined areas, as these locations may change.

Nearby residents usually know which routes are safe and which are not, though it may be necessary to ask several people to be sure. Ideally you should always travel with a guide who lives in the area and knows the safe routes.

All travelling should be done during daylight hours whenever possible because it is harder to see warning signs and clues at night. Moreover, mines are often laid at night to protect bridges and main access routes, but sometimes the soldiers forget to be remove them in the morning.

If you are unsure about the status of the area you should not proceed any further, return the way you came or else find a safe alternative route

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STAY ON THE SAFE PATH

When travelling in potentially mined areas, under no circumstances should one leave a safe path, even to go to the toilet. Do not be tempted to leave a path to explore or collect souvenirs. Ask yourself ‘Why, for example, is there still a lot of fruit on those nearby trees?’

People travelling together through potentially mined areas should walk in single file with at least a meter separating one person from the next. Stay close to the middle of the path because mines are commonly laid on the edges of the paths.

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DO NOT TOUCH

All mines are potentially dangerous with some containing anti- handling devices that cause them to detonate with a slight tilt. Under no circumstances should you touch a landmine or unexploded ordnance (UXO). Even if the 'expert' tells you that it is safe to touch, you should consider that 'experts' also have accidents.

Do not let curiosity get the better of your common sense and treat mines with the contempt they deserve. In mined countries it is not uncommon for people to offer to show you a cache of mines. The locals have been living with military ordnance around them for decades and may have developed a false sense of security around them. This is the time to be sensible and make polite excuses to leave.

According to Cambodian Mine Incident Database Project’s “Monthly Mine Incident Report (March 1999), from the period April 1998 – March 1999, out of a total of 1,120 reported causalities, 64 people (9%) were injured or killed through tampering or touching landmines.

Do Not Touch Mines/UXO any object unless you are absolutely sure it is safe, it may be booby-trapped
Warn others not to touch mines/UXO
Prevent others from entering mined areas
Do not throw a mine or throw anything at a mine
Do not kick or otherwise strike a mine/UXO
Do not attempt to defuse or demine an area
Do not throw a mine/UXO into water
Do not burn a mine
Do not go anywhere near a tripwire, as the surrounding area may also be mined
Do not collect mines/UXO for scrap metal

Everyone needs mine awareness

It has been common for foreigners to use parts of mines/UXO and warning signs as gruesome desk ornaments. You should not ask local people to collect mines for you because you could be encouraging them to enter dangerous areas and risk their lives. By treating these objects as ordinary day-to-day objects gives out the wrong message and goes against the mine awareness efforts. Instead we should be sending out positive warnings by engaging in safe behaviour.

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BE AWARE OF WHAT TO DO IF YOU COME ACROSS A LANDMINE/UXO

MARK THE MINED AREA AND REPORT ITS PRESENCE

Some landmine awareness programmes advise people to mark a mine so to warn the next people who come along of the mine danger. It has also been argued, however, that such a marking effort may be dangerous, since one must find and place a suitable marker and therefore remain in the area which may contain other mines. Moreover, the sign may not be clear to others as to where the mine is in relation to the marker.

Marking a mined area needs to be learnt from a technical expert who should teach the proper procedures through practical exercises, and NOT simply through the mass media or media presentations.

People need to learn the best ways to make temporary warning signs, which includes not leaving a safe path in order to collect suitable materials to make the sign, that the sign should be easily recognisable, that it should be large enough to be readily visible and sturdy enough to withstand the weather or disturbance by animals.

It is important for people to understand that any warning sign should not be placed on mined ground. Also not to mark individual mines, but to leave behind a clear indication within a safe area which can then be used later by mine clearance professionals.

After marking you should report the location to the government authorities village leaders, police, army personnel, or the nearest mine clearance unit. In theory once a mine location has been identified the authorities will install a more permanent warning sign/ fencing to warn others of the dangers or conduct clearance work.

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HOW TO GET OUT OF A MINEFIELD
they should assume they are in a minefield. There are several procedures taught to people about how to get themselves and others out of known mined areas. Although none of these procedures are 100% guaranteed to be safe from potential injury. They are:-

None of these procedures can be learnt just through mass media and printed materials (such as this article) but must be learnt through formal training. The training should be carried out by an expert and include detailed practical exercises.

STAND AND WAIT

‘Stand and Wait’ is the best and most commonly taught technique, especially for children. Although this technique does rely upon the availability of a rescue unit, the ability to notify them or that the individual will be missed and looked for.

The basic procedures for this technique are:-

Stop walking immediately
Warn others who may be at hand by calling out “Stop walking! There are mines!”
Call out for help or send someone off to get a rescue party
Stay where you are and do not move, until you are rescued

An amputee once told me “It is better to spend two days in a minefield than a lifetime as an amputee.”

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RETRACE FOOTSTEPS

Another method for getting out of a minefield is to retrace one’s footsteps. Retracing one’s footsteps is not a safe option and can be an extremely dangerous method. In reality there are few occasions where this technique can be used as it is unlikely that you will be able to clearly make out full outline of your footprint, unless you are walking in soft sand, mud or snow. Technical experts must be consulted, and proper procedures must be taught through practical exercises and not simply through media techniques. Do not attempt to retrace your footsteps out of a minefield unless you have received the proper training.

Click here to open a separate window with detailed instructions on Retracing your footsteps.
NB. The details given are just to give you an idea of the procedure and do not attempt to pass along the full detailed technique.

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RESCUE PROCEDURES

PROD A PATH

Usually you will not be able to see your footsteps, and in some countries such as Cambodia it may take days or weeks before someone could come to save you. In these circumstances the only technique available to get out of a minefield is to ‘prod’.

Prodding is a potentially very dangerous task which is painstakingly slow but cannot be hurried.

Because prodding is difficult and dangerous it will require substantial practice and is not usually proposed as a solution. It most certainly is not possible to learn how to prod purely through the public awareness component of a mine awareness campaign.

