Cyprus

Casualties

Last updated: 21 October 2018

The last reported casualty in the Republic of Cyprus was in 2015, when a farmer driving a tractor detonated a landmine and experienced shock, but did not incur serious physical injuries.[1] Prior to 2015, the last recorded mine or explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualty in Cyprus occurred in 2009, when a deminer was killed by an antivehicle mine in a clearance accident.[2]

Between 1999 and the end of 2016, the Monitor identified 10 mine/ERW casualties in Cyprus (two people were killed and eight injured).[3] Six casualties were civilians (four men, one woman, and one child) and the remaining four casualties were deminers. Among the civilian casualties, four were Iraqi migrants trying to cross the north-south border illegally, and two were farmers.[4]

Before 1999, at least four casualties were identified: three peacekeepers of the United Nations (UN) Force in Cyprus were killed by mines between 1974 and 1998, and a 37-year-old man was killed by a mine when he followed his dog into a minefield in the buffer zone in 1997.[5]

Cyprus ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2011.



[1]Landmine explodes under tractor in Mammari,” Cyprus Mail, 28 September 2015; “UN issues landmine hazard warning,” Cyprus Mail, 13 February 2015; and “Cypriot farmer drives over landmine,” Global Times, 29 September 2015.

[2] Email from Simon Porter, Programme Manager, UN Mine Action Centre in Cyprus, 13 April 2010.

[3] The Monitor identified nine casualties between 1999 and 2009: one casualty in 1999, one in 2004, six in 2008, and one in 2009. See previous Landmine Monitor reports on Cyprus available on the Monitor website.

[4] See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, October 2004).

[5] See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1999).