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Department Seal Hidden Killers 1998: The Global Landmine Crisis

Chapter II: Long-Term Effects of Landmines and UXO


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"In addition to enormous pain and suffering, landmines bring lingering economic and social costs."
                                     --UNICEF News, 1998

The effects of the landmine scourge extend beyond the costs of landmine removal and immediate medical treatment of the victims. The cost to remove one landmine is, on average, from $300 to $1,000 and the cost for surgical care and fitting of an artificial limb is $3,000 or more per amputee in some countries. But the further problem is the long-term effect on people and their environment. Landmines stand in the way of efforts to restore war-torn societies to normal life. They consume billions of dollars of assistance that could be used to bring prosperity and reconciliation, and they continue to take their toll long after the guns have fallen silent. In effect, landmines have an impact on virtually every aspect of life in the mine-affected countries and on the international community as it seeks effective ways to help those countries recover.

Combined with the tangible costs of landmine removal and medical care for victims are the larger, less definable costs for a community located in or near a minefield and for mine-affected countries as a whole. A recent study of the social costs of landmines in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, and Mozambique revealed that between 25-87 percent of households had daily activities affected by landmines. Unless removed and destroyed, landmines:

Impediments to Reconstruction

To understand the profound impact of landmine pollution, it is useful to explore how it affects a country's efforts to restore normalcy following a civil war or conflict. Those efforts may be divided into five stages, and the impact of landmines on each is substantial. The first order of business in post-conflict situations is to attempt to mitigate the causes of the original conflict and build confidence that peace can be sustained. Landmines hinder the efforts to return civilians and demobilized soldiers to their former homes if there are known or suspected minefields in the area. This may require extensive and costly arrangements to house and feed refugee populations (see section on refugees and returnees next). They also undermine the confidence and security needed to begin the process of political reconciliation and reestablishment of community services.

A second order of business is reviving economic activity, including devastated infrastructure. A feeling of hope for the future and a return to a more normal life(meaning the absence of war(must soon be accompanied by meaningful employment, the availability of goods and services, particularly food, and the restoration of normal community services(schools, electricity, water supply, roads and other communications systems(and the elimination of landmines, for example. Agricultural land is often a key to economic revitalization in developing societies. The presence or even the presumed presence of landmines reduces the amount of land that can be farmed and increases the need for food aid. Landmines also hinder the repair of irrigation systems that allow for restored production.

A third stage in reviving post-conflict countries may include national elections, which require maximum participation if the new government is to acquire legitimacy. Landmines will hinder an election campaign by preventing access to polling places and impeding dissemination of information and contact with candidates.

A fourth stage in the transition requires a government to extend its presence around the country, particularly into formerly war-torn areas. Mobility is critical to the success of teachers, technicians, extension agents, doctors and other health care workers, and staff of development agencies dealing with the post-conflict situation. Landmines impede the delivery of government services and act as physical obstacles to unity and reconstruction.

The fifth stage of a transition is a consolidation phase. Presumably, a sustainable peace would have been established as people begin to have a stake in the growing economy and evolving political situations. Still, as in the case of Mozambique, large areas of the country continue to be non-productive because of landmines. Removal of the landmines is thus an essential step in the consolidation and progress of the peace process.

Refugees and Returnees In countries emerging from war, landmines pose a profound obstacle to the resettlement of refugees and IDPs, and thus to the process of returning to normalcy. When peace is restored, repatriation and return is a primary humanitarian consideration. Landmines are a serious obstacle to repatriation as routes of return and former areas of settlement are often mined and normal habitation is impossible. Ordinary movement and gainful employment become impossible. A recent report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) forecasts that "...although the number of people forced to abandon their homes across the world will continue to rise, fewer will be able to find safe refuge." (footnote 1) According to this report, as of January 1, 1997, some 22.7 million people were at risk: 13.2 million refugees, 4.9 million IDPs, 3.3 million returnees, and 1.3 million others. Of these 22 million people, more than half were located in the most heavily mined countries (Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Eritrea, Iraq, Mozambique, Somalia, and Sudan). Africa has the largest number of refugees (4.3 million) and the largest number of returnees (1.7 million), and had the largest number of repatriations in 1996 (1.56 million). Of a global total of about 30 million IDPs, Africa claims 16 million. About 4.4 million citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina were uprooted during the four years of conflict there, and their reintegration is expected to be a long and difficult process, compounded by the landmines in the region.

