The InterDependent

Land mines and explosive remnants of war affect more than 70 countries, and though incidents related to unexploded ordnance have dropped significantly in the last few years, they still kill or maim more than 4,000 people annually.

Civilians bear the brunt of these leftover devices, which are generally found in fields and roadsides long after the warring factions have left the scene. The unexploded ordnance, known as UXO, are made up of cluster bombs, mortars, grenades, missiles and other equipment that have failed to detonate on impact but remain volatile if touched or moved.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, ratified in 2010, banned the use of cluster bombs; 56 countries are a party to the treaty and 52 have signed on but not ratified it. The United States is not a signatory. Most recently, Libya has reportedly been using cluster bombs against civilians in Misurata; Libya is also not a signatory to the convention.

From 1999 to 2010, UNA-USA’s own Adopt-a-Minefield campaign raised more than $25 million to help clear at least 1,000 minefields and assist thousands of survivors.

To mark International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on April 4, a multimedia exhibition titled "DeterMined" has been installed in the United Nations headquarters’ lobby until May 1; the area is open to the public on weekdays and weekends at no charge. The show features the work of a Venezuelan-born photographer and videographer, Kike Arnal, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area; and a Slovenian photographer, Arne Hodalic.

Kike Arnal

Iman Kabaisi from El Qlaile, Lebanon, shows her hand mutilated by a cluster monition she picked up in her yard. Her picture is part of a UN headquarters exhibition on land mines.

The photos testify to the random cruelty of land mines but also the tenacy of the survivors and communities that must deal with the weapons in their midst. Arnal’s photos focus on people in Lebanon, where he spent a month in 2007, a year after the monthlong Israel-Hezbollah conflict, taking pictures of civilian victims. With support from the UN Mine Action Service team and the Red Cross, Arnal connected with those who had been hurt.

The people in Lebanon, he said, were the most resilient he’d ever met. "I was surprised with the victims' hospitality and positive thinking," he wrote in an e-mail interview to UNA-USA. "They were very glad to greet us, even though our job was to bring their painful nightmare back."

Arnal used a medium-format film camera, brought a digital single-lens reflex model for more journalistic images and used a video camera to interview some of the victims. The results can be viewed at www.survivingclusterbombs.wordpress.com.

Hodalic’s photos depict civilian victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which he visited in February 2009. Hodalic, a photo editor at National Geographic Slovenia and a journalist, also documented the work of the UN Mine Action Team there. He used a Nikon D3S. It was his first time in the country, and he said in a phone interview that life in Congo, which is rich in natural resources but incredibly poor for most Congolese, is tough and that the areas where ordnance remain make it nearly impossible for villagers to use the fields to grow produce to feed themselves.

Arne Hodalic

A Congolese victim of land mines, in Kinsangani. Weaponry remnants from civil wars and militias litter the country.

The UN Mine Action Team and independent organizations like the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance are working on awareness programs in Congo, where mine-action safety is a big problem.

In most parts of the world where minefields still exist, clearing the decades-old remnants is dangerous and time-consuming work, with records of exact locations of the mines often unavailable. Finding resources to help rehabilitate survivors is also difficult, especially when political will is lacking.

As Arnal, who took the pictures in Lebanon, said, "The tragedy is still hurting and incapacitating people."