Christianity in the Heart of Egypt
The Devil's Gardens

Remains of the Allies armies left in the western Desert to kill the Innocent
Planted by the Allies in the Western Desert, Innocent Egyptians are the Victims
Egypt is the most afflicted country by land mines, suffering for almost half a century from the problem of 22.8 million landmines buried in Egypt's soil; threatening the people and impeding development. It is Egypt's right to have these mines removed by the countries that had laid them in its territory.

Remains of the Allies armies left in the western Desert to kill the Innocent Planted by the Allies in the Western Desert, Innocent Egyptians are the Victims Egypt is the most afflicted country by land mines, suffering for almost half a century from the problem of 22.8 million landmines buried in Egypt's soil; threatening the people and impeding development. It is Egypt's right to have these mines removed by the countries that had laid them in its territory.

Removing a single mine costs 1000 Dollars while laying it costs 10 Dollars only!
Years pass and the danger of mines laid in Egypt's territory still exists. These mines threaten the lives of innocent civilians. Every day, new victims are added to those afflicted by this highly destructive weapon and casualities are in thousands.
These facts reflect the gravity of the problem that was created by both Axis and Allies forces and for which Egypt can not be blamed.
Out of a total of about 110 million landmines planted around the world, Egypt has 23 million, i.e; 20% of the total landmines spreading in the eastern and western parts of the country. Because of this threat a sizable part of Egypt's arable land, amounting to 686,000 feddans or almost 10% of total cultivable area, could not be developed. In addition, landmines have disrupted economic development projects as it constitutes a threat to the life and safety of individuals. Already thousands had died from explosion of mines. Over the past 20 years, about 8000 were victimized.

The Devil's Gardens
The Western Desert is the most afflicted by landmines as its minefields extend from Alamain up to the Egyptian-Libyan borders with a depth of more than 40 km from the Mediterranean coast. The Allies and the Axis troops left behind about 17.5 million mines during the Second World War in June 1942. Most notorious was the Devil's Gardens where landmines were laid by the Axis forces led by the German Commander Rommel to cover up his withdrawal from Alamain and prevent pursuit by the Allies forces.
The landmines planted by the Axis troops were laid in a random cluster-shaped patterns at varying depths. If one landmine is lifted, the others will detonate.

Problems of Clearing Landmines
To remove 17.5 million mines planted in the Western Desert is not an easy task. In addition to the problem of technology and financial support, there is a host of other problems and obstacles that face Egypt in the pursuit of clearing landmines. These can summed up in the following:
a- The presence of various types of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines that were laid by forces of the Allies and Axis forces in Egypt's Western Desert during the World War II.
b- Moving sand dunes and climatic changes over half a century have resulted in moving landmines from their original places.
c- The absence of accurate maps or information about the areas in which they are planted. Furthermore, some countries responsible of planting mines are deliberately hiding these maps. In view of the change of mine locations due to climatic and physical factors, existing maps for these areas are rendered useless.
d- Absence of paved roads leading to the mined areas.
e- The high financial costs needed to remove mines. For example, the el-Alamain fields alone need more than 20 billion dollars to demine 17.5 million mines. While it costs no more than 10 dollars to plant a landmine, it costs from 300 to 1000 Dollar to demine it.
g- Egypt is not listed in the international work plan to combat landmines although landmines planted in Egypt represent 20% of total landmines around the world.

Demining Efforts in Egypt
During the last decades, Egypt exerted sustained efforts to address the problem of land mines implanted in its territory. However, it is very costly to execute a comprehensive plan for demining as it surpasses Egypt's capabilities. Yet Egypt took serious steps to solve this problem, which include:
a- In 1996 at the Geneva Disarmament Conference, Egypt called on countries that had planted landmines in its territory to assume responsibility for clearing them, and to help Egypt with the maps necessary for the demining process.
b- At the meetings of the UN, and at all related occasions, Egypt calls upon the countries that had planted land mines in its territory to provide the maps, records and locations of minefields.
c- The successive symposia about the problem of mines, organized by the armed forces and some concerned bodies and organizations representatives from the whole world are especially countries of the former Allies and Axis to be aware of the gravity of the problem in Egypt. The government has also publicized the problem and published a book entitled “The Iron Killers”, to attract attention to this serious problem.

The Role of the Armed Forces in Demining
The most remarkable national effort recently exerted by Egypt in the process of demining is the role of the Armed Forces from 1973 to 1995. They cleared a vast area of lands reaching to 103,000 hectars; mostly in the Eastern Desert and Sinai. They removed about 11 million mines bringing down the number of planted land mines in Egypt from 34 million to 23 million mines. Mined areas fell to 288,000 hectars from 401,000 hectars. In a later phase, from 1995 up till now, the Armed Forces removed about 1.2 million mines. Thus the number of mines in Egypt fell from 23 million to 21.8 million mines and mined areas from 288,000 hectars to 284,000 hectars.

A Diplomatic Campaign
The efforts of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry during the previous period as its efforts and communications have resulted in tangible progress in the course of work for ending the problem. By the end of the eighties, the Foreign Ministry began to pay attention to the mines issue. At that time the UN had shown an international concern about the issue. The Foreign Ministry succeeded in getting the world community to accept the estimation of the number of mines in Egypt.
The Foreign Ministry sought to confirm the Egyptian right to remove these mines by those countries responsible for such issue and to pay compensation.

The Foreign Ministry succeeded in its sustained campaign for solving the problem to make people aware of gravity of the problem on the local and international level. Egypt emphasizes that planting these mines was not a result of a civil war or an armed struggle but due to military operations during the World War II at a certain time and a certain place by certain countries. Egypt was not, by any means, engaged in that war. In spite of the efforts exerted by the Foreign Ministry with the concerned parties which resulted in some technical and financial contribution by Britain, Australia, Germany and the European Union towards that objective, yet, these contributions are still inadequate compared with the high-cost of removing the mines. The matter requires the cooperation of the international community as a whole to confront this issue not in Egypt alone but in all countries afflicted by this damaging weapon.

International Responsibility
The role of the international community in clearing mines is a pivotal role especially in relation to international finance and technical aid. Because of the size of the problem in Egypt international assistance is vital. We have to keep in mind that mines of the Western Desert were planted totally during World War II and for which Egypt was not at all responsible.
The countries which planted mines in Egypt should shoulder the responsibility and contribute to the cost for clearing these mines. However, there exist a number of difficulties and complexities concerning the international role.

In spite of the Egyptian diplomatic efforts in this respect, the international response has been inadequate and is below expectations. Germany refused to cooperate with Egypt for fear that such a commitment on its part will encourage other countries to establish a similar claim. Italy, an Axis power during the war limited its assistance to training Egyptians in mine removal.
The UN on the other hand has acknowledged the statistics presented by Egypt concerning the number of mines on its territory but has not considered the problem as urgent.

Thus, the question posed now is how can we activate the international role? Several approaches can be adopted but the most immediate task is to confirm the responsibility of responsible countries to clear these mines. Attempts should be made to convince these countries to accept their responsibility under international law.