Team:Edinburgh/mapxmliran



Iran <![CDATA[The Islamic Republic of Iran has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Iran has cited its perceived need for antipersonnel mines on its borders as the main reason for not joining the treaty. In a February 2006 letter to Landmine Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, "Due to our expansive borders and problems resulting from narcotics and terrorist trafficking, our defense institutions are considering the use of landmines as a defensive mechanism." Mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), especially unexploded ordnance (UXO), remain in Iran from the 1980-1988 conflict with Iraq, affecting particularly the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah and Ilam in the west and southwest of the country. The extent of contamination is not known with any precision. Iran is said to have requested maps and information from Iraq, but none has so far been provided. In February 2007, the Minister of Defense said that: "the problem of mines is a national one, but regrettably 18 years after [the Iran-Iraq war], five provinces are still contaminated and some of our compatriots are exposed to danger." In April 2007, Brigadier-General Morteza Habibi, who heads Iran's mine action center, claimed that 9,000km2 of land remained to be cleared in the five provinces. It was also claimed that 34,000km2 had been demined since 1988. Another military official claimed that Iran would need the equivalent of US$324 million to clear all its mined areas. The southwestern region contains some of the world's richest oil and gas fields, and therefore the removal of mines and munitions to allow oil and gas exploration is one of Iran's top priorities. The eastern provinces of Khorasan and Sistan-Baluchestan are also said to be affected by mines, especially in joint border areas with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Further details of current contamination were similarly not available. Landmine Monitor identified at least 40 mine casualties in Iran in 2007. Eighteen people were killed and 22 injured; nine were civilian, seven military, two police, three deminers, and 19 unknown. IRMAC reported 80 mine/ERW casualties from 21 March 2006 to 1 March 2007, half of whom were deminers. IRMAC later reported to the media there were 71 deminer casualties (38 civilian and 33 military) in 2006 and to mid-January 2007. Casualties are likely under-recorded to due to a lack of casualty data collection. In 2008, IRMAC was reported as saying that "the latest figures indicated that this casualty rate had fallen to 1.5 a day." This represents the equivalent of some 550 casualties annually, the same rate that IRMAC reported in 2005. An Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) survey conducted in mid-2006 recorded more than 60 civilian casualties in a two-month period.

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