BY UE STUDIO

Updated Wednesday,12July2023-11:01

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Protests against anti-personnel mines gained global momentum in the 1990s, leading to the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, to which 164 states have acceded. The Treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines. Hundreds of thousands of mines produced in Russian-owned factories were laid in large swaths of Ukraine and Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Without urgent action, these mines will continue to kill and maim civilians for decades.

The international conference Durch Schmerz verbunden. Die Auswirkungen von Antipersonenminen - Zivilopfer der Minenfelder, held on 31 May in Berlin, focused on the situation of mine victims in Ukraine and Azerbaijan from a medical, psychological and legal perspective.

Participants included Dr. Sofia Tkazky, Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of Derby and Associate Editor of the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling; Dr. Sven Mardian, senior consultant and head of Trauma Surgery at Charité Hospital Berlin; Merl Florstedt, Head of Corporate Communications at Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA; Ukrainian and Azerbaijani volunteers who were victims of mines in Ukraine and Azerbaijan, including 8-year-old Bogdan Ponomariov, who was hit by a mine while running to help his father, whose leg had been torn off by an anti-personnel mine.

The impact of anti-personnel mines goes beyond those who are killed or injured by them. Their relatives and neighbours are also victims, living in constant fear of being maimed or killed by a mine. This fear can make everyday life difficult, such as opening a doorway, visiting a cemetery, or going off a beaten path. The trauma of living with landmines can last for generations, as children grow up in a world where they are constantly aware of the danger. The number of people affected is unimaginable.

A FORM OF GENOCIDE

The use of landmines in civilian areas, with the intention of destroying and maiming civilians, has been increasingly denounced in the Western media in recent years, especially in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the 30-year Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands. In particular, the American analytical publication Townhall points out that laying the land with mines is an old "tradition" dating back to Soviet times and continued today by both the Russian occupiers of Ukraine and their Armenian allies in the Caucasus.

As Dr. Tkazky noted during the roundtable, "in conventional warfare, modern antipersonnel mines were originally intended to be used by soldiers against soldiers and not against civilians," while we are now looking at other unconventional methods of warfare.

"Mines are hidden in children's toys, as do Armenian or Russian soldiers in Karabakh and Ukraine," she said, noting how cemeteries where people go to commemorate the dead have been mined, as have residential homes. "The mines are laid in such a way that they destroy as many civilians as possible. It is an act of genocide because it is an attempt to kill people because of their ethnicity or nationality."

In Tkazky's view, if these actions against civilians had not been carried out by the regular army, they would have been classified as terrorism. In fact, they constitute genocide, as they are a deliberate attempt to destroy a group of people based on their origin. This is a consequence of the doctrine of dehumanization of the enemy, which continues to be used by the Russian Federation, although the civilized world abandoned it after the Second World War. The mining of children's toys, playgrounds, cemeteries and schools is an unacceptable act, a clear attempt to destroy the civilian population.

Today, tireless volunteers clear Ukraine and Karabakh, liberated from enemy occupation, of landmines.

Rustam Maggeramov, an ethnic Azeri who has lived in Ukraine for 20 years, has witnessed firsthand the horrors of war. His brother died during the liberation of Karabakh, and since the beginning of the war in Ukraine he has become a volunteer, providing assistance to both Ukrainian civilians and military. It has delivered food, medicine and ammunition to Ukrainian defenders at their expense, and has also helped evacuate families of Ukrainians from the occupied territories.

30 YEARS TO CLEAN UP UKRAINE

It was difficult for Rustam to talk about everything that has happened around him in Ukraine, especially children, like Bogdan, who was hit by a mine. "The same thing is happening in Karabakh, I look at Bogdan and it reminds me of Gismet, who was blown up by a mine buried in a pasture," Maggeramov said. "The Soviet Elektron mine production plant in Yerevan belongs to Russia. Their mines are indistinguishable from those that kill Ukrainians, and they will continue to kill if active demining of liberated lands is not initiated," Rustam stresses.

Ukraine's demining process, according to experts, can take up to 30 years. Demining the Azerbaijani region of Karabakh will take the same time.

According to Ivan Sokol, director of the Civil Defense Department of the Ukrainian military-civil administration of the Kharkiv region, 1.25 million hectares of land are considered a danger in the Kharkiv region alone. People cannot return to their homes, their movements are restricted.

"Russian troops have been laying mines for 15 months, minefields overlap each other. Above all, the civilian population suffers. Russian soldiers are digging mines deeper, throwing leaves at them. They are difficult to detect and do not act immediately, but when the soil is compacted by driving and walking on roads. The territory will already be considered safe and mine-free when such a "surprise" suddenly explodes. They specifically seek, on purpose, to kill the civilian population," Sokol said.

Specialized demining equipment

Ukraine does not have enough civilian sappers. "We urgently need specialized demining teams. We know that Turkish MEMATT minesweepers are used in Azerbaijan, but they are not cheap. In Kharkiv we have developed our own machine, which eliminates 99% of anti-personnel mines. We assemble them in various workshops and factories. We continue to develop the machine and look for parts, and we also repair them ourselves. The Kharkiv region is an example of symbiosis between the government and volunteers. Communication and coordination has been established between government agencies, voluntary organizations and international donors. We train the operators of these machines ourselves. Each machine costs about $150,000, which is very cheap compared to other analogues. We are looking for funds to build more," says Sokol.

He knows that Azerbaijanis in Karabakh have gained a lot of experience in demining civilian objects in three years. "Our countries have suffered the same criminal activities as mass demining. We are ready to exchange experiences, we are ready to show our machines to Azerbaijan, to create them together."

In Kharkiv, money is being raised to finance local demining teams. Those who wish to help can apply to the Ukrainian Kharkiv fund with you, which is conducting a large-scale fundraising program for mine clearance in the Kharkiv region and the purchase of special minesweepers.

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