🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <23AUG199207420111@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) writes:
>Apparently mines are being laid on the surface nowadays. A photo
>in the NY Times Friday, credited to "Brogi/Contrasto/Saba"
>is captioned 
>
>  "United Nations forces clearing mines last week in the town
>   of Banja Luka, Bosnia."
>
>It shows seven mines resting on a street, arrayed in a circle about
>15 feet in diameter. A soldier has picked up one mine. Another
>soldier is bending down to pick up another. The mines have 
>convenient handles for carrying.
>
>This is in accord with a story I saw last week about a the driver
>in a relief supply vehicle who, at a checkpoint, asked the
>soldiers to "clear the mines" so he could proceed, and
>they obliged.
>
>As far as I can tell, mines are not placed with signs next to
>them that say, for example, "This is a mine."

Er, this might be explained by the large number of snipers
in the region.  Clearly, the road is paved, so planting mines
in the ground would be somewhat problematic.  If the mines
are clearly visible, as they have to be on this kind of road,
the truck drivers/guards would have to get out and move them
before the convoy can proceed.  If there are snipers in the
region, these drivers/guards would be vulnerable when they are
using the ever convenient carrying handles.

Snipers may be less likely to fire on UN soldiers.

--
But this is.