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Landmines - Some Common MythsLandmine clearance (demining) has become a huge industry approaching a billion dollars a year. Contrary to opinions expressed by many people, humanitarian demining is a small industry with very limited funds for equipment purchases. There has been much talk of raising enough money (at least 1 billion US dollars each year) to rid the world of landmines by 2010 but the amount of money actually flowing to demining operations world-wide is much smaller than a billion dollars. Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia are three of the larger programmes, each with an annual expenditure of about US$20,000,000 yearly. World Bank funds are flowing into reconstruction projects in the former Yugoslavia, of which demining is a part. Elsewhere, demining programmes operate on tiny budgets. The total direct funding world-wide for 2000 is probably about US$400,000,000, thanks to contributions made by the US(about US$250,000,000) and other countries. Once a demining programme is established equipment expenditure is typically about 5% (the figure varies widely, and expenditure is mainly replacement of existing detectors and vehicles), so the total annual direct expenditure on equipment by humanitarian demining programmes world-wide is probably about US$20,000,000. Re-equipping a demining programme with new detectors often requires an in-kind aid donation from the government of the manufacturer. The plastic mine detector would be a real break-through Nearly all anti-personnel landmines posing a humanitarian threat have enough metal to be detected with today's detectors, though there are some technology improvements needed to lessen the effect of mineralized soils. (New detectors are now available with this capability). Most (but not all) anti-tank mines also have enough metal. The major problem in landmine detection is to distinguish between the mines and the thousands of metal fragments in the ground (such as rubbish, pieces of exploded shells etc.). Many of the most dangerous mines are mainly metallic, such as the infamous PROM-1 which is common in Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia. Landmines pose the biggest humanitarian problem in the world today Perhaps as many as 500,000 people die each year from motor vehicle accidents, and countless more are injured. Possibly 2,000,000 children die from preventable Malaria each year, and tens of millions of people are malnourished for much of the time. In the early 1990's landmines killed or injured about 25,000 people each year (Red Cross) and casualty rates have fallen significantly as a result of carefully targeted demining and minefield marking programmes. The landmine problem is not large in comparison to other humanitarian problems, but for the time being it has received public attention which offers the prospect of enough resources for a lasting solution. One important factor is that mines have to be cleared before other humanitarian problems can be addressed in the affected areas. Over 110,000,000 mines to be cleared and US$300 - $1000 per mine to clear them This commonly quoted statistic was originally based on a US State Department report in 1994 and it is known that the estimates were extremely inaccurate. In any case, the number of mines is irrelevant because they are easy to dispose of once located. It is much more meaningful to define the area of land which is suspected to contain mines, and which needs to be checked. This is labour-intensive and time-consuming because of the need to check every metal fragment signalled by metal detectors. Most demining programmes now assign different priority and risk levels to land, depending on the knowledge of mines which may be there, and the socio-economic value of the land. For instance, 323 sq km of land have been identified in Afghanistan as being high priority areas to be cleared, and a further 401 sq km are low priority (3). Overall demining programme costs in third world environments are typically $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 per sq. km of cleared land. Defence Research will find the technology to fix the problem Recent statements by governments suggests that there is a widely held expectation that new technology to revolutionize humanitarian demining will emerge from military R&D programs. Countries which have given pledges to the Ottowa process, and the US Government have included large military R&D programme expeditures in their contributions towards the elimination of landmines. For example, the US Government has set itself a target to increase global spending on demining to $1 billion per year by 2010, yet includes within this about $350 million on private and classified military research. Underlying this is a recognition by military authorities that landmines pose a major threat to their operations, particularly in peace keeping or enforcement. Western electorates have come to expect zero military casualties and older military countermine technologies cannot meet this political requirement. Therefore, there is considerable urgency to develop effective countermine technologies to support military operations. The need for zero casualties allows military planners to argue that their aims coincide with humanitarian demining needs so their research programmes are likely to make an effective contribution. Will this help with humanitarian demining? First, one must recognise that there are major differences between military countermine requirements and humanitarian demining which significantly affect research priorities.
Next, a technological breakthrough would be regarded by many as a significant military advantage. One should ask whether it would be affordable for humanitarian demining efforts? Would the technology be unrestricted and made available to third parties which may not be regarded as "responsible" by many people? On balance, one has to expect that the outcomes of military research are less likely to be useful for humanitarian demining than research on smaller, incremental improvements to existing technology which are, relatively speaking, less well funded. However, there are positive outcomes emerging now which may help to restore the balance. Military technology, particularly large demining machinery, is making a significant impact in the former Yugoslavia. The machinery is operated by elements of the NATO forces assigned to Bosnia and Croatia. However, while the machinery helps to reduce the mine threat, experience has shown that no machinery can meet humanitarian demining clearance requirements except in very restricted circumstances. So far, it is unclear what future demining efforts will be needed to re-check land cleared mechanically in Bosnia and Croatia. The operating costs form part of the total peace keeping effort and almost certainly could not be supported by a non-military programme for mine clearance. Similar machinery is being made available by Finland for trials in Cambodia this year. Military countermine research teams have opened their doors to help demining efforts with some of their vast information resources. These comments should not be understood as an attempt
to reduce the significance of the work performed by many dedicated researchers
in defence establishments world-wide who are genuinely trying to help,
and have been very helpful to us when we need specialised information.
It is just that we should be realistic and recognise the motivation for
funding this work if we are to make the best use of the outcomes.
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