Cyprus
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties
The last recorded mine or explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualty in Cyprus occurred in 2009 when a deminer was killed by an antivehicle mine in a clearance accident.[1]
Between 1999 and the end of 2009, the Monitor identified nine mine/ERW casualties in Cyprus (two people were killed and seven injured).[2] Five casualties were civilians (three men, one woman, and one child) and the remaining four casualties were deminers. Among the civilian casualties, four were Iraqi migrants trying to cross the north-south border illegally, and one was a farmer.[3]
Before 1999, at least four casualties were identified: three peacekeepers of the UN Force in Cyprus were killed by mines between 1974 and 1998, and a 37-year-old man was killed by a mine when he followed his dog into a minefield in the buffer zone in 1997.[4]
[1] Email from Simon Porter, Programme Manager, UN Mine Action Centre in Cyprus, 13 April 2010.
[2] The Monitor identified nine casualties between 1999 and 2009: one casualty in 1999, one in 2004, six in 2008, and one in 2009. See previous Landmine Monitor reports on Cyprus on the Monitor website.
[3] See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, October 2004).
[4] See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1999).