Landmine kills 11 bus passengers

In yet another tragic incident, a landmine blew up a bus in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province on Saturday, killing 11 travellers and injuring another 13. The incident highlights the grave threat posed to millions of Afghans, many of whom are refugees returning to their homeland, one of the most mined countries in the world. "Despite a warning, the crazy driver went ahead on the mined road,” Latif Matin, the central region’s manager for Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (MACA), told IRIN from the capital, Kabul, on Monday. The bus, carrying two dozen civilians, was travelling from the town of Yakawlang to the provincial capital of Bamiyan city when it hit an anti-tank mine near the Band-i-Amir Lake. According to Matin the wounded were taken to Bamiyan hospital and the immediate vicinity of the accident was cleared by MACA of additional landmines. Although MACA and other mine action agencies in the country had a regular mine awareness programme for all the returnees, as well as rural communities, the geographical location of mines in the vast county is so complex, experts maintain that it will take years to clear the country completely. “We don’t know the whole picture,” Matin said. “Although we strictly advise against using unfrequented routes, the drivers sometimes don’t listen to us,” Haji Fazel Karim Fazel, head of an Afghan NGO, Omar International and Chairman Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines told IRIN. Many Afghans are returning to their homes after decades of exile and are not well acquainted with their surroundings. Fazel said that although they could not estimate the total number of mines in their country, some 900 square km area across the country was littered with mines. Demining agencies in the country have demanded some US $550 million to clear some 400 square km of priority areas. Saturday's incident comes just one week before the start of an international conference on landmines in Kabul to discuss ways of addressing the landmines threat. Following the conference, Afghanistan could well become the 145th country to sign the 1997 Ottawa treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines.