When The Civil War In Syria Is Finally Over, Disarming Ordinances Will Be An Even Bigger Task Than Afghanistan

A boy holds unexploded cluster bombs after jet shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the al-Meyasar district of Aleppo February 21, 2013. VOA

Syria Ordnance Disarming Effort Will Be Bigger Job Than Afghanistan, UN Says -- Miami Herald/McClatchy News

GENEVA -- The United Nations has recorded 37,000 incidents of heavy weapons use in the three-year Syrian civil war, a staggering frequency that the top U.N. official for disarming mines and discarded munitions warns will plague civilians and humanitarian aid groups for years after the fighting there ends.

“Remember,” Agnes Marcaillou, the head of the United Nations Mine Action Service, said in an interview with McClatchy, “millions of refugees and displaced people must walk back on contaminated roads, and humanitarian helicopters will have to be used to deliver food aid if the roads are not cleared.”

The U.N. mine agency, relying on news accounts for its information, has been plotting on a map all reported incidents where Syrian government and rebel forces have fought. The result is a “clash database,” which will be used to search for unexploded ordnance if a peace arrangement is ever negotiated.

“We have right now recorded 37,000 such clashes,” she said.

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My Comment: When the Syrian civil war is finally over .... casualties will still be coming in because of unexploded ordinances .... a flow of victims that will probably last for decades.