Landmines and Cluster Bombs: An Enduring Problem

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Landmines and Cluster BombsAn Enduring Problem
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Brief History of Landmines

• 14th century Chinese text, the Huolongjing,
  describes a mine made of bamboo, black powder,
  and lead pellets. It was placed underground.
• Detonated by a flint device that directed sparks
  onto a series of fuses

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Brief History of Landmines

• In 1500s, fougasse mines were developed.
• Buried explosives, covered with rocks or metal
• Detonated by tripwires or by long fuses
• High maintenance, and due to susceptibility of
  black powder to dampness.

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Brief History of Landmines

• First modern, mechanically detonated
  anti-personnel mines created by Confederate
  troops under Brigadier General Gabriel Raines
• Raines had begun working with explosive booby
  traps in the Seminole Wars in Florida in 1849
• Used more reliable and reproducible mechanical
  detonation devices

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Brief History of Landmines

• Improved mines were designed in Imperial Germany
  around 1912
• Designs were copied and manufactured by all major
  participants in the First World War

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Brief History of Landmines

• Antipersonnel mines were first used on a large
  scale in WWII
• Initially used to protect antitank mines, to stop
  them from being removed by enemy soldiers
• Later antipersonnel mines used to slow or halt
  enemy movement, by being placed in great numbers

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Design

• Triggered by a variety of means (pressure,
  vibration, movement, magnetism)
• Many have an additional touch or tilt trigger, to
  prevent enemy engineers from defusing it.

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Design

• Use as little metal as possible, to make location
  by metal detectors more difficult.
• Mines made mostly from plastic are also very
  cheap to produce

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Design

• Wide variety of designs
• Makes detection and disarming very difficult

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Design

• Claymores

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Design

• Claymores
• Stake mines

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Design

• Claymores
• Stake mines
• Bounding fragmentation mines

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Design

• Often deliberately designed to maim, rather than
  kill
• Stabilizing and evacuating an injured soldier
  hampers an actively fighting force
• More resources are taking up by caring for an
  injured solder than dealing with a dead soldier
• Cheap and easy to make, around 1 each
• (can cost more than 1000 to find and destroy)

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Marking minefields

• Ideally, minefields laid by armies should be well
  marked, to prevent friendly troops from entering
• All mines locations should be recorded, since
  warning signs can be removed or destroyed, and so
  safe routes through the mine fields can be
  followed by friendly soldiers

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Unreliable marking

• In the fog of war protocols are not always
  accurately followed
• New landmines designed to be scattered by
  helicopter, plane, by artillery, or ejected from
  cruise missiles, make precise recording
  impossible
• (US air deployed mines have a self-deactivating
  design, but reliability is uncertain)

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Deliberately unmarked fields

• Non-state armies (rebel groups, guerilla
  fighters) do not reliably uphold these
  conventions
• Often, their goal is to spread fear and panic in
  the community, and deliberately terrorize
  civilians. So mined areas are deliberately not
  marked
• Such tactics were regularly employed in the
  Southern African conflicts throughout the 70s
  and 80s
• Angola, Mozambique, Nambia, South Africa,
  Zimbabwe, are still plagued with landmines as a
  result.

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Landmines are indiscriminate

• The vast majority of victims are civilians, not
  soldiers.
• According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2003,
  only 15 of reported casualties were military
  personnel

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Mines remain after conflict ends

• Most of the countries where casualties are
  reported are at peace
• In 2002-2003, 41 of the 65 countries that
  reported new mine casualties were not
  experiencing any armed conflict
• Landmines placed during WWI sometimes still cause
  deaths in parts of Europe and North Africa

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Long term costs to survivors

• Permanent disability is almost certain
• A growing child needs a prosthetic limb
  frequently refitted each year, and few can afford
  this
• Many face social exclusion, such as being seen as
  unfit to marry
• Some children never return to school after their
  accident

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Long term costs to survivors

• A death might cost a family their primary
  breadwinner
• For survivors, vocational training and support is
  often unavailable
• Many struggle to make a living after their
  accident, and become a burden on their families
• Victims often end up begging on the streets

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Mines hamper recovery after conflict ends

• People in some of the poorest countries are
  deprived of their productive land and
  infrastructure
• Farm lands, orchards, irrigation canals, and
  wells may no longer be accessible
• Mines cut off access to economically important
  areas, such as roads, dams, and electricity
  towers

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Mines hamper recovery after conflict ends

• Landmines slow repatriation of refugees after a
  conflict ceases, or prevent it altogether
• They hamper the delivery of relief services, and
  injure or kill aid workers

