EDITORIAL - Banned weapons

There is a new and disturbing trend in the battles being waged by various enemies of the state. Yesterday communist rebels claimed to have killed nine Army soldiers using an improvised landmine in Surigao del Sur. It was the second time that the New People’s Army had used landmines. Last month nine other Army soldiers were killed in Iloilo by an improvised landmine.

It’s not just the NPA that has learned to use a weapon that has been banned by the international community. Recently three soldiers were wounded in a landmine explosion in Sulu. The device was planted by the Abu Sayyaf. Yesterday the Armed Forces of the Philippines said it had sought American help in clearing Jolo island of landmines left behind by Abu Sayyaf and rogue Moro National Liberation Front members fleeing a military offensive.

The use of landmines has been banned around the world because of the great potential of the weapons to kill or maim non-combatants. Experts estimate that millions of landmines remain buried in conflict areas around the world, including Afghanistan, and it could take decades before all the affected areas can be completely cleared. By that time, a number of the devices are sure to have brought harm to non-combatants, particularly children.

Victims of landmines can be seen in countries such as Vietnam and other former war zones, standing out because of missing limbs. Tragic images of maimed children led to the global ban on landmines. Now communist rebels are splitting hairs over the definition of the banned device, saying their crude weapons are technically not covered by the ban. The buried explosives, however, pose the same hazards to children and other non-combatants as any landmine, and the use of the weapon is contemptible.

Captured communist rebels and Islamist terrorists invoke international rules and treaties on human rights, but they themselves refuse to play by those rules. Violations of the ban on landmines should be added to the criteria for inclusion in the list of international terrorist organizations. The use of any type of landmine must be condemnded.