wfn.org | Landmines Still Pose Danger

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3482 notes).

Note 3481 by UMNS on March 11, 1997 at 16:17 Eastern (4249 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                          127(10-21-71B){3481}
          New York (212) 870-3803                   March 11, 1997
 
EDITORS NOTE: Photos available.

Millions of landmines
pose hidden dangers

               by United Methodist News Service

     In a Mozambique village in 1995, several children collected
scrap iron to sell in the local market. When placed on a scale in
the marketplace for weighing, the metal -- a landmine -- exploded,
killing 11 children.
     This story, told by Graca Machel, the former First Lady of
that African country, was one of many presentations at the Feb.
25-28 Fourth International Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO)
Conference on Landmines in Maputo, Mozambique's capital city.
Machel, a United Methodist, recently wrote a United Nations study
on the effects of war on children.
     It illustrates the dangers posed by millions of live mines
that lie hidden on the land long after the wars they were planted
for have ended. The mines are cheap to purchase and plant, but
expensive, deadly and time-consuming to remove.
     There are an estimated 30 to 50 million on the continent of
Africa alone and millions more in Cambodia, Afghanistan and
Bosnia.
     Mozambique itself has an estimated 2 million landmines left
from the 10-year war that led to independence from Portugal in
1975 and the 16-year civil war that followed.
     For the Rev. R. Randy Day, a United Methodist pastor from
Ridgefield, Conn., who was part of the conference's U.S.
delegation, the "terrifying stories" he heard from wounded
children brought the statistics to life.
     Children can trigger a landmine by walking along a familiar
path or by mistaking the object, in different colors and shapes,
for a toy. "A child's curiosity, normally a healthy
characteristic, can be a death warrant," Day said.
     "More children than adults die because their small bodies are
closer to the explosion, but if they do survive, they usually lose
a foot, a leg, an eye or have any combination of multiple wounds,"
he said.       
     Adults suffer, too. Day talked with a man from Cambodia who
had personally cut off parts of his legs after being wounded by a
landmine to decrease his weight so a companion could carry him
away. He also met a young man from Afghanistan who had lost both
arms and another man wounded in Bosnia.
     Day participated in a field trip to the United Nations
Accelerated Demining Program near Moamba, about 20 miles from
Maputo. The group witnessed a mine awareness program for children,
observed the careful demolition of an inert mine and wore
protective glasses as they walked two-by-two through a live
minefield. 
     He saw a round, Russian-made mine, marked by a red ribbon and
protruding about two inches above the ground. "It was closer than
I thought we would get," he said.
     "Thick grass -- up to my waist -- had been cut down near the
live mines, but I suddenly realized how very difficult it was to
spot a mine before the deminers cut the grass and virtually
impossible for a small child whose perspective is much lower," Day
added.
     When a person steps on a mine, shock waves move up the body
"at seven times the speed of a high-velocity bullet," according to
Day, forcing dirt, rocks, grass and bone fragments deep into the
body's tissues. While the rehabilitative care received at such
places as the Orthopedic Center in Maputo allow for hope and
healing, he noted that many amputees in Africa and Asia do not
have access to this care.
     One of the Mozambique hospitals that has treated landmine
victims is the United Methodist-related Chicuque Rural Hospital in
Inhambane. After the conference, Day carried crutches and an
estimated $50,000 worth of antibiotics, medicines, dental surgical
instruments, children's clothing, and a computer and monitor to
Chicuque. The items were donated by members of his congregation at
Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, and members of the
surrounding communities in Connecticut and New York.
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