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Widespread problem

• More than 75 countries are affected by
  undetonated mines
• Some of the most contaminated places
• Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Bosnia
  Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chechnya, Colombia, Iraq,
  Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, and Pakistan

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Widespread problem

• Nobody knows how many mines are still in the
  ground worldwide
• The actual number is less important than their
  impact
• It can only take a few mines, or just the
  suspicion of their presence, to make an area
  unusable

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Treaties

• Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
• AKA Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions
  on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which
  May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to
  Have Indiscriminate Effects
• AKA The CCW
• Was an amendment to the Geneva Conventions of
  1949
• Concluded in Geneva on October 1980, went in to
  force in December 1983
• Amended again in 1996

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CCW

• Consisted of 5 protocols
• Protocol II concerns Prohibitions or
  Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps,
  and Other Devices
• Prohibits the use of non-self-destructing or
  non-self-deactivating mines outside fenced,
  monitored, and marked areas

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CCW

• Unfortunately, CCW lacked specific mechanisms to
  ensure verification and enforcement of
  compliance, and had no formal process for
  resolving disputes about compliance.
• The US only signed 2 of the 5 protocols, the
  minimum required to be considered a signatory

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Continue Toll

• NGOs continued to see toll mines took in the
  various communities they had been working in, in
  Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America
• They knew only a complete ban would adequately
  address the problem

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The ICBL

• The International Campaign to Ban Land Mines
  (ICBL) was launched in 1992
• Formed from 6 NGOs (Handicap International, Human
  Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines
  Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and
  Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation)
• Lobbied governments and rallied public support
  for a complete ban

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Celebrity Support

• The late Princess Diana focused attention on the
  problem of landmines, and the need for a ban
• Visited Angola and Bosnia with mine clearing
  organizations, and focused the media spotlight on
  the victims
• Her work brought increased public support and
  pressure on governments to sign the treaty

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The Mine Ban Treaty

• The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
  Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of
  Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction
• AKA The Mine Ban Treaty
• Signed by 122 governments in Ottawa, Canada in
  December 1997

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The Requirements

• Signatories must stop production and deployment
  of anti-personnel mines
• They must destroy all anti-personnel mines in its
  possession within 4 years
• (A small number of mines may remain for purposes
  of training mine detection and clearance)
• Within 10 years, the country should have cleared
  all of its mined areas
• Mine affected countries are eligible for
  international assistance for mine clearance and
  victim assistance once they sign the Mine Ban
  Treaty

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Signatories to the Treaty

• As of August 2007, 155 State Parties had signed
• Only 40 states remain outside the treaty
• Notable exclusions
• China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Pakistan,
  Russia, Syria, and United States

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US Refusal to Sign

• The US refuses to sign the treaty because it does
  not offer a Korean exception
• Argues landmines are crucial to its strategy in
  South Korea
• One million mines along the DMZ between North and
  South Korea
• Believes it maintains a delicate peace by
  deterring a North Korean attack

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US Contribution to the Problem

• U.S. used antipersonnel mines in Vietnam, Korea,
  and first Gulf War
• From 1969-1992, U.S. exported over 5 million
  antipersonnel mines to over 30 countries
• Those include Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia,
  Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua,
  Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam
• U.S. made mines have been found in at least 28 of
  these mine affected countries or regions

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Worldwide Recognition

• The coordinator of the International Campaign to
  Ban Landmines, Jody Williams, won the 1997 Nobel
  Peace Prize for her work

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Current Status

• Landmines continue to pose a threat to citizens
• The most landmine affected countries are
  Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia
• The middle east has been called the landmine
  heartland, with tens of millions of buried
  landmines

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Current Status

• Every 28 minutes, someone steps on a landmine
• Landmines are estimated to kill or injure
  approximately 18,000 people every year

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Continued Mine Use

• Only 2 states continue to deploy new mines
• Myanmars military forces continue to use
  antipersonnel mines extensively
• Russia continues to use mines, primarily in
  Chechnya, but also in Dagestan and on the borders
  of Tajikistan and Georgia

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Continued Mine Use

• Israel may have laid antipersonnel mines in the
  2006 conflict with South Lebanon
• Russian peacekeepers claim Georgian military
  forces laid new landmines, despite its moratorium
  on landmine use

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Cessation of Use

• Nepal, with its cease-fire in 2006
• Angola, since the April 2002 peace agreement
• Sri Lanka, since the cease-fire in 2001
• Rebel use has stopped in Angola, Sri Lanka,
  Macedonia, Senegal, and Uganda

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The Bad News

• 13 countries still produce or retain the right to
  produce antipersonnel mines
• Forty countries outside the Mine Ban Treaty
  together possess 160 million antipersonnel mines

