Lawyers call for demining as two more children killed by landmines in Şırnak

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Two children in the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak were killed on Sunday (March 21) after stepping on landmines.

Yusuf Ata (14) and Caner Sak (16) were pasturing animals in Yekmal Hamlet near Yemişli village in Uludere district, according to the Governor's Office of Şırnak.

The children were severely wounded in the explosion and referred to the Şırnak State Hospital by a helicopter but could not be saved, says the statement.

The two children were laid to rest side-by-side yesterday (March 22).

Uludere Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into the incident.

Killings by unexploded ordnance and landmines are a common occurrence in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeastern and eastern regions of the country, where a low-intensity conflict has been going on for nearly four decades.

In a symbolic case, a court on March 8 found the Ministry of Interior culpable for the 2009 killing of Ceylan Önkol by unexploded ordnance in Diyarbakır.

The Children's Rights Center of the Diyarbakır Bar Association today released a statement on the incident, calling on the government to comply with the Ottawa Treaty, or formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

"Around these lands, which fall into living spaces, children shouldn't be expected to behave as responsibly as adults around," said the bar. "Because the obligations arising from the contract have not been fulfilled, the right to life of two children was violated." (AÖ/VK)