Baranyai: Landmines greet returning Syrians

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There are many potential landmines to navigate at the holidays, from the trinity of excess (overspending, overscheduling and overindulging) to the ticking time bombs planted when conversations with relatives turn political.

While individual customs are infinitely varied, celebrations of all faiths exalt peace on Earth. The sudden and startling arrival of peace in Syria, after 13 years of civil war, feels like a fragile miracle. As we embrace the hope of the season, there is at least one type of landmine we should all agree to put an end to, forever.

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Anti-personnel landmines – the non-metaphorical kind – rank among the most senseless legacies of twentieth century cruelty. Once defended as tactical weapons, most nations now agree they serve no strategic military purpose. Their chief real-world outcome is to maim and kill civilians, including children. They can hamper rebuilding efforts for generations.

Hundreds of thousands of these cruel devices lie in wait for displaced Syrians trying to make their way home, warns the nonprofit Halo Trust, which works to clear unexploded ordnance around the world. In early 1997, the group famously escorted Princess Diana through a minefield in Angola. Diana used her spotlight to drive compassionate consensus for change, although she did not live to see it. At the time of her visit, one in every 330 people in Angola had lost a limb.

The Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, was introduced that same year, and ratified by 164 nations. The treaty requires signatories to destroy stockpiles within four years. The United States is the only member of NATO which has not signed the convention, keeping company with other significant landmine producers such as Russia, China, India and Pakistan. Syria also did not sign.

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When the civil war broke out, Syrian troops planted some 700,000 landmines along their borders. Of the more than six million refugees who fled, the vast majority sought asylum in neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon. Another seven million were internally displaced, forced from their homes but unwilling – or unable – to leave the country.

By now, no one can be surprised by former president Bashar al-Assad’s inhumane method of “border control.” His war crimes include bombing civilians, targeting hospitals and deploying chemical weapons against his citizens. For several years running, Syria also suffered the highest casualties from landmines worldwide.

The immediate and overwhelming relief experienced by the Syrian diaspora, when Assad’s regime fell, has been tempered by uncertainty. No one knows quite what to expect from the rebel coalition led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist movement that has repudiated its former ties to al-Qaeda.

The United Nations continues to support the right of Syrians to access asylum, or to return on their own terms, as they judge best. Meanwhile, Lebanon and Turkiye have rolled up their welcome mats. Discrimination against refugees is rampant and acute. Residency permits had become difficult to renew, even before Assad fled. Both states have adopted policies encouraging “voluntary return” of refugees; there are reports of return forms signed at gunpoint.

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Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are now making their way back to Syria from these thread-worn host countries. Many have nowhere to return. Their homes and towns are destroyed. The areas around the most densely populated cities are cluttered with landmines and munitions, Halo warns. A particularly evil aspect of the weapons is how they often resemble a discarded toy.

Despite the ban, deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants “surged” last year to more than 5,700, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor. Eighty-four per cent of recorded casualties were civilians. A third of them were children.

write.robin@baranyai.ca

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