Iraq: 1,730 skm of landmines
Baghdad - 24-08-2010
About 1,730 square kilometers (skm) of Iraqi territories are infested with landmines, planted close to civilian gatherings in the country, according to Iraqi Minister of Environment. “About 1,730 skm of Iraq’s total areas are infested with landmines in close proximity to civilian areas, including 941 skm in central and southern Iraq,” the minister said in statements, adding that some of the landmine areas are close to the borders with Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The Minister stressed that work “is taking place to complete the second phase of the surveys, covering the remaining five provinces in central and north-central Iraq,” explaining that Iraq “is considered one of the largest countries suffering from landmines planted during its modern history.” “We are laying down a plan, to begin next October, to implement a program for surveying the provinces that suffer most from the problem of landmines, beginning with Basra province and then to other provinces,” she said.
She quoted mass media reports as saying that 55 million cluster bombs and 25 million landmines exist in Iraq, though such figures are not so precise, according to estimations of the Multinational Forces (MNF) that bombarded Iraq during the past wars, apart from the weapons and ordnance imported by Iraq previously. The number of landmines in Iraq exceed 20 million, 07 million of which are planted in northern Iraq’s, mostly planted by the previous regime during its wars, including the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Most of those landmines were planted in southern Iraq close to the Iranian borders, some of which had blown up to kill and maim several people.
Iraq had signed the Ottawa Treaty, preventing the production, planting and development of landmines, while the Anti-Landmines Affairs Department, established in 2003, was annexed to the Environment Ministry in 2008, and signed the Ottawa Treaty in the same year. She stressed that the landmines problem “is having a huge passive impact on the Iraqi economy and the infrastructure of the country, forcing the Ministry to work with its said partners to implement 87 projects in this respect.”
Anti-landmines experts in the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Iraq said that solution to the problem in Iraq needs 10-20 years of work to eliminate those landmines, calling for the formation of a national humanitarian organization with financial support by Iraq’s Rehabilitation Fund, the Australian government and the International Development Department in the United Kingdom, with the support of Danish Groups. Iraq is working now, with the support of international organizations, to eliminate landmines planted in Iraqi territories.
Agencies
