Falklands : Falklands Focus on Landmine Education
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 14.11.2007 (Article Archived on 28.11.2007)
Even Falklands Children know how to identify and mark suspected mines and how to get help in identifying landmines.
FALKLANDS FOCUS ON LANDMINE EDUCATION
An Editorial by J. Brock (FINN)
Campaigners against land mines say that Britain is one of twelve countries likely to miss a 2009 deadline to clear landmines from its territory. In specific, they are focusing on the Falkland Islands, infected with them since 1982.
Save one, “experts” have advised that timely removal is unlikely because of the difficulties encountered finding landmines imbedded in peat.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines focuses on the fact that the British government has not begun to clear the estimated 16,000 mines left on the Falkland Islands since its 1982 war with Argentina.
They understate that Falklands mines are properly fenced off and that people, even in elementary school, are educated about them. Kids as young as seven or eight can tell you how not to touch the suspicious object, mark it, and call someone who can help. Many in the Falklands even know the phone number.
Yes, we want the mines removed but it simply isn’t the priority it is in 3rd world countries, where many minefields are not marked and where the best farm land is unusable due to landmines. As it is, many of the peat bogs in the Falklands that were cut for home heating had been mined and are no longer usable.
Islanders would like to see some of the poorer countries cleared of landmines while technology catches up with the mined peat problem. We are willing to wait and educate while others, more needier than we get mine clearance.
The Argentine Government has agreed to pay for mine clearance in the Falklands.
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