The technique should be explained through demonstrations and practical exercises and given until the technical experts are satisfied that all the individuals being instructed are capable of using the technique properly. Usually this procedure is taught to small groups in secluded locations away from children, where practice exercises can be easily held.

The aim of prodding is to probe the ground for mines, so you can step out of a minefield. If the procedure is being used to retrieve an injured person, it is recommended that the path be wide enough to allow the rescuer to carry the injured person out of the mined area. In this case, it is not recommended that only the impressions of footsteps be prodded.

Click here to open a separate window with detailed instructions on Prodding.
NB. The details given are just to give you an idea of the procedure and do not attempt to pass along the full detailed technique.

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Combined Systems: Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Techniques

2008-06-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

In addition to nuclear based techniques, other more conventional ones are presented. They hold similar objectives, such as characterizing materials to detect illicit traffics, explosives, or landmines. Some techniques are stand-alone, while others are more suitable for combined systems.

Description of different industrial applications of X-rays, which can be competitive with neutrons at characterizing organic materials (See C-01).
Use of API-based sensors in landmine as well as security applications, coupled with microwave sensors (See C-03).
General presentation on the ground penetrating radar technique use in geophysical measurements and landmines detection. This is a good example of a possible non-nuclear technique to be combined with nuclear ones (See C-02).
Thorough presentation of resistivity techniques, which are standard geophysical sensing techniques, applied to landmine detection (See C-04)

Sessions C1 and C2
Advances of industrial dual beam x-ray scanners and improved methods for detection of explosives and humanitarian de-mining	C.M. Bartle	C-01
Landmines detection and assessment in Egypt: an experimental test site evaluation for GPR approach	G. El-Qady	C-02
Concept of a combined device for localization and identification of explosive	A.V. Kuznetsov	C-03
Mine detection in Egypt: evaluation of new technology	G. El-Qady	C-04

CLEARING LANDMINES

2008-06-26T10:27:00.001-07:00

The new mine detector should make the life-saving work quicker and easier. (Japan Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support)

A Japanese nonprofit organization has developed a revolutionary new system for detecting antipersonnel landmines in an accurate and speedy manner. The new detector uses electromagnetic waves to give a precise image of these mines, including their position, composition, and shape. As a result, it promises to greatly increase the safety and efficiency of demining work. At present there are said to be more than 110 million landmines buried around the world. These landmines result in the deaths and injuries not only of residents but also demining workers, so great expectations are being placed on the new detector.

Zeroing In on Landmines
The new landmine detector, called "Mine Eye," was developed by the Japan Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support, a nongovernmental organization. A handy sensor weighing just 700 grams beams electromagnetic waves into the ground, analyzes the reflected waves, and shows the shape, position, and depth of buried objects on a liquid-crystal screen. The device even determines whether or not they are made of metal.

At present only metal detectors are used for demining. Much work is consequently wasted because the detectors respond to all metal objects and also because they do not react to plastic mines. In contrast, the new system can confirm the position and shape of an object in the ground; if it is a landmine, workers can dispose of it with a separate device without any digging. So the efficiency and safety of demining work can be significantly enhanced.

JAHDS was founded in March 1998 with the support of several private firms, including Secom Co., Omron Corp., and IBM Japan. Its purposes are to develop and promote landmine detection and demining technology and to provide overall humanitarian support in the form of technical expertise, medical aid, and the facilities and equipment needed for transportation, communication, and housing. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., and Nippon Iridium Corp. have offered to supply these necessities.

In developing the new detector, JAHDS and cooperating firms applied void detection technology, which is used in surveys of road subsidence. JAHDS plans to conduct final tests in Cambodia from July 1999 in cooperation with a British NGO and local demining organizations before commencing mass production of the detectors by the end of the year.

Halting the Use of Landmines
Landmines are thought to be scattered in 64 countries--over one-third of the globe. While demining disposes of about 100,000 landmines annually, more than 2 million are newly laid, so the number increases year by year. What is more, since the Vietnam War plastic landmines have moved into the mainstream, and it is difficult to track these down with conventional metal detectors.

As a result, the number of victims has been rising. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, about 26,000 people die or are injured by landmines every year, and there are an estimated 250,000 persons around the world today who have been maimed in an explosion. Furthermore, with the frequent outbreak of ethnic conflicts since the end of the cold war, and the resulting use of mines in more populated areas, the victims are almost always civilians: farmers, elderly persons, women, and children.

In the face of these tragic developments, there has been a surge of international opinion calling for a complete ban on landmines, including their production, stockpiling, and use. At a signing ceremony in Ottawa in December 1997, 121 countries and territories, including Japan, signed the Total Ban Treaty on Anti-Personnel Mines, and countries around the world launched an effort toward complete eradication. As a pacifist nation, Japan in particular is expected to play a prominent role in this campaign. The development of the new detector will likely attract much praise as part of such an effort.

The Problem of Landmines

2008-06-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

History of Landmines

The Two World Wars
The first improvised precursors of landmines were used in the 15th century at the battle of Agincourt in England. Subsequently they were used the 19th century during the American Civil War where they were referred to as 'land torpedos'. World War I witnessed the introduction of tanks to break the impasse of trench warfare. Anti-tank mines were developed to counter this new invention.

However, it was not until World War II that landmines became a prevalent weapon on the battlefield. During World War II, more than 300 million antitank mines, filled with powerful, lightweight trinitrotoluene (TNT), were deployed by all warring parties. The military use of antitank mines was compromised, however, because they could be easily removed and re-deployed by the enemy. Smaller antipersonnel landmines were developed to address this problem. They were deployed around antitank mines to prevent their removal. One of the most effective antipersonnel landmines during this time was the German-made "bouncing betty," which was designed to jump from the ground to hip-height when activated and to propel hundreds of steel fragments within a wide range. Military forces soon began to use antipersonnel landmines as a weapon in their own right.

