Landmine Ban: Yemen Admits Using Mines

[Sally]

While so many posters on here are still obsessing over Israel and the Palestinians, because of their Jew hatred, on this Middle East forum while completely forgetting that so much is going on in other countries in the Middle East, let's read about what is happening in one Middle East country other than Israel. Surely even these Jew haters must realize that the Middle East is a huge piece of property, and Israel comparatively speaking is a small dot on the map.

Landmine Ban: Yemen Admits Using Mines


By Eurasia Review

December 2, 2013

Yemen should investigate the allegations that its Republican Guard forces laid thousands of antipersonnel landmines in 2011, Human Rights Watch said today at the opening of an annual meeting of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. A November 2013 public communique from the prime minister’s office admitted that a “violation” of the Mine Ban Treaty occurred in 2011 during the popular uprising that led to the ouster of then-President Ali Abduallah Saleh.

The admission followed reports by Human Rights Watch and others that the former government’s Republican Guard forces laid thousands of antipersonnel mines at Bani Jarmooz, near Sana’a. It was the first admitted use of antipersonnel mines by a treaty member since the ban went into effect in 1999. To comply with its obligations, Yemen should mark the hazards, educate the population to the dangers, clear the affected areas, and provide assistance to victims.

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Landmine Ban: Yemen Admits Using Mines Eurasia Review

 

[Moonglow]

Te US of A still has chemical weapons stockpiled, even though we agreed to destroy them a decade ago, and the US has not signed the anti-personnel mine treaty. When I was in the military we were trained to use mines.

 

[Sally]

Te US of A still has chemical weapons stockpiled, even though we agreed to destroy them a decade ago, and the US has not signed the anti-personnel mine treaty. When I was in the military we were trained to use mines.

Are you aware of the U.S. military using any of these mines in recent times? If so, where are they being used.

 

[waltky]

Princess Diana would be pleased...

Afghan Brothers Develop Drone to Clear Land Mines
December 14, 2016 — As boys growing up on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Mahmud Hassani and his brother Massoud saw firsthand the damage land mines did to anyone unlucky enough to stumble across them.

It was the memory of the destruction caused by land mines left over from the 1980s — when Afghan rebels fought Soviet forces — that inspired the brothers to develop a drone prototype to detect and destroy the explosive devices. Their invention was featured Wednesday in the NT100, a list by Britain-based charity Nominet Trust of innovations that use technology to tackle major world problems. "For us it was normal. For us it was a playground with land mines," Mahmud Hassani said, recalling the patch of land near his childhood home where he and others would play. Hassani said the Mine Kafon Drone was designed to map, detect and detonate mines.

Afghan refugee Massoud Hassani flying an anti-land-mine drone, called the Mine Kafon Drone, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.​

Fitted with a 3-D mapping system, the drone locates mines with a metal detector. Using a robotic arm, it places a small detonator on top of them before setting off the device remotely. An estimated 10 million land mines have been planted in Afghanistan, which in 2015 recorded the highest number of mine-related casualties in the world, with 1,310 people killed or wounded, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In all, 6,461 people were killed or injured by mines, victim-activated explosive devices and unexploded weapons left behind after war around the world in 2015, ICBL said last month.

More than three-quarters of the victims were civilians, 38 percent of them children. Hassani, who lives in the Netherlands along with his brother, said their drone prototype was up to 120 times cheaper and 20 times faster than traditional mine-clearing techniques. There was also no risk for humans, he added. Other projects picked out by Nominet Trust, which provides funding for social technology purposes, included WaterScope, a 3-D printing system to test water quality, and Kiron, an online platform providing university courses to refugees.

Afghan Brothers Develop Drone to Clear Land Mines