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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
An Overview Of Mozambique’S Mine-Free District Process, Antonio Belchior Vaz Martíns, Hans Risser
An Overview Of Mozambique’S Mine-Free District Process, Antonio Belchior Vaz Martíns, Hans Risser
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
In the 1990s, Mozambique ranked among countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, and Iraq as one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. At the time, experts estimated that clearing all landmines in Mozambique would take 50 to 100 years. Landmines were widely used by all sides during the conflicts that ravaged Mozambique from the mid-1960s until 1992. These nuisance minefields usually consisted of small numbers of mines in seemingly random or undefined areas mostly around paths, wells and rural infrastructure. Large-pattern minefields tended to be the exception rather than the norm in Mozambique. Given the …
Mine-Action Program In Southern Sudan, Margaret M. Mathiang
Mine-Action Program In Southern Sudan, Margaret M. Mathiang
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Following more than two decades of civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan, much of Southern Sudan has been left contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war. As a result, the Southern Sudan Demining Authority, along with the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Mine Action Office and other organizations, have been diligently working toward clearing 80 percent of the mines in Southern Sudan by 2011.
Mine-Action Activities In Western Sahara, Ginevra Cucinotta
Mine-Action Activities In Western Sahara, Ginevra Cucinotta
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Since 2007, the United Nations Mine Action Service has been implementing mine-action activities in Western Sahara. Although the parties to the conflict generally abide by a 1991 ceasefire, the expansive territory remains contaminated by an unknown quantity of mines and explosive remnants of war. The Mine Action Coordination Centre has provided technical coordination and quality assurance and plans to expand its mine-action operations.
Bosnia And Herzegovina Demining 15 Years Later, Zoran Grujic
Bosnia And Herzegovina Demining 15 Years Later, Zoran Grujic
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
This article outlines the demining steps taken by the United Nations and national authorities following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s war in the 1990s. The author further explores the shortcomings and successes of the demining projects and laws, with attention to preparations for the state’s next decade of mine action.
Mine Action In North Sudan, Khalid Ibrahim Hamed
Mine Action In North Sudan, Khalid Ibrahim Hamed
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
North Sudan’s National Mine Action Centre is making great strides toward clearing all known mined areas in Sudan’s northern regions by April 2014. In the following article, the author, a Quality Assurance Officer for NMAC, explores NMAC’s work, future plans, and how it has linked mine action to development and recovery in North Sudan.
Humanitarian Mine Action Training Mission To Sri Lanka, Amy Crockett
Humanitarian Mine Action Training Mission To Sri Lanka, Amy Crockett
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Starting in August 2009, Sri Lanka received much-needed aid from the United States to address its vast mine/explosive remnants of war contamination. With the provision of training and equipment to the Sri Lanka School of Military Engineering, the citizens of Sri Lanka’s Northern province are slowly returning to their communities.
Falkland-Malvinas Islands Update, Cory Kuklick
Falkland-Malvinas Islands Update, Cory Kuklick
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Since conflict between the United Kingdom and Argentina ceased in 1982, the Falkland-Malvinas Islands have remained riddled with landmines. Under its obligation to the Ottawa Convention, the U.K. is removing the landmines from this territory. Despite concerns about clearance there, a successful pilot program has been conducted.
Colombia, Country Profile
Colombia, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Colombia, a country overwhelmed by four decades of war, has the highest concentration of contamination from landmines and other explosive remnants of war in the Americas. The conflict, which was and continues to be waged between the Colombian government and various nonstate actors, reached its peak during the early 1990s.The use of improvised explosive devices, anti-personnel landmines and other forms of explosive ordnance has rapidly increased in Colombia since then, due to heavy usage by NSAs such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia. In the past, the Colombian government laid landmines around 34 military bases to protect key infrastructure, …
Chile, Country Profile
Chile, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Chilean involvement in landmine distribution began in the 1970s during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Due to strained political relations, Pinochet ordered hundreds of thousands of landmines to be emplaced along the Argentine, Bolivian and Peruvian borders as a defensive measure. Many of these landmines were located in rugged terrain with unpredictable weather, making landmine removal a difficult and expensive task. Landmine use and distribution halted when the Chilean Foreign Ministry stated “its firm and decided commitment, … in 1985, not to produce, export, import, or lay new landmines.” Since this declaration, Chile has made many strides to remove the remaining …
Ecuador, Country Profile
Ecuador, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
At the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in November 2008, Ecuador was one of 15 countries to request an extension on the Ottawa Convention deadline for completing landmine clearance. These 15 States Parties were the first group to do so since the adoption of the Convention in 1997. Delegates agreed unanimously to grant Ecuador’s request, extending the original 2009 deadline a full eight years to 1 September 2017. In its request, Ecuador reported fulfilling its Article 52 obligations in 53 of 128 suspect areas—totaling 118,707 square meters (29 acres) of cleared area. Approximately 498,633 square meters (123 acres) in the …
Nicaragua, Country Profile
Nicaragua, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Nicaragua is located in Central America, midway between Mexico and Colombia, bordered by Honduras to the north, Costa Rica to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. It was granted independence from Spain in 1821 and ultimately became an independent republic seven years later. In 1979, a civil war broke out that lasted 11 years, littering the country with landmines and unexploded ordnance that remain to this day. When Hurricane Mitch struck Nicaragua in October 1998, it exacerbated the landmine problem by moving remnants from the internal conflict, making clearance extremely challenging. …
Peru, Country Profile
Peru, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Situated between Chile and Ecuador, next to the South Pacific Ocean, Peru faced a decade of military rule in the 1970s and internal conflict in the 1980s when democracy was reestablished. These periods of conflict, as well as a border dispute with Ecuador in the 1990s, have resulted in landmine problems. The Ottawa Convention went into force for Peru in 1999, meaning its deadline for total mine clearance should be reached in 2009. Peru requested, and was granted, a deadline extension through 2017, citing a lack of funding.
