Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them. The international community has recognized global land mine proliferation as a pressing humanitarian crisis. In some 68 nations, fields, deserts, forests, roads, and waterways are littered with an estimated 110 million mines. Anti-personnel mines claim a victim every twenty minutes, more than 26,000 each year. Almost all of those killed and maimed are civilians, often women and children, and nearly always after the cessation of the active hostilities.
Mines have an average life span of fifty to one hundred years.
Because of their low metallic content, many are nearly undetectable. It goes without saying that anti-personnel mines are indiscriminate, hidden killers and constitute one of the greatest public safety hazards. For millions of people, anti- personnel mines are the biggest threat in their daily lives because every step they take could literally be their last. Mines also frustrate post-war reconstruction in a score of countries. Resources, which should be used to rebuild schools and hospitals, are instead diverted to land mine clearance.