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Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties
No new mine casualties were identified by the Monitor in the People’s Republic of China in 2013.[1] In 2011, in Malipo District (Yunnan province) seven civilians were injured by antipersonnel mines.[2]
The cumulative number of casualties in China is not known. However, it was reported in the media in 2014 that 14,398 civilians had been disabled by explosive remnants of war (ERW), of which 1,113 were injured by landmines.[3] The cumulative number is higher, as these figures only include injured civilians and do not include either civilians who died in landmine incidents or military casualties. Field research in 2001 identified 5,707 mine/ERW casualties, mostly in Wenshan prefecture in Yunnan province.[4] Chinese media has repeatedly cited local authorities in Yunnan province as reporting that Wenshan prefecture has had some 6,000 landmine casualties since 1979.[5]
Victim Assistance
There are at least 14,398 landmine and ERW survivors in China, all of whom are civilians.[6] The number of military survivors is unknown.
While mine/ERW survivors generally receive the same services as other persons with disabilities, government regulations exist entitling persons who are disabled by ERW to financial assistance ranging from CNY360 (US$53) to CNY5160 ($762) per year, to some physical rehabilitation services at no cost, and to assistance in securing employment.[7] The ICRC provided prostheses for 29 mine/ERW survivors in 2013.[8]
China ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 1 August 2008.
[1] However, due to a lack of systematically available data, it is possible that casualties occurred and were not reported.
[2] Information from the Kunming Orthopedic Rehabilitation Centre of the Yunnan branch of the Red Cross Society of China; email from Thierry Meyrat, Head of Regional Delegation for East Asia, ICRC, 10 April 2012; and “Landmines continue to kill in Yunnan Province,” Global Times, 16 May 2011.
[3] Interview with Li Tao, Deputy Chair, Disabled Persons Federation of Malipo, in Global Times, 19 May 2011. These figures only include injured civilians.
[4] Interviews with the Directors of Guangxi Provincial Hospital, Nanning, Jingxi County Hospital, Jingxi, Shuo Long Township Hospital, Daxin, and Yue Xu Township Hospital, Jingxi, 8–10 February 2001; and with Chinese Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF), Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, 5 February 2001.
[5] “Landmines haunt Chinese border village,” China Daily, 13 January 2011; email from Nie Jing, Representative, CDPF, 11 March 2011; and Li Huizi and Li Yun, “Chinese soldiers nearly done with landmine sweeping on the Sino-Vietnam border,” Xinhua (Beijing), 31 December 2008, accessed 3 May 2010.
[6] “Landmines continue to kill in Yunnan Province,” Global Times, 16 May 2011.
[7] “Landmines haunt Chinese border village,” China Daily, 13 January 2011. Average exchange rate for 2010: US$1=CNY6.7696. US Federal Reserve, “List of Exchange Rates (Annual),” 6 January 2011.
[8] ICRC, “Annual Report 2013,” Geneva, 14 May 2014, p. 325.
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