BRIEFING: Land-mine casualties down

By John Zarocostas
The Washington Times
November 23, 2007

The high rates of civilian casualties in global trouble spots and former war zones from land mines, other remnants of war and increasingly from cluster bombs has propelled efforts to stem the indiscriminate carnage to the top of the global arms control and humanitarian agenda.
The Land Mine Monitor Report 2007 concludes that civilians, including large numbers of children, made up three-quarters of the 5,751 casualties in 2006, which included 1,367 persons killed and 4,296 injured, with 88 classified as unknown — in 68 countries.
In 2006, the largest number of casualties, 1106, was in Colombia, followed by 796 in Afghanistan, 488 in Pakistan, 450 in Cambodia, 401 in Somalia, 243 in Burma and 207 in Lebanon, it said, and estimated mine survivors in the world at 473,000, "many needing life-long care."
The casualty total is a 16 percent drop from 2005, says the report, attributing the decline to the positive effects of the 1997 global Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits the use, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines, and to demining efforts by the U.N. and nongovernmental organizations.
The report by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL), a coalition of more than 1,000 organization in 72 countries and winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, said the figures refer only to recorded casualties, and that the actual total number "is unknown but certainly higher ... ."
Last year, international funding for mine action reached a record $475 million.
More than 160 million anti-personnel land mines are still stockpiled by nations not party to the 1997 treaty, with the bulk belonging to China, Russia and the United States, it said.
The report also reveals a sharp increase in the number of victims from cluster munitions in Lebanon as a result of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071123/FOREIGN/111230059/1003