from MIM Notes 101 June 1995

LAND MINES CONTINUE TO KILL IN IRAQI-OCCUPIED KURDISTAN 
AND ACROSS THE GLOBE

Amerikan "protection" of the Kurds within Northern Iraq 
is not only meaningless in the wake of Turkish invasion, 
but it does nothing against a hidden killer: land mines 
that remain. The section of Kurdistan within Iraqi 
borders arguably has more land mines per capita than any 
other nation on earth, with estimates running as high as 
ten million mines for a population of about five 
million. Other areas in the globe contending for the top 
spot are Angola and Afghanistan, which have a mine per 
person and Kampuchea with two mines per person.

A British NGO working in the area has recorded a total 
of 1400 deaths due to land mines in Southern Kurdistan, 
but estimate that the death toll is probably twice that. 
They are worst during the farming months, as Kurds work 
in their fields amid mines laid by Iraq that the Iraqi 
military did not bother to record the locations of.

Most of the mines in the area were made by Italian 
companies and sold to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, but 
the US and France are also contributors to the lethal 
devices. 

Globally, the deaths due to land mines are increasing. 
While 800,000 mines were removed in 1994, 2 million new 
ones were planted. As of January 1995, five hundred 
persons are killed every week by mines. "Free 
enterprise" by imperialist manufacturers will not curb 
their trade; only the end of imperialist militarism will 
end the genocide.

Note: Middle East Report, 4-5/95, p. 13.