To mark the International Day for Landmine Awareness, Colombians took part in symbolic acts to commemorate the country’s some 9,000 victims, Caracol Radio reported Monday.
The campaign was disseminated through social media networks through which people were invited to roll up one pant leg as a reminder of the plague of landmines, which take a Colombian life every other day.
In Bogota’s Plaza Simon Bolivar there was an installation constructed with 9,133 shoes, each one with a name and department of a victim of antipersonnel mines written on it, according to statistics from the Presidential Program for Comprehensive Action Against Antipersonnel Mines.
Of the 9,133 landmine victims represented in the structure, 870 are minors.
Colombia is second only to Afghanistan in counting victims of landmines. In 2010, there were 512 victims, and so far in 2011, there have been 72, according to Colombia’s Vice President Angelino Garzon.
Colombia will work “to advance a public policy to allow full reintegration of the victims of this scourge back into the productive and social life of this country, guaranteeing their fundamental rights,” Colombia’s Ombudsman Volmar Perez said to W Radio.