A wounded man requires attention, conveyance and evacuation to the rear, thus causes disturbances in the traffic lines of the combat area. Also, a wounded person has a detrimental psychological effect on his fellow soldiers. Global landmine contamination has been recognized by the international community as a pressing humanitarian crisis. In some sixty-eight nations, fields, deserts, forests, roads and waterways are littered with an estimated 110 million mines. Almost all of the killed and maimed are civilians, often women and children, nearly always after the cessation of active hostilities.
Mines have an average life span of fifty to one hundred years.
Many are nearly undetectable because of their low metallic content. Antipersonnel mines are indiscriminate hidden killers and constitute one of the great public health hazards of the late twentieth century. For millions of people, antipersonnel mines are the biggest influence in their daily routine because every step they take could literally be their last. Antipersonnel mines frustrate post-war reconstruction in a score of countries. Ibid., p. 15.