Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlbangladesh



Bangladesh <![CDATA[Bangladesh is affected by explosive remnants of war (ERW), with unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance, including arms caches from World War II and the independence war of 1971, still found in different parts of the country.

There is no evidence of remaining mined areas. Bangladesh’s latest Article 7 report again reports no known or suspected mined areas in the country.

In 2007, Bangladeshi casualties continued to occur in Kuwait, with at least 15 mine/ERW casualties in six incidents (six killed and nine injured). his is an increase compared to 2006 when three Bangladeshi casualties were recorded. However, the actual figure may be higher as there is no systematic data collection in Kuwait and casualties are often described as “Asian casualties.” Bangladeshi casualties continued to occur in Kuwait in 2008 with at least two Bangladeshi shepherds injured by a landmine by July 2008. Bangladeshi casualties also occurred during peacekeeping missions or during clearance operations outside Bangladesh.

The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Bangladesh is not known. Between 1993 and June 2001 at least 64 people were killed and 131 injured in reported landmine incidents. he Bangladesh Freedom Fighters’ Welfare Trust had identified 148 people who lost limbs in antipersonnel mine incidents during the 1971 independence war.

At the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in November 2007, Bangladesh stated that the Bangladesh Army provides “mine-related” training to the police and university students in eight facilities to increase their awareness of the different types of mines, ERW and IEDs. However, in its most recent Article 7 report, Bangladesh noted that mine/ERW risk education is “not applicable as there is no known or suspected mined areas available [sic] in Bangladesh.”

Assistance to mine/ERW survivors remains scarce and is not part of national policy or humanitarian programs although the government acknowledges that there are mine survivors in Bangladesh. However, during Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty negotiations, Bangladesh supported strengthening treaty language for VA, noting the need for stronger assistance provisions for livelihood regeneration in affected communities and VA funding, as well as more assistance for foreign peacekeepers and deminers.

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