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New Production

• The ICBL identified the following countries as
  manufacturing landmines as of August 2004
• Singapore
• Vietnam
• Burma
• Nepal
• India
• Pakistan
• Russia
• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• United States

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US Production

• US has failed to adopt sign the Mine Ban Treaty,
  or adopt an official moratorium
• Since US stockpiles are at capacity, there had
  not been any US based production of antipersonnel
  mines since 1997

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Bush Administration Policy

• February 2004, President Bush announced his
  landmine policy
• No intention of joining the Mine Ban Treaty
• Continued development and production of
  antipersonnel mines
• (although self-destructing/deactivating)

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Companies Producing Mines

• In the US, no company produces mines from
  beginning to end
• Companies only produce component parts, which are
  assembled in government-owned, contractor
  operated army ammunition plants

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Companies Producing Mines

• Seventeen US companies, formerly involved in
  producing antipersonnel mines, declined to
  renounce future production
• AAI Corp
• Allen-Bradley
• Alliant Techsystems, Inc.
• Accudyne Corp
• Ferrulmatic, Inc.
• CAPCO, Inc.
• Dale Electronics, Inc.

• Ensign-Bickford Industries, Inc.
• General Electric
• Lockheed Martin Corp.
• Mohawk Electrical Systems, Inc.
• Nomura Enterprise, Inc.
• Parlex Corp.
• Quantic Industries, Inc.
• Raytheon
• Thiokol Corp.
• Vishay Sprague

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New US Production

• In July 2006, Pentagon announced it had awarded
  contracts to two companies or the development of
  a new landmine system
• (Alliant Techsystems, and Textron Systems)
• Called the Spider
• Deploys triplines, that can be activated remotely
  by a monitoring soldier
• May also be activated by the victim (as in a
  conventional mine)

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New US Production

• Congress stalled the production by requiring the
  Pentagon to first study the possible
  indiscriminate consequences of deploying this
  weapon.
• The issue is only delayed until the study is
  submitted to Congress

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Removing Mines

• Even after production is halted, mines must be
  removed from the ground

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Removing Mines

• Mechanical Devices
• Mine flails may only be 80 effective (good
  enough for military use)

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Removing Mines

• For Humanitarian De-mining, UN sets a standard
  of 99.6 removal
• Communities must feel safe returning to their
  lives
• Most mines must be detected and
  removed/deactivated by hand

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Removing Mines

• Humanitarian De-miners first try to restore
  access to productive land and vital
  infrastructure
• For example clearing a path to a water source,
  or a village school

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Removing Mines

• De-mining by hand is time consuming, labor
  intensive, and dangerous
• Mines are rarely placed in flat, open fields
• Terrain is often rocky and steep

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Removing Mines

• Proper protective equipment is expensive

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Removing Mines

• Some countries can not afford such protective
  equipment

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Possible New Methods

• Gambian Giant Pouched Rat
• Can be trained with food rewards to find certain
  odors
• Too small to set off the mines

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Possible New Methods

• Honey bees
• May be trained to detect chemical odors from mines

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Possible New Methods

• The mustard Arabidopsis thaliana normally turns
  red under harsh conditions
• Scientists have bred a strain that turns red in
  response to the nitrous oxide that leaks from
  landmines and other explosives

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Possible New Methods

• A bacterium has been genetically engineered that
  will fluoresce under UV light in the presence of
  TNT
• Could be sprayed over an entire field to detect
  mines

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Some Good News

• Since the Mine Ban Treaty
• World-wide production has fallen considerably
• Trade has almost come to a halt

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Some Good News

• In 2006, over 450 square km of mined land was
  cleared and put back into productive use

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Some Good News

• Mine risk education reached 7.3 million people,
  to protect them from the danger of mines

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Some Good News

• Since the treaty, there has been widespread
  destruction of stockpiled mines

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What You Can Do

• Support organizations that aid countries in
  clearing mined fields, providing assistance to
  victims, and lobby for continued government
  action against landmines
• Volunteer time and money

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What You Can Do

• HALO (Hazardous Area Life-Support Organization)
• A British and American NPO whose purpose is to
  remove landmines and unexploded ordinance left
  behind after a war
• Operates in 9 countries, and has over 7000
  mine-clearers
• Largest operation is in Afghanistan
• Has removed 30,000 mines in Angola since the end
  of their war in 1994

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What You Can Do

• Clear Path International
• Assists the civilian victims of landmines and
  other explosive remnants of war
• Supports prosthetic clinics
• Delivers prostheses to remote areas far from
  medical care

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What You Can Do

• Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign
• Works primarily through the UN to clear mine
  fields in some of the most heavily mined
  countries in the world
• Works with a number of organizations to provide
  relief to landmine survivors
• Cleared over 21 million square meters of land in
  Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
  Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
• Provided over 1.5 million for survivor
  assistance projects

