April 9, 2007: The 1999 Ottawa Convention was
supposed to have reduced land mine casualties among civilians. It hasn't
worked, because the largest manufacturers of land mines, Russia and China,
refused to sign. Chinese land mines are still available on the international
arms black market. China is believed to have a stockpile of over a hundred
million land mines (mostly anti-personnel). The old ones are often sold before
they become worthless. But even these mines, which go for $5-10 each, are too
expensive for many of the criminal organizations that buy them. In Colombia,
leftist rebels are losing their four decade war to establish a socialist
dictatorship. So they have been using more land mines against soldiers and
police, as well as civilian populations they want to control. This was how land
mines were widely used in Afghanistan and Cambodia. In Colombia, the rebels
find it cheaper to build their own landmines. Labor is cheap, as are the
components. Thus land mines, competitive with the factory built ones from
China, can be built for less than three dollars each. You can find all the
technical data you need on the Internet.
Anti-vehicle mines are increasingly popular, and
are particularly popular in poor countries where there are still a lot of dirt
roads, traveled by busses and trucks carrying dozens of passengers each. While
these mines are usually intended for military vehicles, mines can't tell the
difference. As a result, in this year or next, Colombia will have the largest
number of annual mine casualties in the world.
