Princess Diana – she would have been 64 now – devoted her short life to the fight against landmines. A scourge from which the planet had to be liberated, she spoke about this weapon. “They injured innocent civilians, long after a conflict is over.” The mutilating elaboration of anti -personnel mines makes no distinction between soldiers and civilians, thousands of children become victims of unclear mines worldwide. The Ottawa Treaty had to put an end to that. Since 1997, 164 countries – the US, China did not do that. Russia not either.
Princess Diana – with a face mask – walks in 1997 through a Mijnenveldin Angola to draw attention to the fight against this cruel weapon.
A quarter of a century later, the land mine is completely back. The counterattack that Ukraine carried out in 2023 ran on fields with millions of Russian mines that the troops could not break through. Russians even stacked different mines on each other for maximum explosive power.
The West has learned from this. Dutch soldiers must again include land mines in their toolbox or at least know how to deal with it, Brigadiereraal Timmermans said to De Telegraaf before. They are drawn up in the new NATO plan to defend Lithuania when Russia invades. Timmermans thought our country was fell behind with this weapon. “The annoying thing is: not the opponent.” The reluctance against the Landmine is a luxury that we can afford in peacetime, “when the lead and the Russians cross the border, that discussion is no longer being conducted.”
A mine near Kharkiv, Ukraine. © AFP
That is also the opinion of Lithuanian Minister Kęstutis Bdrys of Foreign Affairs. Lithuania can no longer be limited by treaties that “do not reflect today’s reality,” Budrys told De Telegraaf during a visit to The Hague. ,, We have to strengthen our limit and use the entire spectrum of antimobility means. So those are anti -tank mines, mines against armored vehicles, but also mines against the infantry that follows. “
Lithuania, where a huge ammunition factory from Rheinmetall is rising, will again produce ten thousands of mines. The Baltic States and Finland did not go overnight before the decision fell to step out of the Ottawa Convention, says Bdrys.
All kinds of organizations were furious about the decision to put ‘Ottawa’ with the old dirt. “A disturbing step back,” said Amnesty International. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called the withdrawal a “dangerous setback for the protection of citizens in armed conflicts.” International law must protect citizens, according to the Red Cross. ‘Anyone who enters these rules in peacetime and abolishing them in times of tensions or war does not understand their meaning at all. They let go because the opponent does not respect them, leads to a dangerous downward spiral, for which citizens pay the price. ‘
The Lithuanian foreign minister Kęstutis Bdrys
However, there are many arguments for being less reluctant to be anti -personnel mines in 2025. Firstly, the mines are exclusively in the border area with Russia, so not randomly through the landscape where citizens live and play children. Secondly, Western armed forces do keep closely keeping up where they lay my. Knowing where you are mines is nice if you have to go through it yourself. Moreover, you can dig them up and reuse them – so efficiently. With GPS it is much easier to keep track of where you have burying mines. Regimes in Cambodia or Angola did not yet have that technique. And they probably didn’t care much either.
King Willem- = Alexander just before he himself takes over the controls from the flying ground radar of Acecore. © ANP/ Rob Engelaar
King Willem-Alexander was introduced to a third reason last month to estimate the danger of mines in 2025 differently. De Vorst owned a large drone on the Vredepeel army base, built by the Dutch firm Acecore. The thing floats just above the ground and has a radar on board that looks ten meters into the ground. If you have discovered a mine that way, you will send a cheap kamikazedrone to explode the thing.
With detection pours such as those from Acecore you can clean up complete minefields without danger. The radar sees everything, at least everything from metal. Landmines of plastic are slightly more difficult to detect. Since the Second World War there have been mines with little or no metal on board. So there was the Glasmine43, With a minimum of metal to hide the deadly explosive for mine detection. However, most of the types of Russian mines have metal parts, a spokesperson for Acecore explained.
German mine, largely made of glass © Army Film and Photo Service (LFFD)
Everything silly to stop the enemy
Human rights organizations object to anti -personnel mines because they kill them without a distinction between legitimate targets or innocent people. A land mine waits patiently until something or someone kicks him. Just like with the ghost image of the killer robots ‘Certainly’ the weapon itself to kill, no one is involved anymore. But modern landmines are smarter. “We even discussed whether modern mines still fall under the Ottawa Treaty at all,” says Budrys ..
Take the German Panzerabwehrichtmine. Those Do not explode from below, but has a kind of stumbling wire of fiber optics, which fires an armored duke from the side. The sensor feels whether a tank is running or a car and does not activate a person. And over time, it switches off automatically.
The Netherlands is now in Lithuania with around 270 soldiers. In the event of Russian aggression, a large part of our military device will be concentrated by region. Lithuania builds an immense line of defense of fences, anti-tank canals, trenches, underground sensors, drones, steel hedgehogs and concrete dragon teeth along the border with Belarus. “Everything to stop the enemy,” says Bdrys. Mines are especially needed in so -called ‘chokepoints’: those are narrow passages where traffic is channeled. ,, In some of those bottlenecks, we indeed need anti -tank mines against heavy equipment and heavy vehicles. And in even narrower passenger we need anti -personnel mines. “”
A Dutch reconnaissance unit trains in Lithuania. © De Telegraaf
‘Don’t cross the border’
Thousands of NATO soldiers are present in Lithuania to scare Russia. The possibility that America withdraws accelerated causes some nervousness, but in the meantime the Germans are building a huge army base for five thousand soldiers. The barracks in Rukla where the small three hundred Dutch soldiers Zittem is also being expanded. Lithuania is overjoyed with the Dutch presence, says Minister Bdrys. Both countries grow together, many Dutch companies invest in Lithuania because they are convinced that the region is safe. Our country is even the second largest investor.
Warning sign along the border between Lithuania and Belarus (Belarus)
Dutch tourists are also more than welcome in his country, says Bdrys. One advice from the foreign minister: feel free to go to the hilly border area but don’t be tempted to cross the border to Belarus. That Vassal State of Putin recently opened the borders for EU citizens, who will receive a visa for free. Bdrys speaks about his eastern neighbors in a tone that scares more than a minefield. He calls it “the black backyard of Putin, the swamp for illegal activities, the stinkhole of Europe.” “That is why he had blood-red posters hang on his side of the border with the text ‘Don’t risk safety, do not go to white-russia, you may not come back’. ,, They just arrest people, you are kidnapped and accused of espionage. Just don’t go. Nothing to see there. “