Changing Uses
Originally, both antitank and antipersonnel landmines were developed as tactical, defensive weapons. They were intended to protect troops, military bases, and key installations like power plants and water supplies. They were also used to delay the advance of enemy troops, to deny them access to certain areas and resources, and to burden them with soldiers injured by landmines. "Nuisance minefields" - two or three mines placed at the entrance of a house or designated area - were intended to have a demoralizing psychological effect on troops. Soldiers during World War I and World War II lived in constant fear of mines and invested valuable time and energy clearing suspected mined areas.

After World War II, advances in weapons technology accelerated rapidly. In the 1960s, an antipersonnel landmine was developed that could be delivered by air and automatically activated as it hit the ground. These scatterable mines made it possible to rapidly deploy large numbers of mines, rather than the more traditional, time-consuming method of manually planting each mine by hand. Mines were often used as an offensive and defensive weapon, driving a wedge between opposing forces and their military bases, and channeling these forces into adverse terrain. Increasingly, scatterables and hand-deployed mines were used against civilian populations - to terrorize communities, to displace entire villages, to render fertile agricultural land unusable, and to destroy national infrastructures like roads, bridges, and water sources.

Scatterables were first introduced by the United States during the Vietnam War. However, they had severe consequences for U.S. troops, who often found themselves retreating through their own, unmarked minefields. It has been estimated that nearly one-third of all U.S. casualties during the war were due to landmines deployed by U.S. troops themselves. These BLU-43 and BLU-44, nicknamed "dragon teeth" because of their shape, were the forerunners of the Soviet-made PFM-1, or "butterfly" mine, which was extensively used during the conflict in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and 1980s.

With the proliferation of low-intensity conflicts in the 1960s and 1970s in many less developed areas of the world, landmines became the weapon of choice for many government troops, paramilitaries, and guerilla forces. They were cheap, effective, and durable weapons of war, readily available, and easy to manufacture or procure locally. As landmines became more prevalent, the distinction between their defensive and offensive uses became blurred. In addition, the traditional rule of mapping and marking all minefields became increasingly disregarded after World War II. The remote delivery of scatterable mines further led to imprecise minefield boundaries and made adequate mapping and marking of minefields altogether impossible.

Technological Advances
In recent decades, new technologies have transformed the improvised "dumb" landmine, traditionally used for defensive purposes, into a sophisticated "smart" mine that is now used largely for offensive purposes. Technological advances have made landmines more dangerous for civilians and more difficult, if not impossible, to detect. Greater numbers of mines can be laid more rapidly than ever before. Furthermore, as landmines have become more sophisticated, mine clearance technologies have developed very slowly. In general, the most effective and reliable method of clearing mines continues to be manual demining - a deminer probing the ground with a prod, checking the ground for mines one inch at a time.

Technologically advanced mines include remote delivery systems and mines with low metal content, electronic sensors, and self-destruct mechanisms. Remote delivery systems deploy large numbers of scatterable mines from the air, which automatically activate as they hit the ground. Plastic mines contain very little metal content, they are extremely durable, and they are virtually impossible to detect with traditional metal detectors. While mines with electronic sensors are intended to differentiate between animals and humans, and are often capable of identifying the numbers of passersby before they explode, they do not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, and between children and adults. Accordingly, even these "smart" mines are indiscriminate weapons of war.

Self-destructing mines are designed to automatically explode after a pre-set time. They are used largely by military forces to shape the battlefield and to be destroyed once troops have moved beyond areas of confrontation. They are intended to minimize the long-term scope of danger to civilians. However, one of the limitations of these self-destructing mines is that they are not sufficiently reliable.

Self-neutralizing mines, a variation of self-destructing mines, are also designed to reduce the danger of landmines. These mines defuse themselves after a period of time without exploding. There is a failure rate associated with these mines, however, and individuals who locate these mines are often unable to determine whether or not they have been neutralized. Combined, these two factors make self-neutralizing mines an even less favorable alternative than self-destructing mines.

As landmines become more technically sophisticated and advanced, the likelihood of their malfunctioning also increases. While these new "smart" mines are readily available around the world, most warring parties, including rebels, paramilitary groups, and governments in low-intensity conflicts, have preferred to use traditional "dumb" mines because they are cheaper, simpler to use, and easier to manufacture.

Production and Trade
The production and trade of antipersonnel landmines is a secretive business. Governments and companies are reluctant to disclose information about their involvement in the production or sale of mines. The Arms Project of Human Rights Watch has compiled a list of nearly 100 companies in 54 countries - both in the developed and developing world - that have manufactured more than 340 models of antipersonnel landmines or their components, at a production rate of five to ten million mines a year. Conventional antipersonnel landmines cost between $3 and $27 to produce, while technologically advanced mines, like scatterables and self-destructing mines, can cost up to 50 times more.

While it is difficult to obtain complete and reliable information about the production and sale of landmines, there is an urgent need for transparency in order to minimize and eventually eliminate the dangers to civilians. This issue has become of paramount importance since the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on March 1, 1999. The treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines and calls for their destruction. The publication of information on the production and trade of mines is essential to properly enforce the treaty and to ensure that states parties comply with its provisions.

The Mine Ban Treaty has already had some tangible effects on the production and trade of landmines, even among countries that have not yet become party to the treaty. By 2007, only 13 of the original 54 mine-producing countries had the capacity to manufacture antipersonnel landmines or their components, and all traditional exporters of mines have officially ceased their activities.

DETECTION OF LAND MINES : A RADIATION-PHYSICS PROBLEM

2008-06-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Professor Esam M.A. Hussein

Department of Mechanical Engineering University of New Brunswick

PO Box 4400 Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3

Introduction

In September, 1997, more that 100 countries met in Oslo and successfully developed a treaty to ban future use of land mines. This treaty will be signed in Ottawa in early December. A major humanitarian effort is also underway to raise money for aid to maimed victims of this dreadful weapon. While the treaty deals with the future and the aid helps the victims, the problem will not be completely eradicated until all landmines in the world are removed.

The first step in mine clearing is to locate them. Wars, large and small, are hardly conducted in an orderly fashion and maps are rarely, if at all, available. The detection process may be conducted on a global scale to locate a mine field, or locally to determine the location of a particular land mine. The latter problem is where radiation physicists can contribute.

In this article the detection problem of land mines is discussed, in the hope of simulating interest among members of this society, particularly those in affected countries.

The Problem

Land mines come in all shapes and sizes, and can be encased in metal, plastic, wood or nothing at all. Their fusing mechanism varies from simple pressure triggers to trip wires, tilt rods, acoustic and seismic fuses, or even magnetic influence fuses. They can be embedded in a field cluttered with various materials and objects and buried underground, at various depth, or scattered on the surface.

A land-mines detection system should be able to detect various types of explosives, TND, RDX, etc., distinguish them from background clutter, and detect mines regardless of shape, depth of burial, or type of casing. This is to be done so that it provides good standoff distance, detection probability of almost 100%, a near-zero false-negative alarm rate, an acceptable operational speed, and preferably, viewing (imaging) capability.

With such demanding requirements, it is inconceivable that a single detection technology will be able to meet all the needs. Each technology has however its distinct capabilities, as explained below. /Continued

Thermography

Infrared thermography relies on the difference in the thermal capacitance between soil and mine, which affects their heating and cooling rates and the accompanied infrared emissions. This technology has the advantage of being passive, can be performed remotely, by aerial search, and can cover a large area in a short time. Infrared thermography is best suited for identifying minefields, rather than searching of individual mines. It cannot however work when the soil and mine are in thermal equilibrium [1].

Photo-Optics

Laser detection utilizes the difference in the reflectance and polarization of soil when disturbed by laser energy. This requires however a large laser power and a complex data interpretation process [1].

Eddy Current and Microwaves

Since eddy-current can be generated only in metals and microwaves are completely reflected off metallic surfaces, metal encased land mines can be detected by pulse-induction metallic detectors and microwaves (ground penetrating radar). Unfortunately, however, not all mines are metallic.

Nevertheless, microwaves are also scattered, though to a lesser extend, by nonmetallic objects and characteristic refection signatures can be related to material type, and hence can be used to identify explosives. This approach has however significant difficulties, because of the propagation loses in the soil, the low contrast between target and soil, and the large variety of echoes from the rough surface and other shallow contrasts such as rocks, tree roots, etc. The discrimination of mine from clutter under the wide variety of surface and soil conditions remains very difficult [2].

Photons

Penetrating radiation (neutrons and photons) offers another probe for standoff land mine detectors. Unlike conventional radiographic or tomographic methods, one cannot rely on radiation transmission, as it requires access to two opposing sides of the object; a situation not attainable with land mines. Therefore, one has to rely on radiation scattering or activation (production of secondary particles). Photons, in the form of x- or gamma-rays, incoherently collide (Compton scatter) with atomic electrons with a probability that is dependant on the electron density, and consequently the mass density, of the medium. As the scattered photons travel back towards the detector, they are removed by further scattering or absorption; with the photo-absorption probability being strongly dependant on the atomic number. The difference between the atomic number and density of mine and soil allows, therefore, the identification of the former. This is the essence of the x-ray backscattering system of Campbell and Jacobs [3]. Gamma-rays can also provide similar information.

Neutrons

Since explosives are usually characterized by their high nitrogen content, neutron activation of nitrogen, and the subsequent emission of characteristic (10.8 MeV) gamma rays, can be used for mine detection. This requires, however, the employment of thermal neutrons, the generation of which necessitates the use of a bulky moderating material, to slow-down fast neutrons emitted from an isotopic source. The soil itself can be used as a moderating material, but then the amount of activation will depend on the type of soil (in particular its hydrogen content). Since the activation probability (cross section) is not so high, a strong neutron source is required. This causes some difficulties in radiological shielding and handling and affects the portability of the device. Moreover, nitrogen is present in fertile soil and tree roots. Under such conditions it becomes difficult to detect mine based on nitrogen content alone.

Conclusion

All the techniques discussed above use a signature "finger-print" signal characteristic of mine. Given the wide variety of mine material, casing and shape, as well as the various type of soil and the non-uniformity of clutter, such a characteristic signature varies widely depending on the circumstances; making it difficult to apply any one technique unless the nature of the mine, soil and background clutter is well known. What is needed, therefore, is a technique that is more specific in its identification of the hazardous material in a land mine, i.e. the explosive material itself.

The explosive material in land mines is most likely, TNT; but RDX and other plasticized explosives are also used. These explosives are rich in nitrogen, which serves as a bonding agent. However, the amount of nitrogen alone is not sufficient to definitely identify an explosive material from other innocuous materials [4]. Explosives are also rich in oxygen (which is simply the oxidizer). Therefore, knowing the nitrogen content together with the oxygen content provides the most unambiguous identifier of an explosive material.

The challenge for radiation physicists is to, not only develop techniques that can meet the demanding detection problem, but also tailor such techniques to their local conditions. After all, detecting land mines in the sandy desert of Egypt or Kuwait is very different from finding them in the fertile soil of Vietnam or Laos.

Can this society undertake it as a mandate to help rid the world of this scourge that kills or wounds 25,000 people a year (about 3 every hour)? A research co-ordination group, a lobbying team, a session in the regular meeting, an electronic- forum, or any other approach will be certainly a welcome step. Can we collectively do something to prevent further suffering and tragedy?

