Video (11min 22sec): Impact of Landmine Activity Across Asia 1 - People & Power explore the devastating impact of landmine activity across Asia.
According to the Red Cross, land mines kill and maim more than 24,000 people each year. Thirty to forty percent of these victims are children under the age of fifteen. Land mine casualties with their amputated limbs face a future of struggle and despair.
In 1997, 122 countries took the unprecedented step of signing the 'Mine Ban Treaty' which requires the signatories to not only destroy their stockpiles of land mines, but to also clear existing minefields. The number of countries signed up has since risen to 154. And in 1999, the treaty became binding under international law.
But despite this there are still 40 countries who have yet to sign, including big hitters such at the US, China, Pakistan, and Israel. Myanmar, also know as Burma, is also one such country, but the situation there is made worse by the fact that both the government and the militias use landmines in their continuing conflict..."
