{
  "id": "97-399",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "97-399",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
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    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 316322,
      "date": "1997-03-26",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:59:08.936941",
      "title": "Developing Technology for Humanitarian Landmine Clearing Operations",
      "summary": "This document also available in  PDF Image .\n  The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that every year approximately 24,000\nmen, women, and children are killed or injured by anti-personnel landmines. The State Department\nestimates that between 85 million and 108 million anti-personnel landmines remain in place in 70\ncountries. The United Nation's estimates that 2 million new mines are laid each year. Even if no\nnew mines are laid, it could take hundreds of years and billions of dollars to clear all affected areas,\ngiven current technology and level of effort.\n  Current technology relies primarily on hand-held metal detectors, probes, and trowels. Clearing\nproceeds one square meter at a time. It can take all day for a 30-man platoon of trained mine-clearers\nto clear 1500 square meters (about a third of the size of a football field). Mechanical methods\n(plows, flails, rollers) have been used militarily for a long time in military operations and have good\npotential to improve the cost-effectiveness of humanitarian mine-clearing operations. But,\nmechanical methods are limited by terrain, vegetation and the intended use of the land (some\nmechanical methods can strip topsoil or destroy dikes or irrigation canals) and need to be made more\naffordable and transportable. New sensors and sensor suites can improve the cost-effectiveness of\nmetal detectors by helping to distinguish the small amount of metal found in mines and the large\namount of harmless metal debris often found in minefields. But, the new sensors, too, are limited\nby vegetation, soil conditions, etc. Development is needed on hardware and software that can\ncombine data from different sensors (data fusion) and recognize objects (target recognition).\n  This report identifies a few national programs that have been set up to help develop and test\nnew mine clearing technologies. Most of these programs are off-shoots of military programs. The\nlist is not comprehensive. There are many private efforts being made by individuals and firms\naround the world who are moved either by humanitarian concerns or by potential profits or both to\ndevelop new technologies. Some of these efforts are frustrated by the lack of funds for development\nand testing. The amount of public funds available is relatively modest. In FY1997, Congress\nappropriated $14.7 million to test promising new technologies. In addition, the Office of the\nSecretary of Defense began supporting a five-year, $3 million/year program to do more fundamental\nresearch on new sensors.\n  While the world seeks to develop new mine clearing technologies, there is an international\ndebate about whether to ban the use of anti-personnel landmines altogether. The initial forum for\nthis debate, the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons, voted to phase out\nanti-personnel landmines that do not self-destruct or deactivate within 30 days. Many humanitarian\norganizations and some countries continue to seek a total ban on all anti-personnel landmines. The\nUnited States supports the idea of a total ban but reserves the right to use self-destructing mines until\na total ban can be negotiated. The United States also reserves the right to keep its\nnon-self-destructing mines in place along the North and South Korean border.",
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}