Iranian Kurds still victims of mine disasters

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The United Nations (UN) representative of the Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva (KMMK-G) said on Wednesday that since the beginning of 2015, 48 Kurdish civilians have been killed or wounded due to landmines and unexploded remnants of war.

Taimoor Aliassi, the UN representative of the KMMK-G, told Kurdistan24, “Twenty citizens lost their lives, and the other 28 were wounded or amputated."

Aliassi further explained, “Among the victims were 12 children, six women, and two Kolbar." Kolbar is the Kurdish word for people who carry goods on their backs to earn a living.

On Wednesday, the official website of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRNA) said that the explosion of a mine left over from the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) in the town of Qasr-e Shirin, west of Kermashan (Kermanshah) Province, injured a man.

The Political Advisor to Qasr-e Shirin Governor, Nematollah Nazparwardeh, told IRNA, "A bulldozer belonging to a demining company exploded when it hit a mine near Khosro Abad region in Qasr-e Shirin, wounding the driver."

Nazparwardeh said that the driver of the bulldozer, Ali Bayat, was transferred to Abolfazl Abbas hospital in Qasr-e Shirin for treatment.

According to the same report by IRNA, since the beginning of 2016, 24 people have fallen victims to mine explosions. Six have been killed, and 18 others wounded.

In February 2013, the Governorate of Kermashan organized a celebration after cleaning 700 thousand hectares of mine-contaminated areas in the province.

Nevertheless, the Iranian government official statistics state that 184 people have been killed or wounded due to mine explosions in the same area despite the clearing.

An IRNA report named military forces, farmers, villagers and nomads of the region as well as minesweepers as the primary victims.

The latest statistics by the UN indicate that 20 million mines exist in Iranian borders that take, on average, two victims per day.

Among the five provinces of Western Azerbaijan, Kermanshan, Kurdistan, Ilam and Khuzestan, located on the border with Iraq, four are mainly Kurdish-populated.

The Iranian government claims that all of the mines are the remnants of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq that ended about three decades ago.

However, the oppositions such as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPKI) and Komalah (Society of Revolutionary Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan) accuse Iran of planting mines to target their members and kolbars who cross the border. 

Iran is one of the 33 countries that have not signed the Ottawa Treaty (the Mine Ban Treaty) which prohibits antipersonnel mines.

Reporting by Payam Amiri
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany and Ava Homa