Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2014, the Monitor identified 233 casualties from mines/ERW including victim-activated IEDs in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Among 158 recorded civilian casualties, there were at least 45 children (22 boys and 11 girls)[1] and 22 women. The vast majority of casualties were civilians, at 68%. Security forces represented 32% of the total, with 75 recorded casualties. The 2014 figures were calculated from the database of Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO), which included at least 450 media reports of casualties of mines/ERW and IEDs in Pakistan for 2014; the difference in the total reported is due to the variation in media descriptions of the types of explosive devices used and the Monitor’s mandate to report casualties of mines/ERW and victim-activated IEDs.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK, formerly North-West Frontier Province), the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and Balochistan continued to have the highest numbers of mine/ERW casualties in Pakistan; the combined annual totals for these areas accounted for more than 93% of all mine/ERW casualties in Pakistan in 2014.[2]

The 2014 casualty total represented an increase from the 219 mine/ERW casualties recorded in 2013 and still a very significant drop in the total number of annual casualties from the 569 mine/ERW casualties identified in 2011. However, given the considerable variation in the availability of annual casualty data over time, it is not possible to be certain of the extent to which changes in recorded casualties are indicative of actual trends versus shifts in media coverage and use of terminology.[3]

The number of annual casualties caused by antivehicle mines reported in 2014 (67) represents a significant decrease compared to 2013 (119) and 2012 (100). However, antivehicle mine incidents continued to cause more than a quarter of of recorded casualties (29%) in 2014. The 2014 decrease in antivehicle mine casualties continued the trend since 2011. The number and ratio of antivehicle mine casualties in 2011 were the highest since Monitor reporting of the differentiation between mine types began in 2006 (249).

The proportion of total mine/ERW casualties reported to have been caused by victim-activated IEDs (81 or 35%) continued to be significantly lower than recorded in 2010, when victim-activated IEDs caused more than half of all casualties. Prior to 2010, the ratio had been increasing since at least 2007.[4] In 2014, a number of child casualties were caused by victim-activated IEDs that resembled toys.

Due to the lack of official data or a comprehensive data-collection mechanism, the total number of casualties in Pakistan is not known. In its transparency reporting for 2014, Pakistan reiterated, as it had in previous years, that there had been no ERW casualties.[5] However, between 1999 and 2014 the Monitor identified at least 4,050 (1,531 killed; 2,426 injured; 93 unknown) from landmines, victim-activated IEDs, and ERW.[6] It is likely that the total number of casualties is much higher. Pakistan reported 2,465 “IED attacks” in 2014, “including” antipersonnel mines and antivehicle mines; of these attacks, 1,186 or 49% were said to have caused casualties. Pakistan officially reported that “No Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) exist in Pakistan.”[7]

Victim Assistance

The Monitor has identified 2,426 mine/ERW survivors in Pakistan since 1999.

Victim assistance in 2014

Access to services remains a challenge for most people with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, particularly those from rural areas. In particular, in FATA, KPK, and Balochistan, access to services, particularly medical care, continued to be restricted due to violence, government restrictions on access, and by security concerns arising from continued attacks on humanitarian and health workers that limited the ability of aid organizations to provide assistance.[8] Due to government reservations, restrictions on its operations, and significant security concerns marked by the kidnapping and murder of a staff member, the ICRC decreased most of its activities significantly in May 2012.[9] In 2013, the organization looked to consolidate its physical rehabilitation project.[10] By the end of 2014, discussions with the government to expand the scope of activities of the ICRC in Pakistan had not resulted in any agreement.[11]

Assessing victim assistance needs

National NGOs including SPADO collected information on casualties and survivors as part of their broader program activities. In 2012 and 2013, SPADO reported that a combination of decreased funding, the security situation, and restrictions on its activities in FATA and KPK reduced its information gathering activities to media monitoring for new mine/ERW casualties.[12] In 2014, the ICRC reported that plans for a data gathering network for victims of weapons contamination were cancelled due to government reservations.[13]

