Over six million landmines riddle Bosnia and Croatia. Most are in unmapped fields and paths, others are laid in homes abandoned by Serbs in the suburbs. A woman stepped on a mine in the neighboring town of Grbavica during our stay in Sarajevo. She lost her leg. She was going out to her garden.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Mine Action Center, over 100 people per month are victims of landmines in Bosnia. Many set off the deadly weapons by merely stepping into their former homes that were abandoned by Serbs and booby-trapped.

Landmines are the weapons of cowards. They can lie dormant for decades after they are laid and cannot tell the difference between the footfall of a child or that of a soldier. Or the step of a Muslim, a Croat, a Serb, or an American walking around for a day. They are designed to maim and inflict such grotesque injuries that most surgeons do not have the experience to treat victims. Mines will impede the repatriation of refugees. More funds are desperately needed for mine clearance --most mines in the ground in Bosnia and Croatia are undetectable because they were constructed of wood and plastic; for mine awareness programs; and for rehabilitation facilities for victims. Mines cause complicated physical and psychological problems. Prosthetics must be refitted, infections must be treated, and victims who can no longer work need alternative means of support. Mines affect entire families and communities. They will plague the reconstruction of Bosnia unless they are given more attention by the international community.