The Monstrous ‘Western Invention’

 Landmine Kills Innocents & Remain Hard to Detect.

 

A metal detector is the most common device used for searching landmines, which litter the soil in approximately 90 countries. Many of these countries are located in the tropics where intensively weathered soils are prevalent.

 These tropical soils have certain properties that can limit the performance of metal detectors due to soil magnetic susceptibility. This problem is enhanced by the spread of minimum-metal mines, according to ScienceDaily.

 Magnetic properties of soils are caused by ferrimagnetic minerals, such as magnetite and maghemite. The negative effects can result in a reduction of detector sensitivity or cause false alarms.  

To overcome these problems, the metal detectors have been continuously re-hauled over the years but only now has taken the geoscientific research of soil into account. The knowledge of soil magnetic properties may allow detectors to be adapted to meet the local conditions. 

Geoscientists at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover, Germany conducted a study on the magnetic susceptibility of tropical soils using the soil archive of the Federal Agency.  

The magnetic susceptibility of more than 500 soil samples from the entire tropical belt was analyzed with the goal of classifying their impact on landmine detection.

The study revealed that the problem of soil influence can occur quite frequently. More than one-third of the measured soil samples may generate severe or very severe limitations when using metal detectors.  

Soils were grouped according to their parent rocks. On average susceptibility of soils with basaltic origin were higher than those of other origin. However, the variability within the different groups is high.

 This provides evidence that besides origin, additional influences on soil susceptibility such as soil development are likely to exist.

 Basic Landmine Facts 

In 2005 the Landmine Monitor identified at least 84 countries and eight areas contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO); 54 of the affected countries are States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty. 

As of 2005, more than 200,000 square kilometers are suspected to be contaminated by landmines and UXO. Since May 2004 three governments have been confirmed to use antipersonnel landmines: Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, and Russia. Nepal has since stopped by mid-2006. 

The use of antipersonnel mines and mine-like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) have been reported in six States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty (Burundi, Colombia, Iraq, Philippines, Turkey and Uganda) and in seven non-States Parties (Myanmar, Georgia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Somalia and Russia). 

There are 13 countries that continue to produce antipersonnel landmines: Myanmar, China, Cuba, India, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam. Since the mid-1990s there has been a de facto ban on the transfer or export of antipersonnel mines. There have been no documented state-to-state transfers since then. It is believed that the trade of antipersonnel mines has dwindled to a very low level of illicit trafficking and unacknowledged trade.

 Prior to the Ottawa Treaty, 131 states possessed stockpiles, estimated at over 260 million antipersonnel mines. The Landmine Monitor now estimates that 54 countries have stockpiles, totaling 180 million antipersonnel mines.