Victim assistance coordination

Pakistan reported that the Military Operations Directorate of the Pakistan Army was the focal point for victim assistance, but also asserted that there were no casualties. Public reports did not indicate if the Military Operations Directorate was responsible for both military and civilian survivors.[14] Pakistan has also reported that a “procedure/program” for victims of IEDs is in place through individual rehabilitation programs including emergency and ongoing medical care, physical rehabilitation at army medical units and hospitals, and economic reintegration through monetary compensation and employment. However, it was not reported if civilians could access these services.[15] Monitor researchers were told that civilians with war injuries could also access services and that the Military Operations Directorate has responsibility for them as well.[16] It was reported that opportunities to liaise with national authorities and other stakeholders on a data collection network and legal frameworks comprehensively addressing the issue of weapon contamination remained limited, given the prevailing political and security sensitivities.[17] In 2014, the ICRC, the CHAL Foundation and the Indus Hospital agreed to collaborate on physical rehabilitation including setting up two new rehabilitation centers.[18]

Several ministries were involved in disability issues, including the Ministry of Health and the Capital Administration and Development Division.[19] Responsibility for inclusive education, social welfare, and the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities was passed to the provincial level after the dissolution of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education in April 2011.[20] Pakistan has a National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2002–2025).

Pakistan did not provide updates on victim assistance services (including rehabilitation programs) or on coordination in its most recent Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V Article 10 report and CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report.[21]

Survivor participation and inclusion

No information was available about the inclusion of mine/ERW survivors in coordination, implementation, or monitoring of strategies that are relevant to them.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[22]

Emergency and continuing medical care

Local hospitals were inadequately equipped and staffed to respond to the needs of survivors, lacking specialized medical, surgical, and first aid facilities for affected areas.[23] People living in remote areas and those displaced or directly affected by conflict suffer from a critical lack of medical services.[24]

Despite existing needs, ICRC activities to improve the availability and quality of services throughout the casualty care chain in 2014 were heavily restricted. After no headway was made in talks to reopen the ICRC field surgical hospital in Peshawar, the facility was officially closed and dismantled in 2014 with equipment distributed to other facilities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.[25] The Pakistan Red Crescent Society received material and financial support from the ICRC to strengthen its basic health units and mobile health unit, where treatment and care were provided to respond to the needs of the population in Balochistan, FATA and KPK.[26]

MSF noted that health services in Pakistan were often not affordable. In many regions, insecurity further restricted access to services. In KPK, near the Pakistan-Afghan border, MSF teams managed the emergency and surgical services of the Hangu Tehsil Headquarters hospital, run since 2012 by the Ministry of Health. MSF teams also supported trauma care in Timurgara, KPK. Populations affected by conflict, including Afghan refugees, often sought medical assistance in the district hospital of Chaman, Balochistan province, also operated by MSF.[27]

Physical rehabilitation including prosthetics

Access to rehabilitation services remains a challenge for most people with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas. Barriers to access services included transport, poverty, lack of awareness about services, cultural and physical barriers, illiteracy, and the security situation. In 2014, fewer mine/ERW survivors (508 or 21% of prosthetics beneficiaries in total) received prosthetics at ICRC-supported rehabilitation centers.[28] Overall, in 2014 almost 20,000 people received from physical rehabilitation services at ICRC-assisted centers.[29]

Rehabilitation services for military survivors of mines/IEDs and ERW were available through army hospitals. Complicated cases were referred to the Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.[30] The quality of prosthesis received was based on military rank rather than need.[31]

Social and economic inclusion

In 2014, the ICRC supported sporting events, as well as provided sports equipment to children with disabilities to promote inclusion of persons with physical disabilities receiving services within the network of assisted centers. The PCH also had a skills development program that included a mobile phone repair setup as well as sewing skills development, where ICRC donated manual sewing machines to the trainees who displayed a capacity to earn an income from tailoring and sewing after discharge.[32]

Pakistan had previously reported that IED survivors were provided with monetary compensation, employment, and commercial or agricultural property. No figures were provided on the number of survivors who received assistance, or on how many were civilian or military.[33] In January 2014, the provincial government of Balochistan passed a compensation law for civilian victims of terrorism and armed conflict. [34]

Few psychological support and economic inclusion programs were available in Pakistan.[35]

Pakistan established 127 special education centers in main cities. Employment quotas for persons with disabilities lacked adequate enforcement. Most persons with disabilities were supported by their families. The law provides for equality of the rights of persons with disabilities, but this was not fully implemented in practice.[36]

Pakistan ratified the CRPD on 5 July 2011.