Humanitarian groups condemn landmine plan

The Pakistani government’s plan to lay landmines and build a fence along its border with Afghanistan has been condemned by humanitarian groups.

It follows criticism from Kabul and the US that Pakistan has not been doing enough to stop pro-Taliban militia from crossing into Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s military has been ordered to survey what is needed to lay landmines in “selected places” and build the fence along the 2,400 km border.

Asma Jahangir, the chairman of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission (HRCP), said that the plan announced on Tuesday was a “complete violation of all humanitarian norms”.

"It is no way to deal with the problem of cross-border militancy," said Jahangir.

Kamran Arif, a Peshawar-based lawyer and vice-chairman of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province’s HRCP branch, said the border divided tribes and families for whom there were currently no visa requirements when they moved between the countries.

"The placing of landmines will have very grave humanitarian repercussions as children wander freely around this area and the border is not demarcated. Many (children) play near it and cross it all the time," said Arif.

"People, including the Afghan refugees, have still not forgotten the deaths and injuries caused by the mining during the Afghan war, and now we could have a new catastrophe once this latest plan goes ahead."

Cattle, which people in the area were highly dependent on, would also be endangered, Arif added.

The porous Pak-Afghan border runs 2,400 km

The border has seven official crossing points but it has always been considered a loose frontier. It divides a number of tribes whose members have traditionally moved freely to meet and help relatives.

Anees Yawar, a surgeon who has treated landmine victims in Peshawar, said they were a “terrible weapon”.

"The bleeding and damage to muscle and tissue that mines cause are unmistakable...they target indiscriminately, causing children to be crippled as well as adults," said Yawar.

But Riaz Muhammad Khan, Pakistan’s foreign secretary, said that it did not require “permission or agreement with any country" to carry out the plan.

A government spokesman said that the present “regional security environment” meant landmines were essential to Pakistan’s defence.

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing landmines, which are made at government factories for storage and use by the military. Landmine manufacture in the private sector and export is illegal.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a network of around 1,400 organisations based in 90 countries, believes Pakistan has at least six million landmines in storage.
ICBL said that in 2005 there were at least 212 landmine casualties in Pakistan – most of which took place near the Afghan border.

Afghanistan joined 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction in September 2002. Pakistan is not a signatory to international conventions banning the production, stockpiling or use of landmines.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, although the use of landmines is restricted by the general principles of international humanitarian law and more specifically by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, these weapons continue to pose a threat to individuals and communities worldwide. In response to the humanitarian crisis caused by anti-personnel mines, the international community supported a ban on these weapons. This led to the adoption in 1997 of the Ottawa Treaty which completely prohibits anti-personnel mines and calls for their destruction.

KH/GS/DS