Landmine neutralizer using a high power microwave device

2008-06-26T10:12:00.001-07:00

An apparatus to neutralize landmines using high power microwaves has a blast hardened dish antenna mounted on a vehicle along with a microwave generator and power generator A waveguide from the microwave generator feeds microwaves to a feed horn for the antenna. Plugs that are transparent to microwaves are located in the waveguide to prevent the blast wave generated by a detonated landmine from propagating inside of the waveguide and damaging the microwave generator. Flexible sections in the waveguide dampen any shock wave produced by a detonated mine from traveling along the waveguide towards the microwave generator.

Land mine awareness

2008-06-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Land mine awareness

Thousands of children all over the world are in danger of death or injury from land mines and unexploded bombs. An estimated 100 million land mines lie buried in many different countries. They are used by soldiers and terrorists and are easily available and cheap to buy. Land mines must be removed to prevent children and adults being killed and maimed – but this is difficult, slow and expensive as few areas are mapped to show where mines have been laid. Children can learn to be alert to the dangers in areas where mines and other unexploded weapons are known to exist, learn how to avoid them and encourage others to do the same.

Land mines come in many different sizes, shapes and colours. They are usually painted to make them hard to see: green in forest areas and brown or black for farming areas. Whatever the design of a land mine, it can never tell the difference between war and peace, or the difference between the steps of a child or a soldier.

Mines come in all shapes, sizes and colours. They should never be picked up, but only destroyed by mine clearance teams.

Effects on children’s lives

Children are in danger as they often collect firewood or water, look after cattle or play in areas which may be mined.
Children suffer when family and friends are killed or injured by mines.
Children injured by mines who need artificial limbs are unlikely to have their needs met as a growing child requires a new limb every six months.
Children with permanent injuries may give up all hope for the future.
Children go hungry because activities such as farming, fishing, grazing cattle or gathering roots cannot continue in areas which have been mined.
Children become fearful because everyday activities like walking to school, visiting friends or going to market can be dangerous.

Encouraging awareness

Teachers can train children to recognise what mines look like. They can help them learn the warning signs (sticks, coloured tape, notices) used to show that a mine is nearby. They may be able to invite mine clearance teams to talk at the school or invite children injured by mines to share their stories.

Most importantly, teachers can help children learn what to do if they see a suspected land mine. Local authorities may use variations in different countries, so always follow the local procedure when available. See the example of a procedure below.

If you're a child and you see a land mine - what should you do? This is a typical procedure, but find out the exact version for use in your country.

Children could draw posters to explain the correct procedures. They could make up role plays, games, songs or poems to help them learn and remember the correct steps. Children should never be encouraged to go looking for mines.

This information is adapted from an activity sheet on land mines prepared by Child to Child, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL. Details of how to obtain more information are on page 15.

Some ideas for role plays

A group of children have taken the goats to graze. Maria wanders off on her own. She sees a sign with a picture of an explosion and realises she has walked into a mined area. She is very frightened and calls out to her friends. What do they do? How do they help her? What advice can they give?
Phuong and Hai are walking to school after a heavy rain storm when they see a suspicious object near the path. What will they do? Who will they tell? How will they remember where they saw the object?
Quy and his brother had been digging for worms for the family ducks when a land mine exploded. The mine killed his brother, took off Quy’s right hand and leg and left him blind in one eye. When he came out of hospital he did not want to go back to sc

Landmine Detection - Sensing Application

2008-06-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Landmines present a continuing threat to many civilian populations around the world years after conflict may have ended in a particular land.

Landmines would be ineffective weapons if they were easy to detect or if their presence was clearly marked. Therefore they often lie undetected and forgotten in the soil, years after a conflict has ceased, until they are usually tragically disturbed by civilians often children.

Additional complexity is caused by the variety of landmines which have been produced and planted in various conflicts. Some, of almost all plastic construction defeat metal detection, some are buried higher or lower in the soil while others feature varieties of detonation method or fusing which can foil mechanical destruction techniques.

The main problem with plastic landmines is that many contain very little metal, making it necessary to use extremely sensitive metal detectors, which then also detect all manner of scrap metallic objects and battlefield debris. The aim of multi-sensor systems is largely to reduce this false alarm rate and make detection and clearance faster and safer.

Despite various worthy conventions on their continuing use, landmines have been laid in conflicts around the world to such an extent that they continue to deny civilian populations access to their land, continue to cripple and kill innocent children and their clearance remains a slow, predominantly manual and costly operation around the world.

Sensatech is working on a project funded by QinetiQ to try to detect and possibly identify landmines within a soil without contacting or transmitting any pressure to the soil and without causing any type of landmine to be detonated.

Sensatech are approaching this task using arrays of capacitive sensors and non-contact 3d tomography techniques to try to map the soil under a sensor and detect objects embedded within the soil under the surface.

Assuming that sufficient definition and resolution could be obtained to the required depth within the soil, embedded objects could be compared to a database of known landmine types and a fit made if objects found in the soil match a known landmine type.

Additionally, it may be possible using capacitive and electric field techniques to try to identify the chemical composition of various elements at a range. This could allow the detection of materials within landmines such as various plastics or explosives.

Landmine detection is an ongoing project at Sensatech, where development is focusing on various modules that would be required for an eventual system. A functional system would involve hardware, arrays and processing electronics, interpretive software for fast data analysis and comparison techniques to resolve data and match objects. Significant testing would be required at later stages to confirm simulated performance on the variety of soil and environment conditions where landmine clearance is being undertaken.

A humanitarian landmine detector for field use is being developed in collaroration with QinetiQ.

Looking for land mines

2008-06-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

A demining team in Cambodia tries out HSTAMIDS, short for handheld standoff mine detection system, which combines a metal detector with ground-penetrating radar. The multisensor device is designed to give deminers a better picture of whether objects underground are explosives or harmless clutter. The U.S. Army has been using the system for a couple of years, and variations for nonmilitary use are now being put into the field. HSTAMIDS has been in testing in Cambodia since April.

HSTAMIDS at work in very different terrain, in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has reported success with the system there and in Iraq.

