A US study in mines in Yemen

A study prepared study at the request of the US state department said that number of mines in Yemen is less than previously thought to be and that half of the areas used to be classified dangerous are safe areas.

AFP quoted the as saying that the study stressed the anti- personnel mines problem target 592 villages and towns in Yemen out of 1300 areas which used to be considered dangerous and these mines threaten one Yemeni out of 16, representing 800,000 of the total population, SANA reported.

The US state department explained that these results were conveyed to the Yemeni government on September 24 and will be a model for similar investigations in other areas of the world suffering from anti- personnel land mines like Bosnia, Kampuchea, Lebanon, Mozambique and Somalia.

Number of mines dumped in all parts of Yemen are estimated at 60 million, according to official Yemeni figures and some of these mines go back to the 60s during the time of the conflict between the two republics and the supporters of the rule of al-Imam al-Bader.

The study took one year to be completed. It was financed, in addition to Washington, by Canada, Germany, Japan and was conducted by a Yemeni team at the supervision of a non- governmental organization.