Pat Dollard | Young Americans

By Ahmad Khalid Moahid*

KABUL, Sep 7 (IPS) - New landmines planted since the Taliban returned to challenge the Afghan government and the United States-led coalition in Afghanistan have claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Zmaray Bashari told the press on Wednesday that 860 civilians have been killed or wounded by landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid on the sides of roads since January 2007.

Bahir claimed Afghanistan’s Taliban “enemies” were resorting to the use of mines and IEDs since they are unable to take on the security forces in direct battles.

Major Charles Anthony, deputy spokesman of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is deployed mainly in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban are entrenched reported that the Taliban had planted 1,600 landmines in the past year.

Asserting that “the opposition” cannot deter the international force from their mission through such tactics, Anthony announced at the same press conference that 78 civilians have been killed in landmine explosions during the last two and a half weeks.

The tragic losses have been mostly in embattled Helmand in the south. Akhtar Muhammad from Greshk district says new mines have been laid in several villages where the Taliban have clashed with ISAF.

Districts like Nawzad, Musa Qala, Sangin, Kajaki and Greshk have been the scene of conflict in recent months. Some of the areas are still under rebel control.

The mines laid on the side of the roads and around villages are a threat to civilians, and military personnel. Afghanistan acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on Sep. 11, 2002, but the Hamid Karzai government has not been able to assert control of all the country.

Noor Khan, 27, from Sangin district said heavy fighting forced people to flee villages recently. “My cousins were forced into shifting to Greshk due to fighting. In a landmine explosion on the way, a child, a woman and my cousin were killed on the spot.”

The wreckage of the car they were travelling in is still lying on the side of the road, adds the young man, who points out that people are staying away from public gatherings for fear of reprisal attacks.

Haji Abdul Rahman of Haiderabad village in the same district laments: “Two of my relatives were martyred yesterday. But I could not attend their funeral as all the roads in the vicinity are mined.”

There are no figures of how many civilians have been killed in the new minefields in Helmand. Head of the provincial police Brig. Gen. Hussain Andiwal asserts the Taliban are responsible for mining the side of the roads and around villages, in complete disregard to the safety of ordinary people.

When asked by Pajhwok to comment on the fear and insecurity of rural communities caught in the conflict, the Taliban’s so-called spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi refused to say anything on the continued use of landmines in the current round of fighting.

Richard Dostalie, the British commander of the ISAF in Helmand said his soldiers were promoting awareness about landmines among children. Three children, wounded in a mine explosion, died recently, he said.

ISAF deputy spokesman Maj. Anthony told the press on Sep. 5 that 600 Afghan policemen were undergoing mine detection training. They would be enlisted into active mine clearing work after their training, he added.

The government and the international community are concerned over the new mines being planted at a time when they are struggling to clear the old ones.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s most extensively-mined countries. For nearly six years, deminers under the auspices of a number of mostly Afghan organisations — with Western funding — have been trying to clear the anti-personnel mines laid during successive rounds of war between 1978 and 2001.

Tens of thousands of people have been maimed and killed by mines across Afghanistan. Men and boys on crutches are ubiquitous even in the capital city Kabul, which was mined heavily by rival mujahiddin factions in the 1990s.