02 July 2003
U.S. Demining Program Focuses on World's Landmine Problem
(More than 100 countries affected by mines, unexploded ordnance) (720)
Following is the text of a Department of State fact sheet, issued July
2, detailing the U.S. humanitarian demining program and the landmine
problems facing more than 100 countries:
(begin fact sheet)
Fact Sheet
U.S. Department of State
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Washington
July 2, 2003
The World's Landmine Problem and the U.S. Humanitarian Demining
Program: A Timeline
The Landmine Threat
-- There are more than 100 landmine and/or unexploded ordnance (UXO)
affected countries in the world. Approximately 20 of these are
heavily-affected, including Angola, Afghanistan, Croatia, Egypt, and
Cambodia.
-- More than a dozen countries produce landmines, including Cuba,
Egypt, Singapore, and Vietnam; and almost 20 countries or rebel groups
use landmines, including some countries that produce them.
-- An estimated 45-50 million landmines infest at least 12 million sq.
km of land around the world. These landmines:
-- Kill or maim a reported 10,000 people annually;
-- Create millions of refugees and internally displaced persons
(IDPs);
-- Prevent hundreds of thousands of sq. km of agricultural land being
used;
-- Deny thousands of km of roads for travel;
-- Create food scarcities, causing malnutrition and starvation;
-- Interrupt health care, increasing sickness and disease;
-- Inflict long-term psychological trauma on landmine survivors;
-- Hinder economic development;
-- Undermine political stability.
Humanitarian Mine Action: The Humanitarian Response to the Threat
-- The United States first became involved in humanitarian mine action
in 1988, when it sent a team to assess the landmine situation in
Afghanistan.
-- The National Security Council established the U.S. Humanitarian
Demining Program in October 1993 and formed an interagency working
group, now the PCC Subgroup on Humanitarian Mine Action, to manage it.
-- In October 1997, the United States designated a Special
Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Global
Humanitarian Demining and initiated a program to foster public-private
partnerships in humanitarian mine action, known today as the Office of
Mine Action Initiatives and Partnerships.
-- Funding for the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program increased
dramatically in FY 1998 to $71 million, seven times the FY 1993
amount.
-- In June 1998, the Department of State established the Office of
Humanitarian Demining Programs in its Bureau of Political-Military
Affairs to manage the Program.
-- Today the U.S. Program is the largest humanitarian mine action
program in the world, currently providing assistance for humanitarian
mine action to more than 40 countries, including 15 of the most
mine-affected. In FY 1997, there were only 13 countries in the
Program.
-- In May 1998, Congress established a matching-donation fund in the
amount of $28 million for the Slovenian International Trust Fund for
Demining and Victim Assistance in the Balkans. The Fund was
replenished with an additional $14 million in FY 2002 and $10 million
in FY 2003.
-- In December 2001, the United States and the Government of
Mozambique agreed to establish a Quick Reaction Demining Force (QRDF),
based in Mozambique, to respond to humanitarian demining crises around
the world. The QRDF has been deployed to Sri Lanka and Sudan, and is
currently active in Iraq.
-- Since FY 1993, the United States has provided more than $700
million to support humanitarian mine action. Other major donors
include: the European Union, 12 European countries, Canada, and
Australia.
-- The United States provides funds to all five countries that are the
largest recipients of humanitarian mine action from the international
community: Cambodia, Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Mozambique and
Laos.
-- Key non-governmental actors, that either assist countries develop
an indigenous demining capability or clear mines for them, include
several departments of the United Nations, more than 20 international
organizations, NGOs, and commercial firms.
-- The results of humanitarian mine action activities are impressive
and encouraging: casualty rates are coming down; refugees and IDPs are
returning to their homes; agricultural land is being used once again;
economic infrastructure is being restored; and holistic health care is
being provided to landmine survivors.
-- After a decade of concerted, concentrated humanitarian mine action,
the United States and other donors in the International Community are
seeing once mine-infested countries declare themselves mine-safe,
while other mine-affected countries have developed an indigenous
demining capability, which will allow them to become mine-safe in the
near and not too distant future.
(end fact sheet)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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