Limb fitting centre Herat, Afghanistan. The Soviets planted and dropped from the air over two million mines into the soil of Afghanistan. Long after the Russians have gone, landmines still claim tens of victims a week all over the country. Especially children who play with the mines. The Russians also dropped tens of thousands of so called butterfly mines from their aircraft. Named ‘butterfly’ because they looked like butterflies to children. This loathsome piece of ordinance was not designed to kill but to maim most terribly its victim. The thought process being that if a combatant where to tread on or pick up the thing and blow his hand or leg off it would then tie up the fighting capabilities of two other fighters to look after him. Unfortunately, after the war children are still picking up these horrific mines in their hundreds. Agencies like The United Nations Children’s agency UNICEF and The Halo Trust have comprehensive mine awareness campaigns that go some way to helping the problem. But in the rural areas the crisis is still huge.

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