Landmines - The Facts What makes antipersonnel landmines so
abhorrent is the indiscriminate destruction they cause.
Landmines cannot be aimed. They lie dormant until a person or
animal triggers their detonating mechanism. Antipersonnel
landmines cannot distinguish between the footfall of a soldier
and that of a child. It is believed 60 to 70 million mines are
in place around the world. Just a handful of mines— or the mere
suspicion that an area is mined—can make that land unusable for
human activity. Every region in the world is mine-affected. More
than 75 countries are affected to some degree by landmines
and/or unexploded ordnance. Nobody knows how many mines are in
the ground. But the actual number is less important than their
impact. More than 350 different types of antipersonnel mines
exist. Although millions of mines have been removed, landmines
still injure or kill about 15,000 to 20,000 people every year.
An estimated 80 percent of landmine victims are civilians; one-
third of these are children. Landm