Despite fewer wars and insurgencies around the globe, communal conflict continues to generate new refugee movements, and although the overall refugee count may drop, the number of IDPs has increased.

Landmines can be used as a weapon to forcibly displace people; they can be an obstacle for those trying to flee their homes; they are an impediment to repatriation and reintegration; and, they are a danger to humanitarian staff. The presence of landmines exacerbates the already harsh conditions faced by the vast majority of IDPs. A study of refugees who returned to Afghanistan from Peshawar, Pakistan revealed that between 20 and 40 percent of them became casualties because they were unfamiliar with the location of minefields.

Medical

The effect of landmines is pervasive, but not always self-evident. Their most visible impact is on victims(the men, women, and children who have lost limbs and/or sight after stepping on a landmine.

But landmines also lead to indirect public health problems, such as the spread of polio. In areas where roads, farms and access to public health clinics are mined, a public health campaign, such as mass immunization against polio, is difficult to carry out. Mass immunization requires mobile vaccination teams. In areas where landmines are suspected but their exact location is uncertain, mobile immunization and health care teams who are not familiar with their surroundings are in danger. Accordingly, many towns and rural areas near minefields are left out of such campaigns altogether.

By preventing health services(such as vaccinations(from being delivered and discouraging humanitarian assistance, the presence of landmines greatly increases the risk of infectious disease. Again and again, we have seen high mortality and disability rates among children as an indirect result of the presence of landmines. Indeed, in Afghanistan, most of the polio cases of disability originate from provinces where landmine concentration is the highest.

Those at highest risk of the indirect health consequences of landmines(from waterborne diseases, malnutrition, and childhood infections(are mostly the poor, rural, and especially children. Because roads and paths to sources of drinking water and firewood to boil contaminated water are mined, villagers drink polluted water, causing diarrhea diseases, especially among children. In countries where cholera recurs every summer, minefields prevent access to safe drinking water sources and dramatically increase mortality.

There are also clear links between landmines and malnutrition. Most countries affected by war lose many "breadwinners" between the ages of 15 and 50, preventing families from earning the money needed to buy adequate nutritious food. By adding a disabled member to the family, landmines exacerbate an already tenuous socio-economic situation and fuel malnutrition. Landmine victims, especially those severely disabled or blind, further debilitate already socially and economically disadvantaged families. Landmines make it extremely difficult to cope with this "dual" handicap of poverty and physical disability.

Table 1. Summary of the Most Important (Probable) Indirect Public Health Consequences of Landmines (footnote 2)

 

Influence Point

Condition(s) or Behavior Altered

Diseases Especially Increased

Agricultural land, water canals mined

Farming activities decrease causing food scarcity

Malnutrition-related diseases

Access to drinking water and firewood mined

People drink contaminated water

Waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, amoebiasis, Giardiasis, etc.

Roads and access to public places mined

Mobile vaccination teams avoid the area, results in low or no vaccination coverage and may disrupt Public Health Community activities

All of the six childhood killer (but preventable) diseases

Increased amputation and injury requiring blood transfusion

Increased demand and frequency of blood transfusion

Contaminated blood transfusion diseases (HIV, trypanosomiasis, malaria)

Mined roads prevent food transport between villages

People have to subsist on local food products that may be iodine- deficient

Iodine deficiency disorders, including high perinatal mortality

 

Economic

The presence of landmines has a pervasive effect on the economic life of countries trying to recover from conflict. Not unexpectedly, the rural poor(among them farmers, nomads, and herdsmen(are the most vulnerable segments of a society, and their livelihood is largely dependent on subsistence farming. Thus, an agrarian country suffering from landmines is economically crippled because the rest of the country's economy is so dependent on the productivity of the agricultural sector. Furthermore, social structures are overburdened or exhausted, scarce national resources must be directed toward demining-related activities, and dependence on international assistance continues. The suspected presence of landmines halts or disrupts farming and transportation services. Repair of damaged roads and rail networks, waterways, and power grids is costly and time-consuming. Prices and wages begin to rise as an immediate reaction to the short supply of goods and services, increasing the burden on the poor. "Without mines, agricultural production could increase by 88-200% in Afghanistan, 11% in Bosnia, 135% in Cambodia, and 3.6% in Mozambique." (footnote 3)

