Landmines in general and anti-personnel mines in general continue to be major causes of death and mutilation throughout the world.
The UN estimates that 15-20,000 people, over half civilians, and of these over 1/3 children, are injured or killed each year.
Most of these people are killed in areas no longer involved in active warfare.
When landmines are laid in battle, or in defense of a piece of territory they are almost never completely removed after the battlefield is deserted.
The removal of landmines is dangerous, time-consuming, and in war battlefields are fluid and dangerous.
It is just so much easier to leave the minefields behind than to dismantle them that they are often if not usually just abandoned.
Anti-tank landmines are large mines that require a heavy weight to trigger them to explode.
They are a problem, and are extremely dangerous when they do explode.
Despite this the major problem in the world today is anti-personnel landmines.
These are small devices that can often be triggered by a weight as little as 11 pounds.
This is less than the weight or a running child who accidentally steps on an abandoned mine.
The Ottawa Treaty was signed in 1991 and subsequent years by 80% of the world's countries.
Regrettably the United States of America is one of the 20% of countries who has refused to sign the treaty.
It's not clear to me why the U.
S.
will not sign and comply with the treaty.
No anti-personnel mines have been used by the US since the early 1990's, and the U.
S.
has banned production, export or sales of these devices.
Still the U.
S.
stockpiles about 10 million mines, and remains outside the agreement signed by most of the world's more progressive nations.
Other countries that have not signed the treaty include China, Russia, Pakistan, India, and Israel.
Write your congress person today and urge them to force the U.
S.
to sign the Ottawa Treaty.
There is no place in the U.
S.
military strategy for the use of anti-personnel mines.