1.1 The need for a ban treaty
Landmines are powerful and unforgiving devices. Unlike other
weapons of war, most of which must be aimed and fired, anti-personnel landmines
are “victim” actuated. That is, they are designed to be detonated by a
person stepping on or handling the device, or by disturbing a tripwire attached
to it.2 Once emplaced, anti-personnel mines are indiscriminate in
their effects and, unless removed or detonated, long lasting. Even today,
landmines laid during the Second World War continue to be discovered and, on
occasion, to kill or wound, more than 50 years after the end of the conflict.
Landmines cannot “distinguish” between the soldier and the civilian.
They kill or maim a child playing football just as readily as a soldier on
patrol. Especially in post-conflict societies, it is most often the civilian
going about his or her daily activities that is the unfortunate victim.
2 Anti-vehicle mines, on the other
hand, are designed to be detonated by the weight of a vehicle. When left on
roadways that are not used solely by military personnel, they also take their
toll on civilian lives and injuries. Anti-vehicle mines are discussed further
below.
While all war wounds are horrific, the injuries inflicted by
anti-personnel mines are particularly severe. These weapons are designed to
kill, or, more often, to disable permanently their victims. They are
specifically constructed to shatter limbs and lives beyond repair. The
detonation of a buried anti-personnel “blast” mine rips off one or
both legs of the victim and drives soil, grass, gravel, metal, the plastic
fragments of the mine casing, pieces of the shoe, and shattered bone up into the
muscles and lower parts of the body. Thus, in addition to the traumatic
amputation of the limb, there is a serious threat of secondary infection. As
wounds such as these are not often seen by civilian doctors, treating a
mine-injured patient can be a challenge to the most competent surgeon.
If they survive a landmine blast, the victims typically require
multiple operations and prolonged rehabilitative treatment. Unfortunately, most
mine accidents occur in countries with limited medical and rehabilitative
resources. Access to proper treatment and care is thus difficult or impossible.
Moreover, transportation to a medical facility immediately following an accident
is often arduous. In some countries it may take victims between six and 24 hours
to get to a hospital capable of treating them. Many die before reaching any
medical facility.
Following the provision of medical care, most mine victims will
require extensive rehabilitative treatment. Not only must amputees be fitted
with artificial limbs to ensure mobility, but their loss of dignity and their
psychological distress must also be addressed. Few survivors have access to such
long-term care and assistance programmes. Even if rehabilitated, many victims
are disabled, cannot work or provide for their families, and are likely to
suffer intense anxiety, with little hope of improving their situation.
In addition to the devastating impact on individual lives, mines
also have severe social and economic consequences, particularly for a country
attempting to rebuild after the end of an armed conflict. The presence of mines
can leave large portions of the national territory unusable. Farmland, grazing
pastures and other food-producing areas may be rendered inaccessible and, as a
result, the ability of a community to feed itself is impaired. Mined roads and
railways make the movement of persons and goods, including the delivery of
humanitarian aid, extremely difficult. Mine clearance, although essential, is a
slow, dangerous and expensive process.
Although international humanitarian law and traditional military
doctrine have set clear requirements for the “responsible” use of
anti-personnel mines, too often these rules have not been implemented. Research
conducted on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by
military experts has shown that in 26 conflicts since the beginning of the
Second World War, anti-personnel mines have only rarely been deployed in
accordance with the existing legal and military requirements. Even well-trained
professional armies have found it extremely difficult to use mines correctly in
combat situations. Furthermore, mines have increasingly been used as part of a
brutal and systematic war against civilians, especially in the bitter internal
conflicts that have come to characterize warfare in the late twentieth century.
It is these tragic realities which make the antipersonnel mine a
particularly abhorrent weapon and which have led the ICRC and many other
organizations and individuals to call for its prohibition and stigmatization.
The use of poison gas and exploding bullets has already been stigmatized and
condemned by the international community. Both are weapons of war that are
considered as violating the most basic principles of humanity however and
whenever they are used. Now, with the adoption of the Ottawa treaty,
anti-personnel mines will also be considered as a weapon which carries a level
of humanitarian costs that far outweighs their limited military
value.
