The explosions of bullets, bombs and ballistic missiles serve as the soundtrack to war, and the prelude to death.
But, when the music is ended by defeat or treaty, some discordant notes remain.
As we move from metaphor to reality, we are the unfortunate witnesses to the killing of innocent men, women and children, by the unexploded munitions that remain to litter the former — and present battlefields.
The International Red Cross estimates that ‘Globally, there are millions of explosive remnants of war on the ground today affecting more than 80 countries.’[1]
One of those countries is Ukraine, still under attack from a Russian ‘Special Military Operation,’ that has demonstrated to the world that Russian conventional forces aren’t all that ‘special.’ It has also demonstrated that when it comes to potential international war crimes, the Russians aren’t — shall we say — overly concerned.
‘“Mines are scattered across the territory of Ukraine previously and currently occupied by Russian troops. They are a daily, deadly threat to civilians. Some have been deliberately placed in civilian homes where they maim and kill,” said Patrick Thompson, Ukraine Researcher at Amnesty International.’[2]
In that same Amnesty International article, it was concluded that there were ‘incidents of Russian forces laying anti-personnel mines in residential areas in Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts.’
These were not intended for legitimate military targets in a war, they were intentionally placed in civilian areas to kill civilians — or more accurately put — to murder innocent civilians who were not a threat to Russian military material or personnel.
Let’s change our focus from Eastern Europe to the Middle East.
At the time of the writing of this article, a cease fire has just been instituted in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. How long that will last is anybody’s guess.
What can easily be guessed at is the fact that a large number of civilian deaths will occur in the area regardless of a cease fire from the unexploded ordinance littering the land.
Patrick McCabe, explosive device operations lead at UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Palestine, is quoted as saying:
‘“[It] is always heartbreaking when a child, or anyone”, is injured by unexploded ordinance. “But, it's a fact of war and going to happen, and it doesn't happen just to the good guys [or] the bad guys. Nobody is immune to it.”’[3]
On to Africa, where 27 years of civil war has lethally littered Angola with ‘millions’ of pieces of unexploded ordinance, waiting to kill and maim the innocent. These deadly leftovers are from fighting that ended two decades ago, yet they are still waiting to cause more death and destruction.
‘The only national survey into this issue, carried out by the Angolan government in 2014, found that around 88,000 people were living with injuries caused by landmines in the country.’[4]
And that survey was over a decade ago. Yet there are still efforts to clean up the military murderous detritus left behind.
Now in Angola, women known as ‘sapodoras’ are risking their lives to clean up the mines left behind, in order to save lives. The pay is good too, by local standards. These women can earn from $440 to $600 per month. It is women who make up forty percent of the mine clearing personnel in Angola. They work at it about thirty-six hours per week.[5]
Now, we move to the Far East, and the remnant dangers of a war ending even earlier than that of Angola.
Most of us remember the Vietnam War, either from personal experience, or as a lesson in our history courses. The war was officially over in April of 1975, yet the danger still continues in the form of unexploded munitions left in the country from 50 years ago.
From a 2024 report by ReliefWeb it was stated that:
‘Statistics showed that about one fifth of Vietnam’s land-5.6 million hectares-remains contaminated with unexploded s. It is estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 tons of bombs and mines left over from the wars are still hidden underground.’[6]
The report further estimated that ‘some 40,000 Vietnamese people have died and 60,000 are injured in UXO-related cases since 1975.’
These figures must give one pause. During the extent of the Vietnam War, U.S. military deaths were around 58,200.00. Since the war ended, since the country was united and free from active military action, Vietnamese deaths from unexploded ordnance was seventy percent of that figure.
Approximately 300,000 Americans were wounded during the war in Vietnam. After the war was over, the Vietnamese experienced 20% of that figure from left over munitions.
World War II ended eighty years ago, yet in many of the small Pacific islands that were part of the War in the Pacific, there are still unexploded munitions which have the potential to kill and maim those whose parents weren’t even born during that war.
According to a April 4, 2024 article in The Guardian, ‘some estimate the number of bombs – found across the region including in Fiji, Palau and Solomon Islands – could be in the hundreds of thousands.’[7]
Besides the risk to civilians, unexploded ordnance interferes with agriculture and land development. The destructive manufactured ghosts of war can still haunt a country decades after the war has ended — at least for the soldiers.
Why You Should Care
Everyone should care about civilian men women and children who are not only killed and wounded when caught up in the fog of war, but who are killed and maimed after the fog has dispersed, yet they are victims of the leftovers of lethality that litter their country.
From even the point of view of the greedy, construction projects, agricultural projects, tourism and other economic endeavors to commercially develop a country can be seriously impeded by the presence of unexploded ordnance. This increases labor costs, insurance costs, and medical care.
Through Non-Governmental Organizations, international legislation, and the clean-up efforts of the militaries that created the problem in the first place, the horrors of unexploded munitions can be reduced, given sufficient money and time.
[1] Explosive remnants of war International Committee of the Red Cross https://www.icrc.org/en/law-and-policy/explosive-remnants-war[2] Ukraine/Russia: Investigate use of anti-personnel mines left after Russian occupation as possible war crimes 7/26/24 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
[3] Unexploded leaves dark legacy for Gaza, warn mine action experts UNITED NATIONS 5/6/24 https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/05/1149391
[4] Angola landmines: The women hunting for explosives left from civil war BBC 4/3/23 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65163673
[5] ANGOLA LAND MINES op.cit.
[6] Nearly 500,000 hectares of land cleared of UXOs Relief Web 3/5/24 https://reliefweb.int/report/viet-nam/nearly-500000-hectares-land-cleared-uxos#:~:text=Statistics%20showed%20that%20about%20one,wars%20are%20still%20hidden%20underground.
[7] How Hidden WW2 Bombs Across the Pacific are Found and Destroyed The Guardian, 4/4/24 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/05/ww2-hidden-bombs-clearing-disposal-pacific-marshall-islands-unexploded-ordnance-uxo