MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

How Falkland islanders plan to help the world by keeping their landmines

Every day of the week Leon Marsh must drive down a track just the width of two Land Rovers, picking his way between the landmine fields that pepper his vast sheep farm in the Falkland Islands.

With 117 minefields covering almost eight square miles, it is a routine that he and his fellow islanders have had to become used to in the 23 years since the conflict with Argentina ended.

But, in stark contrast to communities around the world which are battling to have their landmines removed, the Falkland islanders argue that theirs should be left alone.

Next week the islanders will back a radical plan by the charity Landmine Action, which proposes that instead of clearing the Falklands the British government remove mines from an equivalent land area in Angola, Cambodia or Afghanistan, where the lethal munitions present a daily risk to life. The proposal will be put to a meeting of the standing committees of the Ottawa convention in Geneva next week.

Britain is obliged to clear the Falklands mines by March 2009 under the convention. Promoted by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, it requires signatories not only to stop using landmines, but to remove them from their territory entirely.

However, Falkland islanders have told the Guardian that they would be "embarrassed" if the money were spent on clearing their mines when there is a dire need for it elsewhere in the world. British sappers cleared 4,500 mines - lying on their stomachs with hand-held prods - immediately after the war, but they lost two men and sustained several casualties. No Falkland islanders have died.

At his farm in remote Fox Bay West, Mr Marsh, 42, a fifth-generation Falkland islander, said: "The landmines have become a sort of way of life. People are under the general opinion that unless they can guarantee something that will be 100% safe we shouldn't touch them.

"Since the mines have been here I have only ever known two of my 8,000 sheep to get blown up. The old saying is that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence and there's often quite a few sheep in the landmine fields. Some of the minefields are just a couple of hundred metres from my settlement, but it's a very difficult process to move them and if there is any risk to human life it's not worth it."

At the 11,000 hectare (28,000 acre) farm next door, Norma Edwards has 4,000 acres of landmines, and the skull and crossbones "Danger, mines" warning signs and fences make it very clear where they lie. She said: "Between our neighbour and ourselves we have more landmines than anywhere else outside Stanley. My own feeling is that there are places in the world where kids have to walk through minefields and those should be dealt with before us. I think it would be an excellent plan to have a sort of landmine swap shop. Put us on the end of the list. If you wander into a minefield here you must be a nutter, to be quite honest with you."

Any suggestion that the islanders' believe that the landmines would deter another Argentinian invasion is firmly denied. She said: "It's nothing to do with the Argentines. The landmines wouldn't keep them out."

The Falklands initiative is the brainchild of Simon Conway, deputy director of Landmine Action, who came up with the swap shop scheme after a trip to the Falklands in February. He explained: "My experience had been of clearing landmines from under people's houses, in their gardens and from their rice fields, and with every square metre cleared there was a massive benefit and we were preventing people from having accidents. In the Falklands it would be technically feasible to clear the mines, but pointless to spend millions of pounds when the population showed no enthusiasm for it. That money could be much better spent in Cambodia or Africa."

Landmine Action is anxious to ensure that Britain does not shirk its obligations under the convention, thus setting an example for poorer countries which might worm their way out of clearing up their munitions. The idea is that the British would be given a 10-year extension to the 2009 deadline in return for the exchange, so the Falklands would have to be tackled by 2019.

Mike Summers, a member of the legislative council of the Falkland islands government, said: "There are a lot of mines in the Falklands, but they are not that intrusive. Clearly there is an issue about clearance, but unless they are cleared 110% we are not going to take the fences down anyway. If that can be done, then fine. If the British government was to invest money in clearing mines then we would be more than happy for them to invest it in other countries. Our needs are not as pressing as other people's.

"That doesn't mean that in the fullness of time we don't want it done. But we would feel somewhat embarrassed if the British government spent money clearing mines in the Falklands if there was an opportunity to spend it in some other territory where there are children and adults at risk. I would back the Falklands initiative absolutely."

Major Peter Bigg, who supervises the maintenance of the minefields, agrees. He said: "It is interesting that they have come up with this idea of a bit of a trade-off so that the effort is put into different countries where the impact on the local population is greater. Unless you were stupid and went leaping into a minefield then there's no reason for people to be in danger here. They are all clearly marked off in well-defined areas."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said last night that it was aware of the Falklands initiative: "Under the Ottawa convention, the obligation to clear up all landmines by 2009 falls upon the UK. However, on a bilateral basis the UK and the Argentine government signed a joint statement in 2001 which noted that the two governments will continue to work together to evaluate the feasibility and cost of clearing the landmines still present in the Falkland islands. This process is ongoing. Only when the joint feasibility study has been completed will we be in a position to evaluate the options available to us."

The results of the feasibility study are expected in April 2006. Phyl Rendell, 56, who lives in Port Stanley, where a number of beaches and recreation areas are cut off by landmines, hopes that the British government will take the wishes of the islanders on board. She said: "If it's going to do good in the world to somebody else then it can only be a good thing. If the misery of others could be reduced, islanders would be pleased to feel that they had made a contribution."

Global toll of victims

From 1999 to 2005 there were 42,500 landmine casualties (killed and injured) worldwide. Many casualties go unreported and the full number is much higher, probably 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties a year. There are more than 230,000 known landmine survivors in 97 countries. Some are from incidents dating back to the end of the Second World War, but the vast majority are from the mid-1970s onwards.

Reported deaths and injuries for 2003:

Falkland Islands 0 Afghanistan 846 Cambodia 772 Colombia 668 Angola 226 Bosnia 218 Source: Landmine Action

The Guardian by Autrey Gillan London - June 11, 2005

Categories: Falkland Islands.

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