The MineStalker from Niitek, of Sterling, Va., is a small remote-controlled vehicle that uses GPR and other sensors to look for land mines. A smaller version called the MiniStalker can be mounted on a tracked platform from iRobot. This MineStalker is on patrol in the Cunene Province of southern Angola (note the rusted tank at right).

When HSTAMIDS or a traditional mine detector locates what looks like a land mine, the deminer then has to probe the ground for the object. In some cases, demining teams (here, in Sudan in 2003) may simply dig their way across suspected minefields.

These teenagers at the Cambodia Landmine Museum each lost a leg to land mines. At one time, the small country of Cambodia was one of the most heavily mined places in the world, and a large area along its border with Thailand is still mined.

The museum, in the village of Siem Reap, was established by a former Khmer Rouge soldier named Aki Ra to educate locals and tourists about the dangers of unexploded mines. He also runs a demining operation, and he and his wife care for a number of children maimed by mines.

Land mines come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are designed to damage tanks and other armored vehicles, others to injure foot soldiers. After the fighting ends, many mines remain in the ground and pose a threat to civilians. These were dug up in Afghanistan.

An antitank mine in the ground in southern Lebanon.

Credit: Mine Action Clearance Centre Southern Lebanon, via UNMAS

Land mines are a threat in dozens of countries around the world, especially Africa and South Asia. Most are of fairly recent origin, but some unexploded ordnance--not just land mines, but also artillery shells and hand grenades--can date back decades.

Fewer land mines are going into the ground than in years past, but some groups are still making active use of antipersonnel mines.

A mine exploding in southern Lebanon.

Dogs are increasingly being used in demining activities to sniff out the explosive ingredients of land mines and other ordnance. Typically, they don't replace metal detectors but rather work in a quality assurance role. This duo is taking a break June 23 at a cleared minefield in southern Lebanon.

Motorized vehicles like this MV-4 Mini Flail from Croatian company DOK-ING are sometimes used on known or suspected minefields to trigger mines by beating the ground. While dramatic in action, flails, tillers and similar heavy machinery typically have a success rate below that of a person teamed with a metal detector or dog.

sensor fusion for the dtection of land mines

2008-06-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

The detection of buried anti-personnel mines (APMs) is widely considered as a problem which may only be solved with a combination of two or more complementary sensors. We present processing and fusion results obtained from a multisensor data set, acquired with a pulse induction metal detector (MD), a pulsed ultra wide band ground penetrating radar (GPR) and a 3 - 5 (mu) thermal IR camera. Metal detector and GPR sensors were mounted on a rig for optimum control. Various types of soils, clutter objects and burial conditions were recorded. Anti personnel mines included minimum metal mines as well as mines with a significant metal content. We use a special projection to map a 3D GPR data cube, with time or depth as vertical coordinate, into a horizontal plane view 2D image. Object contours are then derived, based on an edge extraction method, followed by an automatic detection of circular shapes with a Hough-transform. In the association step, the stand-off IR image, the metal detector and GPR images and related detections are mapped onto a common cartesian grid on the ground surface. Detection results are fused on a decision level, using a Bayesian approach. Our results indicate that the GPR performance approximately matches that of the metal detector. With both sensors all metallic mines and around 60% of the minimum metal mines were detected. In the case of two false alarms per square meter combined detection probability clearly exceeds single sensor performance and reaches around 80%. Our fusion demonstrator, which incorporates all elements of the processing chain, has been implemented on the basis of MATLAB^TM.

The legacy of land-mines

2008-06-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

The legacy of land-mines

Of all the weapons that have accumulated over years of war, few are more persistent and more lethal to children than land-mines . Hundreds of thousands of children, herding animals, planting crops or just playing, have been killed or maimed by these deadly devices.

Since 1975, land-mines have exploded under more than 1 million people and are currently thought to be killing 800 people a month. There seems little prospect of any end to the carnage. In 64 countries around the world, there are an estimated 110 million land-mines still lodged in the ground—waiting.⁵⁰ They remain active for decades. As one Khmer Rouge general put it, a land-mine is a perfect soldier: "Ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses."

Photo: Land-mines are catastrophic for children, whose small bodies are particularly vulnerable to the injuries they inflict. One of the mosts heavily mined countries in the world is Afghanistan. ©

There are basically two types of land-mines: anti-tank and anti-personnel. The most dangerous to children are the anti-personnel mines that explode even under the gentle pressure of a child's hand or foot. These come in a bewildering array of shapes and colours. Some look like stones, others like pineapples. But all can seem an interesting discovery for a curious child. One of the most infamous is the 'butterfly' mine, designed to float to the ground from helicopters without exploding, but with a shape and colour that also make it a deadly toy.

Virtually all combatants use land-mines. During the Persian Gulf war, the US and its allies laid about 1 million mines along the Iraq-Kuwait border and around the Iraqi city of Basra. And some 3 million have been laid in the continuing Balkan war. Some of the largest numbers lie in wait in Africa and Asia. The countries most devastated by land-mines are probably Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia. Afghanistan has an estimated 10-15 million mines in place.⁵¹ It is clear that many of these have been randomly scattered in inhabited areas precisely to cause civilian casualties and terrorize the population.⁵²

Adults caught in the blast of an anti-personnel mine often survive with treatment, though they usually lose a limb. Children are less likely to survive because their bodies are so vulnerable. Those who do live will be seriously injured. A child may lose one or both legs or arms and sustain serious injuries to the genitals and abdomen. Shrapnel may also cause blindness and disfigurement. All of this happens in countries that have difficulty offering the simplest medicines or pain-killers, let alone artificial limbs. In El Salvador, fewer than 20 per cent of child victims receive any kind of remedial therapy; the rest have had to fend for themselves as best they can—often begging or stealing to survive (Panel 5).

