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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
Explosion spotlights mine menace
By Dina EzzatIn an empty lot in a village close to Ismailiya a mine exploded last Sunday, killing three people and injuring a fourth.
The incident coincided with the visit of a UN mission to Egypt, one of the most mine-infested countries in the world, to gauge the dimensions of the explosive problem plaguing it.
"There is no doubt at all that Egypt has a big problem, a very complicated problem," said Mary Flowers, head of the UN mission, following a meeting with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. "We are very pleased to have been invited here by the government to help assess the extent of this and look at what the next steps may be." She added, "I see this as an international problem; it is a development problem that Egypt is facing that I think merits some attention."
It is estimated that Egypt has around 22.7 million unexploded mines. Most of these -- about 17 million -- were buried in the country's Western Desert by the Germans and Italians during World War II. Around five million mines have been left over from wars fought with Israel between 1948 and 1973 in the Eastern Desert and Sinai. The estimated cost for de-mining is estimated at $250 million.
"The international community should assume its responsibility in helping clear these land mines. So far the countries responsible for infesting Egyptian land with these mines have contributed no more than 0.5 per cent of the total estimated cost for de-mining," said Moussa, who met with the UN mission.
Asked during a recent visit to Cairo if Italy could help finance Egypt's de-mining efforts, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini told reporters his government allocates funds for only economic and development aid; under neither category is de-mining included. However, he said the matter should be discussed further with other countries which planted mines in Egypt's Western Desert during World War II.
Next month, on the fringe of an African-European Union summit, a session is expected to examine the EU's potential aid for de-mining in Africa.
For 10 years, starting in 1981, the Defence Ministry worked on clearing 10 million mines. As of 1992, the Foreign Ministry has been lobbying for international support to clear the remaining mines. And for the past two years, both ministries have been negotiating with the UN to send over its assessment mission.
The seven-member mission has been going on field trips, meeting with land mines victims and conducting talks with concerned officials. After finishing its 12-day work in Egypt, this mission is expected to issue a report outlining the volume of the problem and the estimated cost for de-mining. This report should determine how the international community can help remove the mines buried in Egypt.
Following a day of field work in Al-Alamein, a highly infested spot where British forces fought against the Italian and German armies in 1942, the UN mission suggested that efforts should be initiated to solve this problem "after so many years".
Egyptian officials say that they hope to see this happening sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, the UN and some Western countries have urged Egypt to sign the Ottawa Convention that bans production, sale and use of anti-personnel mines. Egypt argues it could not join this treaty since it does not offer a comprehensive regime for the land mines problem. "First of all this treaty was not joined by the main countries that produce and use land mines, like the US, Russia, China and Pakistan," said Assistant Foreign Minister Sayed El-Masri.
Egypt, El-Masri says, joined the preparatory negotiations for the Ottawa Convention in an effort to seek an answer to the problem of land mines. "But we could not have possibly joined a convention that does not acknowledge the right of countries like Egypt, who suffer from a non-self-inflicted problem, to get legitimate aid for de-mining," he argued.
Egypt says it would prefer to see the matter dealt with in the framework of the Geneva-based Disarmament Conference where a comprehensive agreement takes into consideration the viewpoints of all the concerned countries.
