The Iandtuine injuries to six Irish soldiers insouthern Lebanon, inflicted as they were clearing the route to a UN outpost, serve to highlight this issue for the Irish public. Ireland has made much of the running internationally in pursuit of an outright ban on these lethal weapons. They kill an estimated 25,000 people a year, the vast majority civilians rather than the combat troops against which they are ostensibly directed.
Israeli authorities yesterday rejected criticisms of their role in the incident from UNIFIL spokesmen. It is difficult to understand the Israeli claim that the mined area was marked off by barbed wire, given that the route to the outpost was roughly cleared by an Israeli tankdriven vehicle, after agreement was reached with UN representatives last Wednesday. According to the Irish account 13 mines exploded during this Israeli operation; another 13 were found in a follow up operation by Irish ordnance and engineering troops, the last of which exploded, injuring the six soldiers - one of whom, Private Gary Maloney, has had his left leg amputated below the knee.
The incident reveals how important landmines are in the continuous tug of war between Israeli occupation forces, resistance fighters, villagers and United Nations troops in southern Lebanon. This tells its own story about why the campaign to rid the area of landmines has proved so difficult to pursue. They are regarded by the military as having a definite function in disputed border regions, irrespective of the damage done to civilians or peacekeeping troops. Much of the Irish Battalion's military work there involves landmines, on which they have built up an expertise that remains valuable in other UN peacekeeping arenas. This helps, indeed, to explain why the campaign to get rid of them should have been taken up so enthusiastically by the Government, with the support of all the political parties.
A glance at the international statistics lends credibility to this endeavour, which has recently been boosted by an important political commitment from the new British government. There are an estimated 110 million landmines laid in 70 countries. Each week they kill about 500 people. Laying them costs only a few pounds but getting rid of them an estimated £1,000 apiece. The UN estimates that at the present rate of removal it would take 1,100 years to clear them from the face of the earth. They are manufactured in some 45 countries. Given that they are relatively inexpensive, it is not surprising that some poorer states with endemic territorial disputes are loath to give them up.
The international diplomatic effort to get rid of landmines must nonetheless be redoubled. It has a good chance of succeeding, having built up a significant momentum among states and in the popular imagination around the world, sustained by the horrendous and gratuitous damage they do. This week in Brussels a conference attended by governmental and nongovernmental organisations will review progress made since the valuable Ottawa meeting on the subject last year. It will consider a call on the European Union to adopt a joint action in favour of a treaty to ban their use altogether. This is a progressive and achievable objective and one that is worth the enthusiastic support of the incoming government.