11-27-06, 11:35 am

Treasure hunt is always a great game to play. As the objects are hidden curious children search until they find the winning prize. Children in Afghanistan play the same game, but what they find can cost them their life.

War and politics leave a trail of problems that remain when the fighting has stopped. War is never over until there is peace, and peace is never present until people can walk in their community without feeling fear. In countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia this is not the case.

Landmines are the hidden killers lingering in fields, roads and schoolyards and silently sitting with no preference for whom their next victim may be. They come in different disguises depending on their power. Any child could easily mistake them for being the next new toy. The placement of leftover landmines is a problem which is not greatly exposed to the public. We see war on the news nearly every day but what is missing is the coverage of the continuous war that the local people are forced to face. Mines remain in unknown locations throughout the world and if you're unlucky enough to come across one of these deadly devices they can cause severe bodily harm, even more so for small children. A cheap weapon which costs only $3 (USD) approximately to produce is used in warfare often to scare the enemy. It is also used in defense. The problem is once the war is over the landmines are still left active. They can remain active for a period of 50 years. At any given moment an innocent civilian may trip and trigger them off. It's an expensive problem to fix as to remove each one it can cost up to $1000 (USD).

Although there are around 350 different types of mines which are produced by 35 different nations, there are two main types, anti-tank and anti-personnel. Anti-tank mines are larger and are much more destructive. These mines are filled with more explosives and can blow up roads, trucks and land. Anti-personnel mines are more dangerous to children as although they don't have as much power, they can be triggered with less pressure and are hard to spot as they are disguised as stones. They were first produced with the intention of protecting anti-tank mines so they would not be removed by the enemy. Mines are carefully placed and hidden by military forces by hand. Butterfly mines on the other hand, which look like toys, are dropped from helicopters and can float to the ground without exploding.

According to the United Nations, there are as many as 110 million unexploded landmines still hidden in 64 countries. Since 1975 landmines have exploded under more than one million people. The most common injuries are loss of limbs, sight, and hearing, and also injury to the genital area. African children live on the most mine plagued continent as 37 million mines are still embedded throughout 19 African countries. Along with Africa, Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. According to a report by Save the Children, nearly half of the mined areas in Kabul are in residential neighborhoods proving no discrimination in its victims.

Children are the most susceptible to the damage caused by landmines especially if they live in a country where poverty levels are high. If education and health are already poor this can increase the risk. An explosive landmine can instantly kill a small and fragile child. If they do manage to survive it won't be for long as countries with high poverty levels don't have the medical resources for adequate treatment, and so they eventually die or continue to live in pain. Education is another problem as a lot of children are illiterate. It's hard enough recognizing a landmine as a small child but if they cannot read they cannot understand any signs warning them that mines may be present.

Mr. Viet Dang, of Danang, Vietnam, lost his father, brother and childhood friend through the placement of landmines.

When I was 5 years old my father took the family out for a day trip to go swimming by the river. We were having a fun day and so we got in the car and my father started driving us home. Suddenly one side of the car exploded tossing me and my pregnant mother 25 meters. My father and brother instantly died. There was a landmine on the road which the car drove over.

Viet's mother suffered memory loss and was placed in hospital for over a year. It was at this time that Viet was in an orphanage for the period his mother was hospitalized.

Not so long after I lost half my family my best friend Tu was collecting shells on the beach when she mistook a small landmine for a shell and calmly placed it in her bag unaware what she was carrying would cost Tu her life. She was on a bicycle and as it made a sharp corner turn she dropped her bag and fell face down. The landmine exploded through her stomach.

Viet Dang now works with Global Volunteer Network helping street children and orphans.

As more innocent civilians continued to lose family members the mine problem eventually became acknowledged. Human rights, children's rights and religious groups all cooperated with the government to put pressure on banning the mines. In 1997 a group of 122 countries drafted an international ban of landmines called The Ottawa Treaty endorsed in Canada. The treaty bans production and the use of mines but also states assistance needs to be provided to landmine victims along with a global mine clear up. The United States and China were amongst the many countries that did not sign the treaty. The aftermath not only causes physical damage to the people but it also increases the economic and social costs in the country. Unwelcome mines can be treaded on by herd which has a knock on effect to the business's of farming. Small farmers then lose their herd and are thrown deeper into the world of poverty with no means of making money for food.

Every morning that we wake up technology is improving. Many countries still place and produce landmines making them harder to detect. More common mines made in modern days are plastic so they are not discovered by metal detectors. Smart mines which self-destruct can also destroy people's agricultural land leaving it completely unproductive. Dogs can be trained to trace mines and a new tool called, ground penetrating radar device can detect plastic mines. According to a report conducted by One World, to remove every mine it will cost 33 billion USD. World poverty continues to be ignored as more mines are continually being laid.

As children carry out their daily chores and play in their villages, mines wait to take their life. They destroy families and increase poverty; life should not be so dangerous.



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