Landmines on Borders

India-Pakistan

In 2002, India began implementing a plan to lay anti-personnel landmines along the entire length of its 1,800 mile border with Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan have been using landmines in wars with each other since 1947. Pakistan has continued to use landmines against Indian forces in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2001, a total of 432 landmines were recovered from militants in Kashmir.

In June 2002, the India and Pakistan chapters of Amnesty International, Greenpeace India and the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy called upon the governments of the two countries to immediately halt the use of anti-personnel mines and to make a public declaration. According to the ICBL, there is a stockpile of six million landmines in Pakistan, however; this has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Pakistani government. India and Pakistan combined possess a stockpile of 11 million weapons. In addition, the ICBL asserts that India is the fifth largest landmine power in the world and Pakistan is the sixth.

Israel-Lebanon

Landmines were used "extensively" in Lebanon from 1975-2000, by both Israel and Hezbollah. The heaviest concentrations of landmines are in the south, in a territory formerly occupied by Israeli forces. Landmine monitor estimates that 75% of the 400,000 landmines still underground are in or surrounding the "blue line", which is the UN-defined border between Israel and Lebanon, with an additional100,000 more landmines are scattered throughout Lebanon. In June 2005, Lebanon stated that 3,975 landmine casualties had been identified since 1970. (Landmine Monitor)

Since the height of the conflict in Israel and Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged world powers to pressure Israel to return detainees, provide maps of landmines and withdraw from so-called occupied territory. Israel has rejected these requests, and is adamant that there will be no cease fire or truce until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.

North-South Korea

The United States, North Korea, and South Korea all used landmines during the Korean War. Today, the U.S. and South Korea maintain that landmines must be used along the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea in order to maintain peace in the region.

Approximately 1.2 million landmines currently exist in South Korea. According to Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst for the Defense Monitor, the South Korean Defense Ministry reportedly confirmed that 1.05 million anti-tank and anti-personnel mines are laid in "major defense areas north around the civilian control line and the demilitarized zone. In the rear areas, about 75,000 anti-personnel mines [are] installed for security." North Korea has also placed approximately 1 million "dumb" mines along their side of the DMZ. Experts do not believe that North Korea has laid mines in any other areas.

Both North and South Korea have imported mines. Between 1969 and 1992 South Korea imported 40,324 mines from the U.S., while North Korea's mines come from the former USSR and China. According to Human Rights Watch and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, North Korea's greatest source of mines during the Korean War was captured U.S. mines.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

Tajikistan claims that landmines which were placed along its border by Uzbekistan have killed more than 68 people since 1999. According to the June 13, 2006 New York Times article "Takisitan Wants Uzbek Mines off Border" by C.J Chivers, sections of the Tajik-Uzbek border have been mined by Uzbekistan since militants from Tajikistan carried out raids into Uzbek territory in 1999 and 2000. Uzbekistan claims that the mines were necessary to deter militants; however, Tajikistan, who still possesses landmines from its civil war, argues that the mines were not necessary because most of the militants, who allied with the Taliban, were routed in the war in Afghanistan in 2001.