[Imc-newsroom] Colombia headline

[peterm at shout.net]

Does anybody know how many land mine companies the Bush administration has
investments in?

Land mine fatalaties up by 40% over a year ago.  Seems to correspond to an
increase in US military involvement...

-p

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 11:11:45 -0400
From: info at embajadacolombia.ca
To: peterm at shout.net
Subject: Land mines kill 47 in first half of 2002: Colombian official

Dear Peter Miller

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+ Land mines kill 47 in first half of 2002: Colombian official

DATELINE: BOGOTA, July 9 (AFP)

BODY:
Land mines killed 47 people and wounded 82 in the first half of 2002, and
that number is rising, Defense Minister Gustavo Bell said Tuesday.

"Colombia is ... perhaps the only country in the world, which in the
midst of an armed conflict, has publicly recognized that it has problems
with the use of this type of lethal artifacts, and has begun the task of
looking at the phenomenon in an objective way," Bell told representatives
of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Geneva International
Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD).

The figures have risen by 40 percent over the same period a year ago, he
said.

Bell, who also serves as vice president, said that 158 mines exploded
over the period, leaving 129 victims after 54 of the incidents, of which
47 died at the scene.

Of all victims for the first half of 2002, 17 were minors, Bell said.

Land mine injuries claim one victim in Colombia every 36 hours, Bell
said, adding that in 95 percent of the cases the victims are male.