‘Mine-Free’ Countries Of Central/South America: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador And Suriname, Country Profile
‘Mine-Free’ Countries Of Central/South America: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador And Suriname, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Landmines and unexploded ordnance have had an enormous effect on countries in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in Central and South America. Various wars and internal conflicts in these regions have promulgated the use of indiscriminate weapons. Many of these countries, which have since resolved the conflicts, are still in the process of clearing and eradicating landmines and other explosive remnants of war in their territories and, thus, are minimizing the threat they pose to citizens.
Argentina, Country Profile
Argentina, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
At the heart of the Argentine landmine/ unexploded ordnance issue is a territorial dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. Argentina acknowledges that contamination exists in the U.K.-occupied Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), 480 kilometers (300 miles) off the South American country’s coast. However, the government challenges British claims to the islands, and has asserted its sovereign rights over not only the Falklands, but also South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and surrounding areas. The Falkland-Malvinas Islands were mined by both Argentine and British forces during the 1982 conflict between the two nations. Because both nations claim sovereignty over the contaminated …
Falkland/Malvinas Islands, Country Profile
Falkland/Malvinas Islands, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
In 1982, the Argentine junta government, faced with recession and declining public support, invaded the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, whose ownership had long been disputed with the United Kingdom. To the surprise of the Argentine generals, the United Kingdom counter-invaded the territory it claimed as the Falkland Islands. By the end of the three-month conflict, the Falkland/Malvinas Islands were again under British control. Ownership of the islands has long been disputed, but since 1833, excluding a brief period during the Falklands War, Britain has been in control. Despite numerous U.N. resolutions directing the United Kingdom and Argentina to seek a peaceful resolution …
India, Country Profile
India, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
An estimated 30 to 50 million people in India suffer from a disability. This number translates to about 3 to 5 percent of the 1.13 billion inhabitants. The country is plagued by a variety of issues, including overpopulation, poverty, internal conflict,and contamination by landmines as well as other explosive remnants of war.
Lao Pdr, Country Profile
Lao Pdr, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is the world’s most heavily unexploded ordnance-contaminated nation, deeply affecting the country’s people. During the Second Indochina War (also known as the Vietnam–American War), the United States carried out more than half a million bombing missions over Lao PDR, during which over two million tons (1.8 million metric tonnes) of ordnance were dropped. Up to 30 percent of this ordnance failed to explode,leaving behind a serious UXO contamination that still kills and maims innocent men, women and children in one of the poorest nations in the world.
Pakistan, Country Profile
Pakistan, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Pakistan is not a signatory of the Ottawa Convention but is a member of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Funding for mine action is difficult in Pakistan because the Mine Ban Convention was not ratified; consequently, prospective donors are less likely to invest in Pakistan’s landmine removal and victim-assistance endeavors. The lack of financial support as well as support from the government has made mine action—and specifically victim assistance—very difficult. The government’s stance is that landmines are important for the country’s security, especially along the borders of Afghanistan and India where disputes over land continue.
