Explosive Remnants of War

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Ambassador Chris C. Sanders 
Arms Control Today
September 2004 

During the U.S.-led military invasion to remove then-Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein from power, Iraqi forces abandoned enormous quantities of
unguarded arms and ammunition. As one expert observer noted, "Piles of
ammunition, mines, small arms and weapons [are] littering the country.
They can?be found in playgrounds, schools, construction sites and
garbage heaps along the road. They constitute a permanent threat to the
population, especially children, who are unaware of the danger: they
continuously come into contact with them, play with them and risk
getting maimed or killed."[1]

Nor do all the dangers come from Iraqi materiel. Iraqi civilians face
dangerous debris from coalition forces as well: the use of cluster
munitions during the Iraq campaign yielded at least 90,000 stray duds.[2]

Sadly, Iraq is but the latest example in a global humanitarian problem:
long after battles have ended, wars continue to inflict tens of
thousands of casualties per year because of abandoned ammunition and
unexploded ordnance?known as explosive remnants of war (ERW).

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_09/Sanders.asp

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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