Unsung heroes

[Flashermac]

BANGKOK POST

3 March 2007

 

 

EDITORIAL

 

De-mining gets deserved boost

 

 

There are unsung heroes in every society whose dedication and sacrifice just get taken for granted, year after year. Bomb disposal and land mine clearance squads are obvious examples. But this week, at long last, the government demonstrated its commitment to the work of the ill-equipped, poorly-funded and overworked Thailand Mine Action Centre. There could have been no better choice because its de-mining teams risk their lives daily to save villagers from getting blown up by the deadly legacy of long-forgotten wars.

 

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont ended these years of official neglect earlier this week by removing the Centre from the aegis of the Supreme Command, granting it a degree of autonomy and increasing funding for its operational budget, from the shameful 18 million baht allocated by the Thaksin administration last year, to a more realistic 120 million baht.

 

Even so, the restructuring, refinancing and belated recognition of its efforts might have come too late to meet the crucial 2009 mine eradication deadline.

 

That would be unfortunate, as Thailand won praise when it joined more than 150 other nations in signing the Ottawa Convention in December 1997 and went on to become the first country in Southeast Asia to ratify it in November 1998. The agreement took effect six months later, requiring the armed forces to destroy all mines they had in stock within four years and to remove those laid in the ground within 10 years _ coupled, of course, with a ban on their future use. The country's stock of 380,000 land mines were blown up in controlled explosions carried out at the army base in Lop Buri and completed in April 2003.

 

The remaining deadline, which is supposed to see the eradication of all mines buried in contaminated areas, is the one that will be most difficult for the Centre to meet. Political apathy starved it of funds for too long and assistance from Norway and the United States was not enough to make up the shortfall. So much still remains to be done before we can declare ourselves and our region to be mine-free. There can be no justification in this supposedly civilised day and age for such terrible weapons of war which claim so many innocent civilian lives in peace-time, with children accounting for at least 20% of casualties.

 

It should be a source of shame that the only two governments within Asean to have refused to ratify the Ottawa Convention to outlaw this menace are Burma and Laos, and an even greater disgrace that Burma and the forces defying its military junta continue to be major users of land mines. One Burmese rebel group, the Chin national army in northwestern Chin state, has set an example by vowing not to use them any more after 70sqkm of land was made uninhabitable by mines and thousands of refugees had to flee into India and Bangladesh to escape them.

 

According to Prime Minister Surayud, only a tiny 1% of the country's land mines have been cleared so far and the task ahead is enormous. At last count, 529 communities in 27 provinces along the Cambodian, Lao, Burmese and Malaysian borders are still mine-contaminated areas, covering around 2,500sqkm. This is home to at least half a million Thais. Tragically, these barbaric weapons continue to mean death, dismemberment and disability for about 100 innocent Thai civilians a year.

 

There is a new and justified move under way to ban cluster bombs. These horrific devices of death consist of containers holding up to hundreds of smaller bomblets. They open in midair and disperse the bomblets over a large area. Many remain in the ground and continue to kill civilians years after the conflict has ended. Among those opposing any such ban are the United States, Britain, Canada, France, China, India and Russia, so it is not going to happen any time soon.

 

We should be concentrating our energies on getting rid of the devil we know first. At the same time, we should also bring pressure to bear on our short-sighted neighbours and do our best to persuade Asean to declare itself a land mine-free zone.