Zim's hidden landmines remain lethal - Zimbabwe

[dArKeR]

Rumbidzai Zulu, a woman in her early twenties, stares at the freshly bandaged stump that used to be her leg. A landmine blew off the limb while she was looking for firewood in the bush -- also claiming the life of her unborn child -- and she is struggling to come to grips with the trauma.

Hundreds of people have been killed, maimed or injured by mines that were planted by government troops and their opponents in the 1970s, during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. A toll has also been taken on domestic and wild animals.

It is estimated that Zimbabwe is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, its borders with Mozambique and Zambia being virtually impassable in certain stretches.

Anti-personnel mines used by authorities in what was then Rhodesia included the R2m2, RAP Carrot, M972 and VS50 devices, which were strategically planted to deter rebel fighters from crossing into the country from surrounding states.

Twenty years later, the mines continue to wage war against unwitting civilians.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34044

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U.S.: Bush Administration Abandons Landmine Ban

Reversal Means U.S. Can Use Mines Indefinitely, Anywhere

(Washington, February 27, 2004) – The Bush Administration’s reversal of a ten-year policy to eliminate all antipersonnel landmines puts the United States in near total isolation in the global effort to ban mines, Human Rights Watch said today. Today the Pentagon announces the outcome of its two and one-half year review of U.S. policy on all landmines.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/02/27/usint7684.htm