Somalia, Country Profile
Somalia, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
In 1960, Britain and Italy ended their colonial rule in Somaliland. British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland combined, creating the new state of Somalia. In 1969, however, the young nation was overthrown by Mohamed Siad Barre, who set up the authoritarian and socialist state of Somalia, bringing much-needed stability to the nation, despite his known corruption. 1991 marked the ousting of this authoritarian rule and began 15 years of anarchy and chaos as a variety of groups struggled for control of the nation or claimed regions of it as their own. At this point Somaliland broke away from Somalia as a …
Lebanon, Country Profile
Lebanon, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Years of conflict and foreign occupation have left Lebanon riddled with landmines and unexploded ordnance. Contamination from explosive remnants of war increased dramatically as a result of the introduction and use of cluster munitions in the July–August 2006 conflict with Israel. According to the Landmine Monitor’s 2007 report on Lebanon, the use of cluster munitions resulted in the contamination of approximately 500,000 undetonated, unexploded munitions and 15,300 other varieties of UXO. In addition to the increased cluster-bomb contamination, Lebanon remains contaminated with anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines from the Lebanese War (1975–1990).
Vietnam, Country Profile
Vietnam, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Vietnam, a country of more than 85 million people, has one of the world’s highest rates of disabled citizens—greater than 6 percent of the entire population. That figure is partially attributable to contamination by landmines and unexploded ordnance, which encroaches on more than 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles) and up to one-fifth of the country’s land surface. As a result, the Landmine Monitor Report has estimated that there are currently some 66,380 survivors of mines and explosive remnants of war in Vietnam—4,000 of whom received survivor services in 2006.
Occupied Palestinian Territories, Country Profile
Occupied Palestinian Territories, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
A half-century of conflict has contributed to the current unstable situation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, split between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Both explosive ordnance and unexploded ordnance remain from the civil struggle between Hamas and Fatah political factions, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Earlier this year, Israeli forces imposed dominion over the Gaza Strip, plunging the region into a humanitarian crisis. On 23 January 2008, a series of Hamas-detonated landmine explosions along the border wall in Rafah, Gaza Strip, opened passage for tens of thousands of Palestinians to escape into Egypt. No signs …
Islamic Republic Of Iran, Country Profile
Islamic Republic Of Iran, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
The area of the world once home to the Persian Empire has seen its fair share of social and political turbulence. In 1979, the western-supported ruler Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown during the Iranian Revolution, and a conservative Islamic cleric named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power and formed an Islamic republic. This system of government still remains even after Khomeini's passing in 1989, with Ali Khamenei succeeding him as supreme leader of the country.
Tajikistan, Country Profile
Tajikistan, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Nearly a decade after a civil war ravaged the Republic of Tajikistan, the country is still suffering the effects of contamination from landmines and explosive remnants of war. Although the country has never produced or exported anti-personnel mines, Soviet and Uzbek forces emplaced them along most of its borders. Tajikistan is also the only State Party to the Ottawa Convention to declare APMs stockpiled in its territory by a non-State Party; Russian Ministry of Defense units deployed in Tajikistan control approximately 18,200 mines. All of these issues contribute to a crippling mine problem for one of the poorest countries in …
Jordan, Country Profile
Jordan, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Landmines, unexploded ordnance, and explosive remnants of war have plagued the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as a result of several periods of conflict, dating back to the partition of Palestine and establishment of the Israeli state in 1948.
Lebanon, Country Profile
Lebanon, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
The overwhelming presence of landmines and explosive remnants of war in Lebanon has created a diverse and complex problem that continues to affect the socioeconomic development of the country. A number of mine/ERW accidents have occurred while individuals engage in farming activities. According to Landmine Monitor, about 62 percent of contaminated areas is agricultural land, and casualties tend to increase in planting and harvesting months. With contamination of agricultural land, landmines have delayed the implementation of a major drinking and irrigation water pipeline project.3 Also, there has been a noticeable decrease in agricultural production, the major source of income for …
Pakistan, Country Profile
Pakistan, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
In addition to suffering from continual suicide bombings and other violent terrorist acts, residents of Pakistan must also face the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance. The country has had problems with mines, UXO and other terrorism since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Pakistan also has been involved in several disputes with India since 1947.
Sudan, Country Profile
Sudan, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Sudan currently consists of two major political groups under a single government. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 created the Government of National Unity and the Government of South Sudan. The GNU is recognized as the government of Sudan but the term is also used to politically differentiate northern Sudan from the southern region which is represented by the GoSS.
Yemen, Country Profile
Yemen, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
Located on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the Republic of Yemen is home to a people with a rich history dating back to some of the earliest human civilizations. Yemen is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the east, the Red Sea to the west, and the Arabian Sea to the south, giving it a strategic location as a trading port that made the region wealthy throughout much of its history. In recent years the country has been plagued by violence and political corruption, making it difficult to focus on two major humanitarian crises of …
Morocco And Western Sahara, Country Profile
Morocco And Western Sahara, Country Profile
The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction
By the time Spain abandoned its Western Saharan claims in 1976, three warring factions had emerged, taking up arms over custody of the territory: Morocco seeking southern annexation, Mauritania seeking northern annexation, and Saharan natives seeking to establish their own nation, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.