Land-mines cause enormous pain and suffering but they also bring lingering economic and social costs. In addition to the expense of medical treatment, and the cost to families of caring for injured relatives, they also hinder the flow of goods and people, and put huge areas of agricultural land out of production. In addition, the availability of land-mines contributes to the permanent 'militarization' of daily life. So common are they in Cambodia that they are now used for fishing, or as property security devices, or even to settle domestic disputes.

Land-mines can be cleared—but only laboriously and at enormous expense. Ironically, these weapons that can cost less than US$3 each to manufacture can cost up to US$1,000 each to clear. Trained workers have to crawl their way along, probing the soil ahead, inch by inch. One person can clear only 20 to 50 square metres per day.

The international community is slowly realizing the implications of a world studded with land-mines. Unfortunately, it has not been sufficiently shocked to take effective action. In 1993, it allocated only US$70 million for mine clearance in countries such as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia and Mozambique. In the same year, however, a further 2 million mines were laid—leaving a 'de-mining deficit' of 1.9 million mines, and adding some US$1.4 billion to the future cost of clearance.

Apart from the demand for mines from combatants, one of the major problems is that dozens of companies around the world, many of them household names, are still content to manufacture and sell these destructive devices. An increasing revulsion at this trade is encouraging a number of organizations to refuse to do business with companies involved in the sale or production of such weapons. Among United Nations organizations, UNICEF has joined the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in supporting such a boycott.

At the time of the announcement of the boycott, Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, dealt with land-mines squarely: "For my part, I see little difference between those who use them and those who produce them....Whatever the present legality of manufacturing such weapons, the toll they take on innocent civilians amounts to a crime against humankind."⁵³

Children and Land Mines

2008-06-26T09:46:00.001-07:00

oday peace keepers from Canada are defusing land mines at the price of $1000 dollars a mine. Children are risking their lives digging up land mines and selling them for $3 to $30 dollars. Some of these mines look like toys to little children with their bright colours and odd shapes and sizes. Kids get confused with these mines and usually think they are toys and sometimes get maimed or killed.

Since children are so small, they are in more danger and have a bigger chance of dying from a land mine. In 70 countries, there are land mines waiting for innocent adults and children just for them to walk over them. After they walk over a mine, they are usually maimed or killed. In 125 countries, they are working to get rid of land mines to make it a safe society for everyone, especially children.

Statistics
In 70 countries there are land mines waiting to be stepped on.
Land mines cost $1000 dollars to defuse. For children to resell land mines $3 to $30 dollars.
When children need a fake arm or leg is cost $125 dollars. When there monthly wage is $10 to $15 dollars.
As of august 20 2002 a total of 125 countries have signed a treaty to stop the uses of land mines.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by land mines, 60% of them have been children.

When children are injured by land mines, they are usually injured when they go out looking for food, fishing, collecting wood, collecting food, traveling with the military and mainly tampering with land mines. Most land mines are colourful and odd shaped, so kids are attracted by them. Sometimes children can't see the mines, so when they are doing what they have to, they just walk past the danger sign and into the land mine field and that is another way kids get hurt. Some kids can't read the signs and walk into the field and step on a mine. All people in countries where there are land mines are traumatized.

World's land mines kill 25 people aday

2008-06-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Luena, Angola--Stading on a red earth track on the edge of Luena in easter Angola is Simon Coaton. He is a tall, broad-shouldered, mine disposal expert from Britain.

He points down the sandy road to a concrete bridge spanning a small stream. The bridge is cratered by artillery fire. A young woman carrying food and cooking utensils on her head, picks her way around the holes and twisted metal and continues her journey up the track toward Coaton.

"That woman there," says Coaton, "is less than a meter from death." Unmarked and unseen, he explains, both sides of this sandy road are littered with small plastic antipersonnel mines.

"If a truck came down here a bit swift, and you thought `I'd better get out of the way of it' and you took a step to your left," Coaton adds, as he walks down to the bridge, "you might never take another step for the rest of your life."

Land mines are infamous as soldiers who never sleep, never need food or water and never miss. There are more than 100 million of them waiting to do battle, scattered across more than 60 countries throughout the world. They will probably kill between 25 and 30 people today, as they do every day of the year, and injure many more.

De-mining agencies and humanitarian organizations have made some progress in stopping the sale of land mines. But they say the only way to halt this scourge of so many of the world's developing countries is to impose an immediate, world-wide ban on the production of these indiscriminate killers.

Land mines come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Others are large enough to destroy a bus and kill or maim all of its passengers. Their purpose is military, but most of their victims are civilians.

A September 1994 U.N. report estimates there are between 9 million and 15 million mines in Angola, making the former Portuguese colony of only 11 million people the worst-mined country in the world. (Other front-runners are Cambodia with 8 million to 10 million mines, Afghanistan with 10 million, Iraq with 10 million, the former Yugoslavia with 2 million to 5 million and Mozambique with 2 million.)

In Luena, Coaton is working for the Mines Advisory Group, a British non-governmental organization that is training Angola de-mining teams. Experts from Britain, Norway and Germany have worked on de-mining Angola. The United Nations has recently set up a Central Mines Action Office that aims to coordinate the training of around 3,000 Angola de-mining engineers.

But the task is enormous. Late last year the Angola government and UNITA rebels signed a cease-fire agreement, possibly ending 30 years of almost continous fighting in the county. But minor clashes continue and many Angolans are skeptical about the cease-fire. A similar peace package signed in 1991 fell apart at the end of 1992 when rebel leader Jonas Savimbi refused to accept the results of U.N. monitored elections and took his troops back to the bush.

The fighting has left the government in control of Angola's provincial capitals, while the rebels dominate large tracts of the countryside. The army surrounded many cities with minefields to stop the rebels from coming in, while the rebels mined the countryside and roads to keep the army from coming out.

