Team:Edinburgh/mapxmliraq



Iraq <![CDATA[The Republic of Iraq acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 15 August 2007, becoming a State Party on 1 February 2008. Iraq is one of the countries most severely affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), the result of internal conflicts, the 1980–1988 war with Iran, the 1991 Gulf War (first Gulf War), and the conflict that has continued since the 2003 invasion by the US-led Coalition. Since then, almost daily attacks with car bombs or other IEDs on civilians, the military, and the police indicate the huge amounts of abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) left unsecured after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime and subsequently plundered, assisting ongoing insurgencies. The Iraq Landmine Impact Survey (ILIS), implemented by the Information Management and Mine Action Programs (iMMAP), formerly part of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (now renamed Veterans for America, VFA) in 13 of Iraq’s 18 governorates in 2004–2006 found 1,622 communities affected by 3,673 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) covering 1,730km2 of land. Border minefields alone have been estimated by one source to total 6,370km2. Iraq’s initial Article 7 report states that Iraqi forces emplaced more than 18 million mines on the border with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and another 1 million mines ahead of both the first Gulf War and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Types of contamination and impact vary significantly between regions. The northern Kurdish governorates of Dahuk, Erbil, and Sulaymaniyah comprise one of the world’s most heavily mine-contaminated areas, particularly along borders with Iran and Turkey and along the Green Line—the former frontline between Kurdish forces and Saddam Hussein’s army. All three governorates also suffer from unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination. For Dahuk and Erbil, as of April 2008 IKMAA, formerly the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Center (IKMAC), was not able to establish exactly how many of the mined areas have been cleared by other organizations and how many remain. A clean-up of its database, started in 2007, was still underway. South central Iraq is particularly affected by (cluster) submunitions and unexploded air and ground ordnance. More than 54 million submunitions were recorded used during the first Gulf War; although the exact failure is not known, there could be many million unexploded submunitions from that war alone. The 2003 invasion resulted in extensive further contamination along the routes followed in the advance on Baghdad. Other governorates bordering Iran also have minefields dating from the 1980–1988 war and some newer mines were laid by Saddam Hussein’s army on the border with Saudi Arabia before the 2003 invasion in al-Muthanna governorate. However, many villages in these areas are abandoned. Affected communities are mostly rural, agricultural, and small. According to the ILIS, “The type of resource to which landmines and UXO block access are chiefly pasture and crop land, as well as in the north, scrubland used for firewood collection. In the south, irrigated farmland is an important asset type impacted by the contamination.” High-impacted communities make up 4% of those affected. Iraq’s Article 7 report noted that “there is no reliable information available on mine/ERW victims in most of the country.” In 2007, Landmine Monitor identified at least 216 mine/ERW/IED casualties in 99 incidents in Iraq, including 101 people killed, 114 injured, and one unknown. Of these casualties, 54 were recorded by the GDMA and IKMAA in Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, mine action operators recorded eight, one victim assistance (VA) operator recorded 13, and the rest were identified through media monitoring.

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