MINE ACTION AWARENESS DAY ADVANCER (4 APRIL 2006)

The war against landmines may be won sooner than many once thought, say United Nations officials on April 4, the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. But success will depend on continued donor support and commitments from mine-affected countries to get the job done.

Before the international community rallied around the anti-landmine movement in the late 1990s, some demining experts had predicted that it would take more than 100 years to remove all the landmines in the ground. Since then, however, efforts to rid countries of landmines have rapidly expanded, and some countries have already been able to declare themselves mine-free.

Max Gaylard, Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is optimistic about the prospects for a mine-free world.

SOUNDBITE (English) Max Gaylard, Director, United Nations Mine Action Service in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations:

It can be done is decades rather than 100 years."

Eighty-two countries are contaminated to some extent by landmines and what are today called "explosive remnants of war," which includes unexploded ordnance and abandoned munitions. These devices kill or maim as many as 20,000 people annually worldwide.

The number of landmines still to be removed from the ground is unknown. Few records have been kept by mine-laying forces, and newly discovered mined areas are being recorded every day. Gaylard says the quantity of mines is less important than their effects on people.

SOUNDBITE (English) Max Gaylard, Director, United Nations Mine Action Service in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations:

"In fact it's probably better not to talk so much of the number of mines in the ground because what happens is, if you have an agricultural field with one mine; it doesn't really matter whether it is one, or 100, or 1000, the farmers are not going to go into those fields, or the villages, or the towns while they know that mines are there."

Sayed Aqa, Chief of the United Nations Development Programme's Mine Action Team, describes the impact of landmines in socio-economic terms.

SOUNDBITE (English) Sayed Aqa, Chief of the United Nations Development Programme's Mine Action Team:

"The socioeconomic impact of landmines are that people, normal people, communities cannot live and work normally because of the fear of landmines. They cannot farm their lands; children cannot go to school."

SOUNDBITE (English) Sayed Aqa, Chief of the United Nations Development Programme's Mine Action Team:

"Landmine block all livelihoods: water supply, roads, access to clinics, hospitals, and schools, and also markets where people and farmers go and take their commodities for sale."

The impact of landmines is also experienced by children, explains Paula Claycomb of UNICEF's Landmines and Small Arms Team.

SOUNDBITE (English) Paula Claycomb, Landmines and Small Arms Team, UNICEF:

"Most landmine victims are adults. However some 20% of all landmine casualties are children under 18 years old."

The United Nations is supporting demining programmes in 30 countries and three territories, but is also providing the full range of what are called "mine action" services. Mine action extends beyond demining and includes assisting victims, teaching people how to stay out of harm's way in mined areas, advocating for participation in international treaties like the Ottawa Convention, and destroying stockpiled mines.

Partly as a result of these mine action programmes, the number of new casualties each year has fallen from about 26,000 in the late 1990s and huge tracts of land have been returned to communities for productive use, paving the way for reconstruction and development.

The United Nations says that the remarkable progress achieved so far shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Unlike many of the world's problems today, this one may be solved.