Luena has the feel of a ghost town except that its population has more than doubled since the fighting began. Aid agencies say the city is home to more than 130,000 people, mostly farmers who have fled the countryside. The U.N. World Food Program lies in 36 tons of food a day. But that is not enough to go around, and people need fuel to cook the food. So every day and night people stream out of the city looking for food and firewood, and in doing so they run the risk of treading on land mines.

Hospital staff in Luena say every few days someone is brought in suffering the horrifying wounds that mines inflict. Dr. Pedro Kela, the 43-year-old surgeon at Luena hospital, says mine wounds are typically filled with dirt and earth as well as shrapnel.

Kela says it is vital to treat such wounds with heavy doses of antibiotics and regular dressing with clean bandages. But there are no bandages or antibiotics available at the hospital. Patients have to send friends or relatives to the market to buy what they can. This is seldom sufficient and infection frequently sets in.

The stories the patients tell are similar. Ines Cacocho lies wrapped in blankets in a ward filled with women mine victims. She says she was desperately hungry and went in to the countryside to find manioc, a local staple food. On her way back she was walking on a well-used path when she trod on a mine.

Cacocho has nine-year-old son whom she cannot afford to send to school. She laughs in disbelief when asked what she is going to do now. She replies that she does not know how to answer the question, and says her suffering was bad enough when she had two legs. Now she can only assume it will be worse.

The minefields around Luena stand as broad strips of uncultivated land surrounding the city. Clearing them will take years of slow, painstaking work. Every inch of grass and schrub has to be gently cut to the ground, taking great care not to touch a tripwire in the process. As that is done, the entire minefield has to be checked with very sensitive metal detectors, the mines located, removed and destroyed.

Many modern antipersonnel mines are made mostly of plastic with only a few small metal parts like a percussion cap or a firing pin. The work can be match like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In the process de-mining engineers will dig up every metal fragment in the area, assuming it could be a mine. They will dig up everything from tin cans, to bits of shrapnel, bullet casings and even nails and paper clips. In a difficult area, Coaton says clearing just a few square yards can take days.

The Unite Nations estimates that the international community spends $70 million a year clearing roughly 100,000 land mines. As they do so, other governments and rebel groups lay approximately 2 million more. The land mine problem grows by 1.9 million mines a year.

Most land mines are made in the developed world and sold in the developing world. Aid groups across the world are now saying the only way to control the problem is to ban the production of land mines.

Due to pressure form organization like the Mines Advisory Group in Britain in the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation in the United States, several countries, including the United States, have passed legislation temporarily banning the sale and export of land mines. But as yet no country has imposed a ban on the production of land mines.

Standing on the edge of Luena, Coaton contemplates a shady eucalyptus grove, rich with dense vegetation. The grove is minefield although total mine clearance will never be possible, Coaton estimates that if the production of mines were banned today, in 20 years de-miners across the world could start coming to grips with the situation.

But that would only be possible if corporations stopped producing land mines now, he says. "If they continue, its just going to be ongoing for the next century. And all that's happening is that innocent people are dying all over the world for something they know nothing about and have no part in."

FRAGMENTED LEGS

Stop landmines

Landmines in Egypt

16مليون لغم أرضى في مصر

Israel Using Cluster Munitions in Gaza

الألغام فى صحراء الإسماعيلية تهدد الأرواح والتنمية

المحافظ بدأ بمساحة 16 فدانا شرق القناة وجارى مسح باقى المناطق

الألغام فى صحراء الإسماعيلية تهدد الأرواح والتنمية

Active landmines thread on desert

This is an extract from Sahara Overland II Link below September 2007 Active landmines thread on desert-info.ch with maps (mostly in German)

EGYPT GEOLOGY

Stop !! its a landmine

When wars end,

the most wanted by egyption

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan teenage cluster bomb victim battling for ban

VOICE FOR VICTIMS

Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance: A Resource Book

Minefield Areas in Egypt

Photographs of Minefield Areas in Egypt

Western Desert Problems

Explosive Remnants of War in North Africa

Hidden Menace of “Iron Soldiers”

The longest crime in history

Signatories to the Ottawa Convention and Their Alternatives to Landmines

AUSTRALIA

CANADA

FRANCE

JAPAN

Blowing up the Myths of America's Landmine Policy

China and Anti-Personnel Landmines (APLs)

Mines Action Canada

Landmines

Tropical soils impede landmine detection

Land Mine-Detecting Flowers

Comparison of Landmine Detection Methods

Risk Comparison of Landmine Detection Methods

Descriptions of other landmine detection methods

Manual detection with metal landmine detector

Other manual landmine detection methods

Use of animals for mine detection

RedDetect - Plant for Landmine detection

Plants That Detect Landmines

Land mine detection via plants - from GoodMagazine.com

Mine-sniffing Plants

Land-mine detecting Plants created

The Battle of El Alamein

Devil Gardens

A cry

These are your mines

Why?

These are our victims

What did they do?

*Help us!

The cost of planting a mine is one dollar ,but its pulling out is one thousand dollar

Facts

Devil Gardens

The Importance of displanting Mines

Devil Gardens

A cry

These are your mines

Why?

These are our victims

What did they do?

*Help us!

The cost of planting a mine is one dollar ,but its pulling out is one thousand dollar

Facts

Devil Gardens

The Importance of displanting Mines

Egypt's landmines are old and hard to locate in The Devil's Garden

The Devil's Gardens

Landmine detection and discrimination using high-pressure waterjets

land-mine detection technology

A Method for Detecting Shallowly Buried Landmines Using Sequential GPR Data

LANDMINE AWARENESS MESSAGES

Combined Systems: Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Techniques

CLEARING LANDMINES

The Problem of Landmines

DETECTION OF LAND MINES : A RADIATION-PHYSICS PROBLEM

Landmine neutralizer using a high power microwave device

Land mine awareness

This is an extract from Sahara Overland II

Link below September 2007
Active landmines thread on desert-info.ch with maps (mostly in German)