What is largely unknown in our society is the huge impact unexploded land mines are having on ordinary citizens whose country once faced conflict. Their continuing legacy for civilian populations in terms of injuries, amputations, disabilities and economic costs prove the long lasting effect that conflict can have on ordinary people.
Land mines are containers of explosive material which are triggered when a person or vehicle makes contact with them. They are buried underground with a sensor plate on the top meaning that they are nearly impossible to detect. When a person steps on a buried anti-personnel mine, the detonation is likely to rip off one or both of his or her legs and drives soil, grass, gravel, metal and plastic fragments of the mine casing, pieces of shoe and shattered bone up into the muscles and lower parts of the body. (ICRC)
How have these affected ordinary citizens?
There are estimated to be around 110 million mines in the ground across the world, with the worst affected areas being Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq and Laos. 1 million people have been killed by these mines with more than 300,000 children severely disabled. Half of the people who stand on a mine are killed from their injuries, before being taken to hospital or found. An even higher percentage of children die, because, being smaller, their vital organs are close to the blast.
Aside from the devastating impact to life, land mines also create longer term costs for communities. People face huge medical costs having been transported to hospital, facing blood transfusions, surgical time, painkillers, antibiotics, artificial limbs and rehabilitation. Those communities who face the threat of land mines are also the most economically vulnerable, and thus exacerbating their already poor economic state. Most mine survivors live in low income countries that have few or no resources for employment programmes aimed at persons with disabilities, let alone for psycho-social support. In some communities, disabled persons are socially stigmatized, making their prospects for reintegration even more difficult. In too many cases, patients leave physical rehabilitation centres to become beggars and to be neglected by their families and communities (ICRC). The availability of land to farm and graze animals on is also hugely affected due to the danger of land mines, and therefore trading between local communities is severely affected. As much as 35% of land in Afghanistan and Cambodia is now unusable.
“Whenever we were called in for an emergency case, we prayed that it would not be a mine injury, not another child or woman or peasant terribly mutilated”- A surgeon recalling work in an ICRC hospital on the Thai-Cambodia border in 1993.
Caring for victims:
The ICRC has recognised that health care systems in mine affected areas experience increases needs for resources to treat mine victims and these places consequently require support. The convention of the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel mines in 1997 meant that states recognized their collective responsibility to care for mine victims by integrating victim assistance commitments as well as the 2003 Protocol on explosive remnants of war. However, much more needs to be done to keep people safe from remnants of war.
The ICRC and Red Cross focus on prevention in the field. Their assistance manly focuses on emergency and hospital care while other charities such as HALO work in landmine clearance.
Why are we so disconnected?
It is surprising, that living in a hugely developed society, we are rarely made aware of these huge scale impacts affecting ordinary people just like us. Why is it that because they live in another country, what happens to them doesn’t affect us? Why is it that the media rarely reports on these atrocities but picks and chooses what stories they produce? Why is it that when we are made aware of what is going on, we carry often carry on with our normal lives?
These are the most important questions; once we can actually resolve these issues, the greater awareness will surely influence the scale of change that can take place.