Mines cover vast areas of Iraqi territory.. Thousands are threatened and the demining file is “absen

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[size=52]Mines cover vast areas of Iraqi territory.. Thousands are threatened and the demining file is “absent”[/size]

[size=45]The areas contaminated with mines in Iraq continue to claim the lives of those passing through them or dismember them. Despite the work to clean these areas for a long time, the file is still far from being resolved, due to the lack of financial allocations and the emergence of new contaminated areas. While the Ministry of Environment has set 2028 as the year to complete this file, the Strategic Center for Human Rights revealed that its victims have reached 30,000.
The Director of Media and Relations for the Mine Affairs Department at the Ministry of Environment, Mustafa Hamid, says that “the total areas contaminated with mines and war remnants in Iraq, especially after 2003, amount to more than 6,000 square kilometers. Local and international decontamination efforts have resulted in the safety of about 4,000 square kilometers, leaving more than 2,000 square kilometers contaminated so far.”
Hamid added, “The Ministry of Environment is looking forward to ending the danger of the mine file once and for all in the coming years, specifically in 2028, in light of the strategic plan prepared since 2023, which includes more than 6,500 square kilometers, 4,000 of which have been cleared and the rest are proceeding according to the program.”
He explained that “the governorates of Basra, Diyala, Babil and Anbar represent the areas most contaminated with mines so far within the clearing plan, compared to the governorates of Wasit, Dhi Qar, Maysan and Muthanna, which represent the areas least contaminated with the type of mines known as cluster munitions,” stressing that “the remaining contaminated areas in total are only about 2,100 square kilometers.”
The Director of Media and Relations touched on what he called “the most prominent problem facing the speed of completion of the file, which is the financial allocations available to maintain the momentum of work, which is from the British loan that was provided to Iraq in the past period and amounted to 400 million dollars to support the efforts of the field teams working to clear mines. These are British companies whose work is conditional on the loan and they bring their machinery and cadres to carry out the work.”
As for what is outside the British loan, it is mentioned that “a financial grant preceded it from the US State Department to Iraq, and scattered international support from European countries from time to time to support Iraq in getting rid of the danger of mines,” indicating that “the world has sensed the seriousness of this file for years and supports all efforts aimed at clearing lands anywhere.”
It is noteworthy that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Iraq (OCHA) indicated in a report published by the “Relief Web International” website in mid-2024 that “26 million square meters in Iraq have been cleared of mines and war remnants, stressing that this area represents 20% of the total area of ​​land contaminated with mines in the country.
According to a report published by the American magazine "Foreign Policy" in April 2023, agricultural areas are the most polluted among the mined areas in Iraq, which threatens farmers and prevents them from using them in livelihood projects, while the report indicates that 20 percent of mine contamination is near infrastructure and reconstruction projects. It also confirmed that there are no accurate statistics or total number of mine victims, but estimates indicate that they have exceeded 10,000 dead and nearly 24,000 injured over the past two decades.
For her part, the spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hiba Adnan, confirms that "the numbers that talk about mines and the areas of contamination are variable and not fixed due to the continuous discovery of new places exposed to weapons contamination."
Adnan attributes the slow progress in this file to “the lack of significant financial support as well as mechanisms and specialized teams on an ongoing basis,” while pointing out that “the Red Cross, through its ongoing efforts, provides support to the Ministry of Environment by equipping explosives detection and search devices in addition to metal detectors and implementing awareness campaigns for the population.”
She adds that “the Red Cross also supports Iraq in this file by establishing a specialized center in Erbil Governorate that provides support to those affected by mines and those who have lost their limbs by providing them with artificial limbs, supports and wheelchairs,” stressing that “this center covers cases from the governorates of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Diyala and the Kurdistan Region as well.”
Adnan explains that “the support also consists of providing financial grants and establishing workshops for those affected to prepare them to open income-generating projects as an opportunity for a decent life and to complete their lives normally, in addition to the organization’s supportive efforts to the Ministry of Health in the field of supporting people with disabilities affected by the same file.”
Iraq has signed three agreements to eliminate mine contamination, the first of which is the Ottawa Convention on Anti-Personnel Mines, the second is the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), and the third is the Convention on Explosive Devices (CCW). For
his part, the head of the Strategic Center for Human Rights, Fadhel Al-Gharawi, speaks about “thousands of Iraqi citizens being harmed by mines in various areas of Iraq and losing limbs in explosions, so we call on all parties concerned with the file to work together to end it quickly.”
Al-Gharawi adds that “since the opening of the signing of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, commonly known as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, in 1997, 156 countries have ratified or acceded to the treaty, and more than 41 million anti-personnel mine stockpiles have been destroyed, and the production, sale and transfer of these mines have essentially stopped.”
“Mines and war remnants cover large areas in Iraq, which are now buried in farms and on roads. As a result, Iraq was classified by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines as the country most contaminated with munitions and mines in the world,” he continued, explaining that “the number of victims of landmines in Iraq has reached more than 30,000, and their presence and failure to remove them in some areas hinders the return of displaced persons, the reconstruction of areas, the cultivation of lands, and the increase in the rate of pollution due to mines and war remnants.”[/size]
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