Tiny Neutrons Help Speed up Landmine Clearance Landmines are still regarded as indispensable weapons of war, though most victims are civilians in peacetime. Mine clearance is so slow, experts say it would take 1,000 years to remove those already laid. But, Gemini News Service reveals, a new technology is being tested in the field with the promise of speeding things up. By Gamini Seneviratne .
Conflicts start and conflicts end, but landmines seem to go on forever.
But now the tiny neutron may trigger the demise of the world's remaining unexploded landmines - which kill thousands of innocent people each year. Militaries, from the most sophisticated armies to every minor warlord's band of desperados, remain devoted to landmines. Yet they cause many more casualties after the conflicts have ended than during them, killing and wounding civilians in peacetime. The International Red Cross estimates that landmines, commonly laid 20 to 30 centimetres below ground, kill or maim 24,000 people every year - 80 per cent of them civilians, mostly children, women and peasants. Although 111 governments have ratified a United Nations treaty banning landmines, which came into force in 1999, these weapons continue to be used at an alarming rate.