Landmine Survivors Network - E-newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 6
CDC Study Shows Children at Risk for Landmine Injuries
A recent US Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study statesthat landmines or unexploded ordnance (UXO) caused 96% of civilian injuries during the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. The data suggest that children are more likely to be injured by UXO such as grenades and cluster bombs, while adults are more often the victims of landmines.
The CDC study was conducted to expose patterns of activities identified as "risk behaviors," which result in landmine and UXO injuries in Afghanistan - a nation whose civilian population has one of the highest annual civilian casualty rates from landmines and UXO. The study documents the behaviors and daily routines of 1,636 victims of landmines and UXO injured between March 2001 and June 2002. Children under the age of sixteen made up nearly 50% of the study participants. The most common risk behaviors for children were outdoor recreational activities like playing with toys and tending animals. Obvious risk factors for adults included farming and traveling.
Authors of the study include in their recommendations that all landmine awareness education should speak to age-specific risk behaviors, and that broadening the reporting of landmine incidents at local levels would improve the accuracy of important mine victim surveys in the future.
Landmine Survivors Network has partnered with the CDC for the past three years to evaluate and implement trauma recovery services to landmine survivors and other amputees.
A Message from Jerry White: Urge President Bush to Protect Children Worldwide from Landmines, The Subterranean Terror
Landmines injure thousands of men, women, and children around the world every year. The US plans to sign the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006 if alternatives can be found, however this policy has been under review since President Bush took office. The policy review process is nearing an end and we expect a decision by the end of the year. Now may be the last chance to influence this decision. Please take a moment to send this e-mail to President Bush asking him to follow through with the current policy. Mention the CDC's study.
Mulatu Assefa, Age 9: Landmine Survivor
A Northern Ethiopian family in the rural village of Lasta is gathering around the fireplace inside their small hut discussing their day, as they do every night. One of the older children talks about the landmine he found then threw in the river while herding cattle. Two weeks earlier a friend who found a mine, thought it was a toy, and was killed when it exploded.
The boy's younger brother Mulatu Assefa, was fascinated. He kept pestering his brother for the exact location of the weapon. The next morning, Mulatu took the family's cattle to the river. As he got closer to the river he thought about the mine and decided to look for it.
It didn't take him much time to find it. He took off his clothes and jumped in the river and grabbed it. He was delighted with his prize. He soon had a crowd of his friends gathered around him looking at the "toy". They all wanted to play with it.
Mulatu threw the mine several times but it didn't explode. He threw it against a big rock. Nothing happened. He brought it closer to his ears and heard a HESHSHSH sound. He wanted to know what was inside it. He slammed it against another rock with all his might. This time it exploded. In the explosion, Mulatu lost all five fingers on his right hand. Fortunately, none of the other children were hurt.
It took years for Mulatu to recover. His family was poor. There are no hospitals nearby. He grew up but had trouble finding work because of his disability. Today, Mulatu works with LSN in Ethiopia. He is an Outreach Worker who helps other survivors by working with them to recover and reclaim their lives.
Pinto's Hope: A Landmine Story for Children
Pinto's Hope,a novel by LSN friend Deborah Harrel is set in a remote village in El Salvador, where Pinto Morales and his family struggle to rebuild their lives after twelve-year-old Pinto is injured by a landmine while playing soccer. Written for elementary school-aged students , Pinto's Hope shows how landmines continue their terrible mission in war-torn countries, long after the fighting is over.
LSN Co-founders Ken Rutherford and Jerry White provided technical information to Ms. Harrel. Proceeds from the sale of Pinto's Hope benefit the Center for International Rehabilitation and Landmine Survivors Network. Copies can be ordered on line at Barnes and Noble or at Amazon.com.
Landmine Background News: Possible Alternatives
In 1997, the Clinton Administration issued a Presidential Decision Directive instructing the United States Department of Defense to aggressively pursue alternatives to all forms of antipersonnel landmines, and put the alternative systems into use by 2006, making the US eligible to sign the international Mine Ban Treaty (MBT). To date, the Pentagon has identified three possible alternatives: man-in-the-loop systems, self-healing mine fields, and non-lethal systems.
In a man-in-the-loop system, an intruder's movement would not detonate a weapon; a soldier in control of the entire minefield would trigger the landmines. The man in the loop would observe the intruder in the minefield from his or her remote station, collect information from the computer monitoring systems, and make the distinction between innocent civilian and enemy soldier before firing the mine.
Self-healing mine fields use anti-tank mines that communicate with each other on the battlefield using radio waves. When the mines detect an intruder on the minefield, they reposition themselves to replace mines that may have been destroyed. By moving multiple anti-tank landmines to the spot of the breach, it alleviates the need for using antipersonnel mines to defend against infantry trained to attempt to disarm the anti-tank mines. Since the system does not use antipersonnel landmines, it would be in technical compliance with the MBT.
Non-lethal systems are designed to stun or shock advancing forces, but not maim or kill. Non-lethal alternatives to antipersonnel landmines include devices that would deploy electric stun, anti-traction, acoustics, entanglement nets, foams, and barriers. One weapon currently under testing is an acoustic "vortex ring" that emits a noise so harmful to the ears that an enemy could not proceed through the sound.
LSN News and Notes
US High School Students Raise Funds for Survivor Assistance and Demining
Students in 150 high schools across the United States organized car washes, bake sales, three-legged races and dances to raise $80,000 to support the work of Landmine Survivors Network and UNA Adopt-A-Minefield. LSN is deeply grateful to all the students in the US who participated in the campaign and to the International Baccalaureate Organization, North America.
LSN Youth Mission Visits El Salvador
Four US teens traveled to El Salvador as a Youth Mission to investigate LSN's work in the field. The teen-aged group visited with local survivors to more fully understand the issues survivors face and helped develop outreach plans for next year's national mine action fundraising campaign. Mac Hood, 16, a member of the mission shared his experience with the LSN staff:
"It gave us a chance to see what challenges survivors in a developing country face each day and how they dealt with friends and family after the accident. We spent one afternoon helping two landmine survivors plant radishes on a farm run and worked solely by landmine survivors. The survivors talked with us about their situation, how LSN had helped them by providing emotional support and assistance with healthcare, and how they had gotten through their recovery and found work. I was amazed at how inadequate the healthcare available for landmine survivors in El Salvador was and how much LSN was needed."
Jerry White at Chautauqua Institution and Monadnock Summer Lyceum
On July 21st, LSN Executive Director Jerry White spoke at the Chautauqua Institution as part of Chautauqua's Security and Justice lecture series. Prior to his talk, LSN friends littered the amphitheater with brightly colored faux landmines to make the point that a mine could be anywhere, even under your seat. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, who spoke before Mr. White, stepped on and picked up one of the landmines and said "terrible weapon. I saw the effects in Viet Nam." In his remarks, Jerry White urged the US to join the Mine Ban Treaty and said "human security is homeland security."
On July 16th, Mr. White was a guest speaker at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum 2003. Since 1970, the Unitarian Church in Peterborough, NH has hosted the Lyceum, which features prominent speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines who discuss topics of importance to our times. The audience posed thoughtful questions and NHPR broadcast the speech. You can listen to Jerry's speech at http://www.nhpr.org/static/programs/specials/msl.php.
If you like this e-mail newsletter, forward it to your friends and ask them to subscribe by going to
http://www.landminesurvivors.org/involved/newsletter.php
|
