MMRC: Ministry in the wake of landmines

Ministry in the wake of landmines
by Justin D. Long

Here's another set of statistics which we can view as "signs from God." There are two kinds of landmines: anti-personnel mines (which use 30-500 grams of explosives and are designed to maim their victim), and anti-tank mines (which use 10-15 kilograms and are designed, as their name implies, to destroy tanks and armored vehicles). There are several kinds of landmines--blast mines, fragmentation mines, self-destructing mines, and the like. They can be scattered via vehicles, artillery shots, or planes.

According to the United Nations, about 110 million anti-personnel mines have been laid in over 70 countries throughout the world--about 1 for every 48 people on the planet. They kill or maim 100 people per day, 70% of which are civilians, usually women and children. In every case mines are never cleaned up after wars are fought, so most deaths happen after a war is over.

In some countries in the south, up to 85% of households are affected daily. 250,000 people need artificial limbs after mine accidents; in Bosnia & Croatia alone over 6 million mines have been laid. Worse, between 5 and 15 million mines are produced every year. Why? They are the poor man's weapon, particularly to guard borders. They last for up to 50 years after a war is over, and it costs as little as $4 to lay a mine (and nothing to maintain it). It can cost up to $1,000 to clear a single mine. Yet the economic cost of a mine goes far beyond that of personal death. Mines can prevent the return of refugees, the cultivation of arable land, block roads and highways, and close supply and trade routes.

Some 80 countries have a landmine problem. Those with "very serious" land mine problems are nearly all squarely in World A, including: Angola, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Iraq, Egypt, Nicaragua, Kuwait, Eritrea, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mozambique, Vietnam, Croatia, Sudan, China and Iran. Those with "serious" land mine problems: Chad, The Falklands, Lebanon, Liberia, Guatemala, Syria, Mauritania Honduras, Yemen, Rwanda, Burma, Azerbaijan, Zimbabwe, Laos, Georgia, Burundi, Sri Lanka, Tadjikistan, West-Sahara, and Morocco. Those with "a mine problem": Djibouti, Peru, Latvia, Libya, The Philippines, Luxembourg, Namibia, Thailand, The Netherlands, Senegal, South Korea, Belgium, Tunisia, India, Russia, Uganda, Jordan, Serbia, Zaire, Oman, Slovenia, Colombia, Austria, Turkey, Costa Rica, White Russia, Ukraine, Ecuador, Cyprus, and Denmark.

Far more interesting is the list of countries which produce and export landmines. These countries include Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, China, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Great Britain, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, USA, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and Austria.

Some progress has been made recently. In December of last year, after a drawn out international campaign, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts) succeeded in getting a treaty drafted. The "Convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and on their destruction" was signed in Ottawa on December 4, 1997, by 121 countries.

Noticeably absent among them was the United States. However, on 16 May President Clinton announced a new anti-personnel landmine policy aimed at "aggressively pursuing an international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines..." (never mind the fact that such an agreement is already in place--it seems the US wants both prestige and a written excuse for continuing to use landmines on the border of North and South Korea). The USA has also put into place an embargo on the export of landmines, begun the destruction of 3 million non-self-destructing landmines (800,000 destroyed to date), pledged to cap its landmine stockpile at its current level and expanded its demining program.

So what do these statistics say to us? Christian ministries to the victims of landmines should certainly be undertaken. Landmine clearance, physical therapy, prosthetic limbs: all of these are valid ministry options, and many others can be devised as well. The USA has announced its desire to seek to establish indigenous, sustainable mind clearance and mine awareness training programs and is planning to spend $35 million for these programs; further, it has allocated $28 million in cash and in-kind contributions for demining programs in 14 countries (Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, Namibia, OAS/IADB regional program in Central America (Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua) and Rwanda). Christian ministries should investigate whether they can use these options--or those provided by other governments--to develop demining programs that will be of service to World A.