Cluster bombs, which activists said
were fired by a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to Syria's President
Bashar al-Assad, are displayed in Taftanaz 16/11/2012 REUTERS/Handout
* Assad govt only one found to be using landmines this year
* Syria increasingly using cluster munitions, activists say
* Rebel groups setting off roadside bombs
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Syria has strewn landmines along its
borders with Lebanon and Turkey, making it the only country worldwide to
use the weapons this year, and is increasingly dropping cluster
munitions on civilian areas, campaigners said on Thursday.
Nearly two dozen Syrians, many of them children, are known to have
been killed or maimed by Soviet-made mines in border crossing areas so
far this year, but the true number of casualties is probably higher,
they said.
Another 10 children playing outdoors died in a government air strike
that dropped cluster bombs on a rebel-held village near Damascus this
week, they said..
"This year we have identified only one government that has used
anti-personnel mines and that is Syria. We have information that the
laying of mines has continued in Syria, with reports up to October this
year that mines are being used," Mark Hiznay, editor of the Landmine
Monitor 2012 report, told a briefing.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which publishes
the report, documented the most recent mine explosion last month in the
village of Kharbit al Jouz, near the border with Turkey. Three civilians
were injured, including two who lost their legs.
"This was basically a military position that was abandoned by the
Syrian military one day and overnight they had laid about 150 to 200
landmines to delay whoever was pursuing them. And eventually the
villagers started finding them the hard way as they were going about
their business across the paths," Hiznay said.
Syrian rebels are not known to have used landmines in the 20-month
conflict aimed at toppling President Bashar al-Assad, but are setting
off roadside bombs and other deadly devices, according to the Nobel
prize-winning ICBL.
"We have seen instances where the insurgents are using improvised
explosive devices but that all we have seen are ones that have been
command-detonated, which is of a different character than an
anti-personnel mine which is victim-activated," Hiznay said.
Officials from 160 countries that have joined the Mine Ban Treaty
meet in Geneva next week to review progress in halting production,
destroying stockpiles and clearing mines after wars.
MADE IN THE USSR
Russia has been a major ally and arms supplier to Syria but there was
no indication of a recent transfer of mines to Assad's forces, said
Hiznay, a senior arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, which
contributed to the report with four other groups.
"The ones we have seen going into ground were produced in the Soviet
Union in the 1980s, based on the markings that we have seen on the
mines," he said.
Human Rights Watch has also documented the use of cluster munitions by Syrian forces, including on an olive oil factory.
"These are indiscriminate, murderous weapons, they are using them for
one reason and that is to attack the civilian population," Hiznay told
reporters.
Myanmar, long on its list of governments using antipersonnel mines,
has been dropped this year as there has been no proven use by state
forces, although armed groups have been found to being planting them
there in 2012.
"The situation in Myanmar is evolving right now with the transition
that's going on there. Our ability to collect almost real-time
information is somewhat limited," Hiznay said.
Only four countries - India, Myanmar, Pakistan and South Korea - are known to be actively producing mines, ICBL said.
China, Russia and the United States have stayed outside the so-called
Ottawa pact and reserved the right to produce mines, although the Obama
administration is reviewing its position. (Reporting by Stephanie
Nebehay)
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the Oval Office after lunch
