18-year-old amputee Aynalem Zenebe is a survivor of a landmine explosion
in Ethiopia. [Photo: Global Times]

'Fatal Footprint,' a photo exhibition at the French Cultural Center in Beijing, depicts the difficult lives of landmine survivors, calling for more attention to unexploded landmines and cluster munitions in former war zones.

Organized by Handicap International, a non-governmental organization to help the disabled, the exhibition features more than 30 photos by three renowned photographers, Tim Dirven, Gael Turine and John Vinck. The combined photographs illustrate how people suffered from those weapons not only physically but mentally.

In poor villages of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, Albania and other areas where fierce wars were fought in recent years or even decades earlier, poor villagers are still losing their lives or being horribly injured in landmine explosions, said Jean Van Wetter, of Handicap International, at a press conference last Wednesday.

"The troops retreated after the war ended, but left the fear of unexploded landmines to the local residents," said Van Wetter.

"Although many of the disabled have already received help from their governments or the outside world, it is still hard for them to move forward and overcome the consequences of the accidents," commented the French Ambassador to China, Herve Ladsous.

Even when they are working their own fields, villagers living in former war-torn areas still live with the dangers of being killed or losing their legs and arms to the hidden mines.

Kien Le is a Vietnamese farmer who lost his left leg in a cluster bomb explosion while working in his own garden in 1991. The blast killed his four-year-old daughter who was playing nearby when the bomb exploded.

"I feel so terrified whenever I recall the accident. I was turned into an amputee permanently and my family has encountered a lot of difficulties because I was the breadwinner," Le recalled. His wife, who also attended the press meeting, said that she was extremely shaken when she heard the terrible news. "I nearly lost my will to life," she said. "I hope that the international community will help my country clean up contaminated land and that nobody else will ever suffer like me."

Le's family is one of thousands hurt by leftover landmines. Like Le's daughter, many children are still losing their lives when the hidden bombs explode. For children living in poor villages, collecting metal scraps for cash is a way to help their families make ends meet, but this is also dangerous when a sheet of metal turns out to be an unexploded landmine.

Despite the warnings, family tragedies like this happen again and again, as villagers like Kien Le need money, and in poor areas, there is no chance to get richer. "Voices from the Ground," a report released at the exhibition press conference, found that children accounted for 32 percent of all victims of landmines, totaling 73,000 people dead or injured during the past decade.

In 2008, the recorded number of victims was 5,197, but the number did not include unreported deaths and injuries in poor remote areas. The report assesses the struggle of landmine survivors in 26 countries where people remain threatened by the horrors of war long after the fighting ends.

"Although we have made great progress around the world, further efforts are still needed," said Wetter. "The only way to solve the problem is to prohibit the use of weapons like these."

The Mine Ban Treaty, or the Ottawa Treaty, is the first international treaty completely banning all anti-personnel landmines, and also dedicated to reintegrating landmine survivors back into society.

More than 80 percent of countries around the globe are signatories to the treaty, each promising to be landmine-free in 10 years or longer.

However, huge nations like the United States, Russia and China are not parties to the treaty.

"We hope these countries join the treaty as soon as possible," said Van Wetter.

"Their commitments to be landmine-free are of particular importance in setting examples for other countries in the world."

He said that although China has made no formal promises to be landmine-free, the country has helped clear mines and reduce stockpiles.

"With a long boundary line, China is still in need of landmines to protect its own borders from being invaded," explained Zhai Dequan, deputy secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

"Besides, as landmines played an important role in resisting the attack of Japanese troops during the Resistance War against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), therefore, many Chinese generals have a special feeling toward them."

China stopped producing and exporting landmines after 1996, and is gradually destructing stockpiles each year, which Zhai said represents huge progress in solving the problem.