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ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan-As lethal as the American bombing
is in Afghanistan, the unexploded bombs
could create a longer-term problem, according
to the head of the UN's demining program
for that country.
Dan
Kelly of the UN's Mine Action Program For Afghanistan
said he was "quite concerned" with
the estimate of 10 to 30 percent of the American
bombs that do not explode.
These duds,
called unexploded ordnance (UXO), are scattered
throughout Afghanistan, which
he described as "already the most heavily
mined and UXO'd country in the world."
Kelly said the numbers of mines left over
20 years of warfare in Afghanistan is counted
in the millions.
Even before the U.S. bombing, he said, some
40 to 100 persons were wounded per week in
mine explosions, and 40 percent of them die
before they reach a hospital.
Kelly said
he got the figure of 10 to 30 percent UXO
rate "through past history, including
Kosovo."
Nongovernmental organizations working in the
'ban the mine' movement say that the mines
particularly hurt civilians and children as
the combatants, who are the targets of the
bombing, move on to new positions, and leave
the UXOs in areas where civilians eventually
settle.
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