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Every year, an estimated 10 million anti-personnel mines are produced. It is not always clear what happens to them from the point of production to when they are planted, but it is certain that a large number of them are sold internationally. The trade in mines, like all aspects of the arms trade, is cloaked in secrecy. More than 50 countries are thought to produce between 500,000 and one million mines each year. Of these countries, 35 are known exporters. There are currently several hundred types of mines in production by approximately 100 companies worldwide. The exact numbers cannot be determined because simple devices can be produced easily without being registered, licensed or declared, and even sophisticated mines can be copied and produced in secret. When the export of mines from one country to another is banned, producers often deal through intermediaries to get around the laws.
Technology has been transferred from the industrialized Western countries to other parts of the world with mines now being increasingly assembled by local or regional subsidiaries. For example, explosives have been shipped by French and Italian manufacturers to Singapore, where the state industry produces its own mines. As public opinion against mines has grown in Western countries, production has been transferred elsewhere.
Because they cost so little to manufacture, landmine producers can make big profits. As a result, they generally manufacture as many of the devices as possible. They usually research and develop the mines for their own countries' armies, which store them as strategic stocks. Once the market is saturated, such companies seek to export their goods to remain competitive and profitable.
Although mines are considered weapons and are subject to export regulations, they are traded in very large numbers either legally or illegally. One indication of the extent of this trade is the wide range of models found in various conflicts. Recent reports on Angola by Africa Watch and the United States Congressional Research Service counted no less than 37 different types of landmines from at least eight countries - Belgium, China, the former Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, South Africa, United States, and the former Soviet Union. A similar range has been found in Somalia and Cambodia, where uncovered mines were found, in addition, to originate from Bulgaria, China, the former East Germany, Hungary, Vietnam and the former Yugoslavia.
- What are some of the obstacles that make it virtually impossible to get precise statistics on anti-personnel mine production?
- Go to the United Nations' web-site on landmines
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/mine/  and click on "country overview". Find as much information as you can on some of the countries mentioned in the text. What can you gather about their policies towards landmines?
- Reread the statement by Sadako Ogata which appears at the top of the page. Do you agree or disagree that there is "very little difference between those who use them(mines) and those who produce them"? Write a 2-3 paragraph persuasive essay either in support or in opposition to this statement.
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