Millions of land mines reap bloody harvest in Egypt

[Englander]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=10518

CAIRO: Over 20 million land mines lurk beneath the shifting sands of Egypt's Western Desert, reaping a slow, bloody harvest and keeping waste vast tracts of land ripe for cultivation or development as tourist zones.

On Sunday, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki opened a weeklong "summit for a world without mines" in Nairobi, appealing for all countries to join the 1997 Ottawa Convention and work to clear the world of the weapons which kill or maim a person every 22 minutes somewhere in the world, on average.

Since 1997, 143 countries, including Egypt, have ratified the convention, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines, and demands the de-mining of mined regions within 10 years.

Official estimates say between 18 million and 20 million mines were planted during World War II by the British forces of General Montgomery around Al-Alamein to slow down the advance of German troops led by General Rommel.