Leaving aside the Russians in Afghanistan, most of the armies that planted the mines were made up of irregular soldiers who moved on foot. They did not plant mines in the enormous numbers that are spoken of. That fact is important, because 110 million mines seems an insuperable clearance target. Column 227 about 6 million mines. That total puts the problem in a different perspective.
Some organisations have an interest in overstating the case.
However, that is not to say that one anti-personnel mine that takes the leg off a child is not one mine too many. The Minister will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that the Secretary of State described the European Union as the worst agency in the world. At last, reform of the aid programme is on the agenda. Unlike my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury, I might be described as a little bit of a Euro pragmatist, but we can all agree that the recent history of the EU aid programme has been a scandal and a disgrace.