Mines Designed to Maim, Kill

Blast mines use brutal explosive force to tear away a person’s limb. Fragmentation mines are designed to kill by shattering into small metal pieces on explosion—some mines fly in all directions, some can be aimed, others bounce into the air then explode.

Homemade mines can be improvised from any metal container and available explosive. Other weapons can be converted to mines, said Paul Haslop, country director of Halo Trust. "I can show you 50 ways to make a grenade into a mine, a victim-operated weapon," he said.

Mines are planted in trees, on stakes above the ground, or in the ground. Deminers say that most are designed to be buried less than 5 cm under the ground, because when the earth is dry the force of a footfall dissipates rapidly. Mines are detonated by pressure from above, by tripwires or, when used in battle, with a hand-held striker.

From the variety of mines comes a variety of injuries, all bad. When a blast mine explodes two things happen, said Michael McDonnell, a Cambodian Mine Action Center adviser. A shock wave travels up the bone and shatters it. A wave of expanding gas rips away the flesh and drives bits of shoe, dirt and bone into the victim’s flesh.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the debris and dirt is often impossible to clear out, and the limb must be amputated higher than it otherwise would be. Not amputating high enough the first time consigns the victim to multiple surgeries, additional suffering and a poorly shaped stump for later fitting a prosthesis.