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INTERVIEW-U.N. envoy says Chechen kids run landmine
gauntlet
By Tara FitzGerald
MOSCOW, June 24 (Reuters) - Landmines are killing and maiming children regularly in Russia's rebel Chechnya region where half a million of the lethal weapons have been sown in eight years of conflict, a U.N. special envoy said on Monday.
Olara Otunnu, the United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict, said mines had killed or injured several thousand children in Chechnya, a region about half the size of Belgium that is one of the most densely mined in the world.
"We estimate that 500,000 landmines have been planted in Chechnya, which makes it one of the most landmine-polluted zones in the world, especially given its size," he told Reuters in Moscow after touring Chechnya and neighbouring regions.
"This puts it very much up there with Afghanistan, Angola and Sri Lanka," he added.
Russia is among several major landmine producers that has not signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which rules out the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
Other glaring absences are the United States and China.
Otunnu said he planned to raise the issue of the landmine treaty with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
"We estimate between 7,000 and 10,000 people have been maimed by landmines (in the course of two Chechen conflicts), and easily more than half of those are children," he said.
Russian troops are fighting their second post-Soviet conflict in Chechnya, and as the war drags towards its fourth year there is little sign of a political solution.
Landmine Monitor 2001, an annual report on the weapon published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, said a significant number of new victims were recorded in Chechnya in 2000 and up to May 2001.
URGENT SAFETY MEASURES NEEDED
The U.N. envoy said urgent action was needed both in Chechnya and surrounding republics to stop the use of landmines by both Russian and rebel troops, and to try to cordon off mined areas to increase safety for the civilian population.
"I'm calling for an end to the use and the laying of all landmines, and then there is a need to demarcate the areas that are mined," Otunnu said.
"That also frees up the areas that are not mined, whether it be for culture, for travelling, or going to school."
Otunnu said de-mining should also take place, but that it was an expensive and time-consuming exercise so interim measures would be necessary as well.
"Mine awareness education is also very urgent, so that children and young people are aware what landmines look like, and what to be suspicious of," he said.
The United Nations children's fund UNICEF, and various other non-governmental organisations, run mine awareness programmes in Chechnya and refugee camps in neighbouring Ingushetia that are especially designed for children, illustrating the dangers with theatre, games and puppet shows.
But Otunnu said he would also like to see more resources poured into the treatment of landmine victims and the production of prosthetic limbs.
"The need for the rehabilitation of these children and the production of prosthetics is enormous."
Landmine Monitor says China heads the list of mine stockpilers with 110 million weapons, closely followed by Russia with 60-70 million.
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