February 8, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 9, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: A civil society organisation has expressed concern over the planting of landmines in the tribal areas killing mostly civilians.

The “Landmine Monitor Report 2005 Pakistan” released on Tuesday by Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation (Spado) said that the tribal people were planting mines to avenge on each other, which was a matter of serious concern for the members of Ottawa Convention.

The report asked India and Pakistan to sign the Convention in order to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT). It regretted that there had been little change in the government policy on the issue over the past decade.

According to the report, the magnitude of fatalities caused by landmines was greater than the casualties caused by nuclear weapons. It said globally, 40 people were killed everyday by the mines.

Executive Director Spado Raza Shah Khan, who was flanked by the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada, Stuart Hughes, said though mines were planted for military purposes, yet 90 per cent of the victims were civilians.

The report said in tribal areas like Mohmand, Kurram, South and North Waziristan, Bajaur and Khyber agencies, landmines were extensively used in personal feuds. In some parts of Kurram Agency near Afghan border, local labourers barter their daily wages for landmines.

The report claimed that there were 1,000 landmine victims in Bajaur Agency, who could not undergo treatment due to which begging was their only means of earning bread.

The report said that the worsening insurgency in Balochistan had witnessed an increased use of landmines and most of the affected people were women and children.

Baloch guerrillas, the report said, were adopting landmine strategy in resisting military intrusion that would kill innocent people after return of normality in the area.

The report said that after the US invasion of Afghanistan and later the intrusion of Pakistan Army into South Waziristan, the number of landmines planted in the agency had increased due to a clash between Wazir and Mehsud tribes. In 2005, the report calculated 195 mine casualties (67 people killed and 128 badly injured) in the tribal areas of the country.

The report said in Pakistan there were no specialised medical, surgical and first-aid facilities for landmine casualties close to the mine-affected areas, while local hospitals were not adequately equipped.

The report said that 84 countries were badly affected by the mines of which 54 were state parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. However, some parties appeared not to be on course of mined areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Hughes urged India and Pakistan to sign the Ottawa Convention in order to reduce the future planting of the ‘blind enemy’ that mostly affected the innocent civilians.

He warned that in Pakistan the menace would get momentum due to the increasing clashes in the tribal belt and suggested that all landmine manufacturing companies must be banned through a unanimous resolution.