Lebanese PM writes to Annan on Israeli mines maps

[bemildred]

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Wednesday sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan regarding maps showing the position of land mines which Israeli troops had planted in southern Lebanon.

A statement issued by the media office of the prime minister said that Siniora believes Israel should take prompt action to submit the maps of land mines to the UN after the arrival of forces which can help clear the mines, in particular, cluster bombs.

The statement said that these mines affect the safety of the people in southern Lebanon and hamper the efforts to rebuild the country.

Peoples Daily

[Kagemusha]

1. Ah, do those include cluster bomb targets or not?

A map of where all the old land mines were is good but, what about all the new, de facto land mines?

[bemildred]

2. I'm a bit skeptical these maps exist at all.

For the mines, I mean.

[The Magistrate]

3. There Should, Sir, At Least Be Standard Plots

The way it works in the manuals, anyway, the engineers lay the things to patterns, as much for their own convenience in future in digging them up to plant someplace else as anything, so that you can start with one, and know that x feet in y direction is where you will find the next, and the next, and so forth. Doubtless in practice there is a good deal of variation. The lower echelon headquarters should have records of the field locations, since they would want to be able to keep their own people off the things.

[bemildred]

4. It's been a long time Sir, and while the military is fond of rules, it is

also prone to ignore them whenever it chooses, in my observation, and prone to fumble the ball a good deal too. I think a certain skepticism is reasonable in this case.

Edit: I am not intending to denigrate anyones intentions, just questioning whether they were done properly in the first place, whether they were stored away, and whether anyone knows where they are now.

[The Magistrate]

5. We Are On The Same Page, Sir

That is how the book says it is to be done, and people use the book for toilet paper when they are crouched in holes. It does seem a reasonable assumption that some care, though, is taken by the men planting them to do so in a manner minimizing their own risk of mis-hap as they do, and by unit commanders to know where things that can easily kill their own troops are concealed.

[bemildred]

6. One would think so, but one would sometimes be wrong.

:-)

[nicoll]

7. have to be removed

the mines have to removed by Israel or maps given to the lebanese government so they can remove them a.s.a.p.