Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlthailand



Thailand <![CDATA[Thailand is affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), both abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) and unexploded ordnance (UXO), the result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, and Malaysia. The 2001 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 530 communities in 27 of 76 provinces and more than 500,000 people as mine-affected.

The LIS estimated the total area of mine/ERW contamination at 2,557km2. However, Thailand’s revised application for an extension of its clearance deadline under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty submitted in August 2008 says “at this stage it is assumed that about 528.2 sq km of mine field areas is still left for clearance.”

Thailand’s 700km border with Cambodia, used as a base by Cambodian guerrilla factions in the 1980s and 1990s, is worst affected, accounting for three-quarters of the LIS estimate and 51 of 69 high-impact communities. More than half of the mine incidents in Thailand have occurred on this border. The Cambodian border is also contaminated by artillery and mortar shells fired by Vietnamese and Cambodian government forces and caches of abandoned mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and ammunition left by Cambodian guerrilla groups.

The main impact of mines and ERW on these borders is to prevent use of forest resources, cropland, pasture, and water resources. Residential areas, roads and other major infrastructure are rarely affected. Contamination on the border with Laos is limited and on the border with Malaysia is negligible.

In 2007, Landmine Monitor identified at least 19 new mine/ERW casualties; all were injured. TMAC’s HMAUs recorded some details on 15 of these casualties, but the information was supplemented by Handicap International (HI). Fifteen casualties were civilian, one was a deminer, two were border patrol police, and one was a police officer; four casualties were Cambodian. The civilians were injured while carrying out livelihood activities, collecting forest products, cutting wood, hunting or farming. Almost all casualties (17) occurred along the Thai-Cambodia border, one on the border with Myanmar and one while inspecting the scene of a bomb explosion in southern Thailand.

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