Because landmines turn arable land into unusable land, overgrazing and overcrowding of remaining farmlands are another consequence. If the road network is mined, goods and services cease to flow, and market systems are disrupted. In areas dependent on tourists, minefields discourage visitors and potential investors in development. Minefields, for example, circumscribe Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe's premier resort, and the only areas for growth and expansion in response to tourism are in the direction of the minefields. Mined urban areas can have long-term economic impact by impeding light manufacturing, heavy industrial development, and energy production.

Landmines also seriously undermine infrastructure, compounding all the other problems a society faces: they isolate powerlines, bridges, water plants, roads, rail networks and waterways, and they hinder reconstruction and impede maintenance and repair. Goods cannot be transported easily by land, and workers cannot move from one part of the country to another. Markets are disrupted, suppliers cease operations, and businesses fail. Programs to free up infrastructure are a priority. Viable infrastructures are necessary to lessen human suffering and to support peace-building efforts. The costs of repairing a country's physical backbone can be enormous, but failure to do so simply prolongs economic misery, fueling tensions and threatening further conflict.

Environmental

The presence of landmines has a major impact on a country's environment. The unavailability of some farmland due to the presence(or suspected presence(of landmines in an area leads to overuse of existing lands. Some of the agrarian population is forced to move to cities and towns, contributing to overcrowding, unemployment and additional pressure on government services such as sewage, garbage disposal, and other urban resources. The danger posed by landmines to livestock and other animals is also significant, since they can have a long-term impact on the habitat. Some studies indicate that as many as 627,000 animals have been killed by landmines and other UXO in 23 countries, including such scarce and endangered species as elephants in Africa and brown bears in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as buffalo in several Southeast Asian countries. Landmines have destroyed entire herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Animals, once a source of food, revenue or transport, may thus become sources of contamination and disease when they wander into minefields. Those fields, in turn, may become a breeding ground for malarial mosquitoes, resulting in further problems for the area.

Social and Political Reconciliation

Reconciliation requires governments to extend their presence and their services to formerly war-torn areas. Landmines threaten the peace process, as well as impede post-conflict recovery and reconstruction by preventing the delivery of government services, and acting as physical obstacles to unity and reconstruction. As noted above, mobility is a prerequisite for spreading governmental influence. When roads and railway networks are mined, costly air transport may be the only means of reaching some communities, and their use for subsistence support may affect the readiness and availability of defense forces. Often even such transport is unavailable when warring factions bar relief agencies or government representatives from using airfields.

Security and Military Effects

The persistence of landmines can contribute to the continued militarization of society(perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to nation-building. Those who live in mined areas will seek relief and protection, and may turn to militias or other armed groups. The existence of such groups, in turn, complicates efforts by international relief organizations or government representatives to gain access to and deliver needed medical or other assistance. NGOs may be threatened or barred from some regions under the control of competing paramilitary or other groups. This prevents the very aid that might make a difference from reaching those in mine-affected areas which need it most.

The toll of landmines can be measured in many ways, from the long-term costs of surgery and prosthetic care of a landmine victim, to the economic drain on the limited resources of mine-affected countries, to the cost to the international community as a whole. However measured, the toll on societies is enormous. Simply stated, "All of society pays, over and over again." (footnote 4)

Footnotes

1. UNHCR, The State of The World's Refugees, 1997-98. A Humanitarian Agenda, 1997, 268.
2. Faiz Kakar, Ph.D., Direct and Indirect Consequences of Landmines on Public Health, World Health Organization, July 1995, 6.
3. Idem.
4. ICRC, Antipersonnel Mines: An Overview, August 1, 1997, 7.

[End of Document]

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