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Department Seal Hidden Killers 1998: The Global Landmine Crisis

Preface and Executive Summary

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Preface by the Secretary of State

Near the start of this century, 90 percent of wartime casualties were soldiers. As the century wanes, 90 percent are civilians.

That stunning statistic is not attributable to the landmine crisis alone. But antipersonnel landmines have added greatly to the devastating impact of modern conflict on noncombatants. These hidden killers are cheap to buy, easy to use, hard to detect and difficult to remove.

President Clinton has made it our goal to eliminate by the year 2010 the threat landmines pose to civilians. As he has said, "Our children deserve to walk the Earth in safety."

"Hidden Killers 1998: The Global Landmine Crisis" is a valuable tool to help us reach this goal. In describing casulaties reduced and lands restored to productive use, it tells a story of success. And in providing lower, more realistic estimates of how many landmines remain to be cleared, it sends a message of hope.

The international community has learned how to find and clear mines, warn civilians, care for victims and restore farmlands. What we must do now is to combine this knowledge with the awareness, the commitment, the resources, the coordination and the leadership to design and carry out a truly global strategy.

That process received a vital boost from President Clinton's Global Demining Initiative and the May 1998 Washington Conference on Global Humanitarian Demining. It is a process to which this report can contribute mightily.

Mine by mine, acre by acre, people all over the world are reclaiming their lands and staking their claim to the quiet miracle of normal life. The United States is committed to ending the global landmine crisis. The 1998 edition of "Hidden Killers" points the way to doing so in years, not decades.

Madeleine K. Albright

 

Executive Summary

"Global landmine contamination has been recognized by the international community as a pressing humanitarian problem."
                                     --Tun Channareth, Landmine Victim, 1998

Since the Department of State's last landmine report was issued in 1994, several developments have altered significantly the status of the global humanitarian crisis caused by antipersonnel (APL) landmines. This report is designed to take account of those developments and their impact on the problem, as well as to add new information to the baseline data and update the status of 12 of the most severely mine-affected countries.(Footnote 1) Much of the background data in the 1994 report remains valid and has not been repeated in this updated edition.

The 1994 report painted the picture of an endless, perhaps insurmountable, challenge. On the basis of data available at that time, the 1994 report estimated that the world was littered with some 80-110 million landmines, and that each year only 80,000 were being lifted while some 2.5 million were being planted. The data compiled in this year's report reflect four years of extensive experience in dealing with the problem and in acquiring more accurate information. They enable us to provide a more realistic assessment of the challenge, as well as the actions needed by the international community to eliminate this scourge.

First, we now calculate that the total number of landmines in place around the world is approximately 30 to 50 percent lower than originally estimated, which puts the number closer to 60 million than 100 million. Second, landmines are not being planted at as high a rate as estimated in 1994, certainly well below 2.5 million each year. By most expert assessments, more landmines in fact are being taken out of the ground than are being planted. Third, the mobilization of international attention and resources for humanitarian demining is accelerating solutions and proving that concerted international intervention does dramatically reduce the carnage of landmines to civilians. While the problem is still huge, many experts now believe that the APL crisis can be solved in years rather than decades.

The United States remains committed to eliminating APL and the humanitarian crisis they cause. There is no question that initiatives by the United States and others have helped focus international attention on the need to address the threat these weapons pose to civilians. On September 24, 1994, in the United Nations General Assembly, President Clinton was the first world leader to call for the elimination of APL. Since then, U.S. efforts have included the following:

The increased focus on the landmine issue has also brought about broad consensus on the need for more effective international coordination in tackling humanitarian demining in the mine-affected countries. This, in turn, has produced a better rationalization of mine action within the United Nations (UN) family and brought additional donor government support. It has also resulted in the engagement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in coalitions with governments and international organizations to focus resources more effectively on humanitarian demining. The aim of the President's Demining 2010 Initiative is to sustain and accelerate these trends through an effective international campaign to remove the threat of landmines to civilians worldwide by the year 2010. We believe this goal is within reach.

Specific Findings

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