[NYTr] AFGHANISTAN: Mines Take Toll on Civilians, Occupiers

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

IPS - Sep 7, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39174

AFGHANISTAN: Mines Take Toll on Civilian, Coalition Lives

by Ahmad Khalid Moahid

KABUL, Sep 7 (IPS) - New landmines planted since the Taliban returned
to challenge the Afghan government and the United States-led coalition
in Afghanistan have claimed hundreds of civilian and military lives.
Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Zmaray Bashari told the press on
Wednesday that 860 civilians have been killed or injured by landmines
and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid on the sides of roads
since January 2007.

Bahir claimed Afghanistan’s "enemies" were resorting to the use of
mines and IEDs since they are unable to take on the security forces in
direct battles.

Major Charles Anthony, deputy spokesman of the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF), which is deployed mainly in southern
Afghanistan where the Taliban are entrenched, claimed that "the
opposition" had planted 1,600 landmines in the past year.

Asserting that "the opposition" cannot deter the international force
from their mission through such tactics, Anthony announced at the same
press conference that 78 civilians have been killed in landmine
explosions during the last two and a half weeks.

The tragic losses have been mostly in embattled Helmand in the south.
Akhtar Muhammad from Greshk district says new mines have been laid in
several villages where the Taliban have clashed with ISAF.

Districts like Nawzad, Musa Qala, Sangin, Kajaki and Greshk have been
the scene of conflict in recent months. Some of the areas are still
under rebel control.

The mines laid on the side of the roads and around villages are a
threat to civilians, and military personnel. Afghanistan acceded to the
Mine Ban Treaty on Sep. 11, 2002, but the Hamid Karzai government has
not been able to assert control of all the country.

Noor Khan, 27, from Sangin district said heavy fighting forced people
to flee villages recently. "My cousins were forced into shifting to
Greshk due to fighting. In a landmine explosion on the way, a child, a
woman and my cousin were killed on the spot."

The wreckage of the car they were travelling in is still lying on the
side of the road, adds the young man, who points out that people are
staying away from public gatherings for fear of reprisal attacks.

Haji Abdul Rahman of Haiderabad village in the same district laments:
"Two of my relatives were martyred yesterday. But I could not attend
their funeral as all the roads in the vicinity are mined."

There are no figures of how many civilians have been killed in the new
minefields in Helmand. Head of the provincial police Brig. Gen. Hussain
Andiwal asserts the Taliban are responsible for mining the side of the
roads and around villages, in complete disregard to the safety of
ordinary people.

When asked by Pajhwok to comment on the fear and insecurity of rural
communities caught in the conflict, the Taliban’s so-called spokesman
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi refused to say anything on the continued use of
landmines in the current round of fighting.

Richard Dostalie, the British commander of the ISAF in Helmand said his
soldiers were promoting awareness about landmines among children. Three
children, wounded in a mine explosion, died recently, he said.

ISAF deputy spokesman Maj. Anthony told the press on Sep. 5 that 600
Afghan policemen were undergoing mine detection training. They would be
enlisted into active mine clearing work after their training, he added.

The government and the international community are concerned over the
new mines being planted at a time when they are struggling to clear the
old ones.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s most extensively-mined countries. For
nearly six years, deminers under the auspices of a number of mostly
Afghan organisations -- with Western funding -- have been trying to
clear the anti-personnel mines laid during successive rounds of war
between 1978 and 2001.

Tens of thousands of people have been maimed and killed by mines across
Afghanistan. Men and boys on crutches are ubiquitous even in the
capital city Kabul, which was mined heavily by rival mujahiddin
factions in the 1990s.

In the renewed war, particularly in the south, security personnel have
also been killed in roadside blasts. This week in Kunar province, near
the Pakistan border, at least six Afghan soldiers were killed and their
vehicle destroyed in an explosion, possibly caused by a landmine, the
media was told.

In another incident at the end of August, one soldier was killed and
another injured when an ISAF patrol was hit by an improvised explosive
devise (IED) planted on the road side in the troubled south.

"It is a sad fact that ISAF troops, and the local population, contend
with the threat of IED strikes on a daily basis; the work to reduce
this threat goes on," Lt Col Bridget Rose, a spokesperson for the
Regional Command South was quoted by Pajhwok.

And on Aug. 15 in Bagrami district, east of the Afghan capital, three
German soldiers of ISAF perished in a landmine blast. One soldier was
seriously injured. Abdul Hadi, an eyewitness, told Pajhwok that he saw
the dead bodies. "I saw one of the vehicles fly up in the air with a
big bang," he said. One of the soldiers was trapped inside, an
anonymous source revealed.

(*Reporting by Pajhwok Afghan News)

(END/2007)