During the Persian Gulf war, for example, the United States and its allies laid about 1 million mines along the Iraq-Kuwait border and around the Iraqi city of Basra. In the fighting in the Balkans, at least 3 million mines have been laid. When deployed in territories with high civilian populations, land-mines rip apart the fabric of life, disrupt food production and distribution, burden health facilities, obstruct relief efforts and the resettlement of refugees and despoil the environment. The devastation they unleash can last for decades. Land-mines can be cleared, but only by a laborious, expensive process.
Trained workers have to crawl their way along, probing the soil inch by inch.
One person can cover only 20 to 50 square metres a day. An additional 100 million land-mines are believed to be stockpiled. Another obstacle to eradication of mines is the fact that the weapons and their scattering devices are profitable for the companies that manufacture and sell them. Whatever the present legality of manufacturing such weapons, the toll they take on innocent civilians amounts to a crime against humankind.