| Long after anti-personnel land mines (AP) were planted to gain military advantage in battle, they continue to destroy lives by killing and maiming civilians and livestock, inhibiting productivity and preventing economies from developing in poor, third world countries. The land mines contribute to political instability associated with regions vital to the United States. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) claims that there are approximately eighty-five to 200 million mines in sixty-three countries producing approximately 15,000 casualties per year, an average of seventy people per day, or 500 people every week, mostly innocent civilians (DOS 1994). Of these, an estimated 9,500 people are killed each year (GHE 1995). According to Mintz, "twenty percent of mine victims are children, with about half the victims of the world's estimated 100 million land mines non-soldiers" (Mintz 1996), although Bonnie Benwick claims that the accuracy of the amount of land mines may be over-inflated (Benwick 1998). This research will attempt to review the historical context and analyze the available data to perform benefit/cost and a cost effectiveness study of the U.S. sponsored Ethiopian (ET) and Eritrean (ER) Demining Programs. These analyses may eventually be used as evaluation criteria to determine if the U.S. should maintain its current level of operations or continue to expand demining into other countries or in what capacity the U.S. should be involved in these programs. Enumerated costs and benefits, comparable for any U.S. demining effort, will be listed and quantified when feasible. Much of this data was provided by the demining centers located in Ethiopia and Eritrea; the U.S. Army Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida; the U.S. Embassies in Ethiopia and Eritrea; and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Human Rights Watch; The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD); the U.S. Department of State (DOS); and various authors. |