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What You Can Do

• Marshall Legacy Institute
• Contributors can sponsor a mine-detection dog

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What you can do

• Support the International Campaign to Ban
  Landmines
• Challenge elected officials (and candidates) to
  sign the Mine Ban Treaty

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Cluster Bombs
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Cluster Bomb Design

• Air dropped or ground launched munitions that
  eject a number of smaller munitions (bomblets)
• Variety of designs
• Variety of types of bomblets
• Anti-personnel
• Incendiary
• Anti-tank
• Anti-runway
• Anti-electrical

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Cluster Bomb Design

• Depending on the type and size of cluster bomb, a
  single munition may contain over 2000 bomblets

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Large Strike Area

• Bomblets are scattered over a very wide area
• The area hit by a single cluster munition can be
  as large as 2 or 3 football fields.
• With such a wide area, civilians are frequently
  hit inadvertently

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Unexploded Ordinance

• Not all bomblets detonate on impact
• They remain live, and can explode if handled
• Essentially act as landmines

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Intrinsic Failure Rate

• For example
• U.S. made M26 warheads with M77 submunitions are
  designed to have a 5 dud rate
• In reality, they have a dud rate closer to 16
• M483A1 DPICM artillery delivered cluster bombs
  have a reported dud rate of 14

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Small Failures Add Up

• Given that each cluster bomb contains hundreds of
  bomblets, and are fired in volleys
• even a small failure rate can lead to hundreds
  or thousands of unexploded ordinances scattered
  about

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Continue to be a Danger

• Like landmines, they may still be live and deadly
  even many years after deployed

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Unintended Deadliness

• Some cluster bomblets are brightly colored to
  increase their visibility and warn off civilians
• However, the color, combined with their small and
  non-threatening appearance, cause children to
  interpret them as toys

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Tragic Oversight

• In the War in Afghanistan, humanitarian rations
  dropped from airplanes were in similar yellow
  colored packaging as undetonated BLU-97B bomblets
• After several deaths, the humanitarian packages
  were changed to blue, then to transparent, to try
  to avoid such confusion

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Ongoing Deaths

• In Vietnam, people are still being killed from
  cluster bombs dropped by U.S. and Vietnamese
  forces up to 300 every year
• Unexploded cluster bombs kill more civilians in
  post-war Kosovo than landmines
• Citizens in Lebanon are being injured and killed
  by unxploded bomblets left from the 2006 conflict
  with Irseal
• Cluster bomblets kill and maim civilians in Iraq
  and Afghanistan as we try to gain local support

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CCW

• Protocol V of the UN Convention on Certain
  Conventional Weapons covers explosive remnants
  of war
• Sometimes applied to the topic of cluster
  munitions
• Has little power to enforce, and the primary
  users of cluster weapons are not signatories

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Cluster Munitions Coalition

• Following failure of the CCW review in 2006 to
  effectively address the humanitarian crisis of
  cluster munitions, CMC begun
• A network of more than 200 NGOs, faith-based
  groups, and professional organizations
• Includes global organizations, such as Handicap
  International, International Campaign to Ban
  Landmines, and Human Rights Watch

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The Oslo Process

• Through the CMC, the Norwegian Government, along
  with Austria, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and
  Peru, announced its intention to establish a new
  international process to establish a treaty
  banning cluster bombs
• Will also increase clearance of contaminated
  land, and provide assistance to victims
• In Feb 2007, 46 nations met in Oslo, committed
  themselves to completing this treaty by 2008, and
  began to shape the document
• As of November 2007, 84 states were participating
  in the Oslo Process

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Taking an Example from the Mine Ban Treaty

• CMC is calling on governments to make a strong
  and comprehensive treaty, that will make a real
  difference in peoples lives, without exceptions,
  delays, or loopholes
• Government must publicly endorse the previous
  draft in order to participate in the next
  conference
• Despite not being a superpower, smaller countries
  are taking decisive steps, and not waiting for
  larger countries to come around

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Global Day of Action

• The Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs
• April 19, 2008
• Occurs one month before the Dublin Diplomatic
  Conference on Cluster Munitions (May 19-30, 2008)

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What You Can Do

• Get involved!
• CMC gives advice on organizing events to
  demonstrate public support, raise awareness, and
  pressure governments to ban cluster munitions

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What You Can Do

• Question candidates about their position on
  cluster munitions
• A September 6, 2006, the Senate amendment to ban
  the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas was
  voted on
• Senator Clinton voted no
• Senator Obama voted yes

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Questions?