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ANSWERS may be hazardous to your Uncertainty.
Danger! ANSWERS carry High Overdose Potential.
Remember: ANSWERS are the Thrill That Kills..... ........
JUST SAY NO to ANSWERS.
LANDMINE FACTS.. ..
It is estimated that more than 110 million active landmines are scattered in 70 countries with an equal number stockpiled around the world waiting to be planted.
In terms of people this translates as one landmine for every 17 children or 52 adult humans in our world.
It is estimated that the clearance of the existing estimated 110 million mines will cost the international community approximately US$ 33 billion.
It is also estimated that it would take 1,100 years, up until 3097, to clear those 110 million mines. That's assuming no new ones are laid.
About 100,000 landmines are removed each year, but until recently 2 million more were being planted each year.
Every 22 minutes someone steps on a landmine, either being killed or maimed.
There are 70 casualties a day, 2000 a month and 26,000 a year, all as a result of landmines.
Claiming over 500 victims a week, landmines are indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction in slow motion.
90% of landmine victims are civilians. Most of the casualties are civilians who are killed or injured after hostilities have ended.
Landmine usage has dramatically increased over the past 20 years with an emphasis on its potential as a weapon to terrorize civilians.
Children represent 50% of all landmine casualties.
Landmines kill and mutilate more than 10,000 children each year.
For every one landmine that is cleared, somewhere between 20 and 50 new landmines are planted.
At the current rate it would take 1,100 years to rid the world of landmines. That's assuming no new ones are laid.
Landmines cost $3 - $30 to produce but $300 - $1000 to remove.
Oil rich Angola is the most mined country in the world, with approximately 15 million uncleared landmines.
More than 30,000 Angolans have had limbs amputated as a result of landmine explosions.
The most effective way to locate mines is manual probing. This method is laborious, time-consuming and very dangerous.
In Angola it can take more than a hundred people up to a month to clear an area the size of two soccer fields
A 10 year old amputee, with a life expectancy of an additional 40 - 50 years, will need 25 artificial limbs during his or her lifetime.
Landmines are used to deny access to or usage of farmlands, irrigation channels, roads, waterways and public utilities.
One study endorsed by high ranking military officers from several countries found that among 26 conflicts examined since 1940 no case was found in which the use of landmines played a major role in determining the outcome!
Landmine victims need blood transfusions twice as often as people injured by bullets or fragments.
The number of units of blood required to operate on patients with landmine injuries is between 2 and 6 times greater than that needed by other war casualties.
In Afghanistan and Cambodia, around 35% of the land is unusable due to landmines.
Without landmine fields, the land available for agriculture and livestock would increase by 11% in Bosnia, and 88% in Afghanistan.
Landmines set in motion a series of events that leads to environmental damage in the forms of soil degradation, deforestation, pollution of water resources with heavy metals and altering entire species' populations through degrading habitats and altering food chains.
Landmines affect both men and women but studies show that women suffer more when they become victims of landmines.
Fewer women receive mobility aids, such as artificial limbs, and they may receive less attention right after the landmine blast.
As a result, the fatality rate is higher for females (43%) than for males (29%).
Buried landmines can remain active for well over 50 years.
One deminer is killed and two are injured for every 5,000 mines cleared.
Landmines are indiscriminate weapons in the sense that they cannot tell the difference between a soldier and a civilian.
Indiscriminate weapons are illegal under humanitarian law.
Landmines are victim-operated traps. Most are designed to maim, not to kill, because a wounded person is a bigger drain on resources.
The UN estimates that landmines are at least 10 times more likely to kill or injure a civilian after a conflict than a combatant during hostilities.
The Red Cross has estimated that over the last 50 years landmines have inflicted more death and injury than nuclear and chemical weapons combined.
Landmine victims constitute about 4% of hospital admissions in many developing countries, yet they use almost 25% of a hospitals resources.
More than 50 countries have manufactured about 200 million antipersonnel landmines in the last 25 years.
Thirteen countries still produce or retain the right to produce anti-personal (!) landmines.
LET JAH CHILDREN DANCE !
Even the Bible has something to say sometimes...