3) Cluster Munitions: Governments to Discuss New Treaty

Human Rights Watch Press Release
Oslo Conference Plans to Limit Weapon Threatening Civilians

(Oslo, February 20, 2007) - Governments meeting in Oslo to launch a historic initiative to ban cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians should agree to conclude a new treaty by 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 40 countries are expected to attend the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions on February 22-23. "No conventional weapon poses greater danger to civilians today than cluster munitions," said Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. "Governments should act with an urgency that matches this threat and conclude a new treaty restricting cluster munitions by next year."

In November 2006, the Norwegian government announced that it would facilitate a process aimed at concluding a new international treaty to prohibit cluster munitions that have unacceptable humanitarian consequences. The Oslo conference will be the first meeting in the process, which comes after the failure of governments to agree to start negotiations on cluster munitions in the framework of the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Nongovernmental organizations - led by the Cluster Munition Coalition that Human Rights Watch helped found in 2003 and now co-chairs - are calling for governments to commit to concluding a new treaty by 2008, and to develop an action plan for getting there. The Cluster Munition Coalition and Norwegian People's Aid are hosting a Civil Society Forum on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on February 21. Representatives of more than 100 nongovernmental organizations from at least 30 countries, many of them veterans of the successful campaign to ban landmines, are expected to participate in the conference.

To read the full press release, go to: <http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/20/global15362.htm> .

4) When Learning Saves Lives: UNICEF Supports Mine-risk Education in South Lebanon

UNICEF
By Serene Aassir
February 12, 2007

HOUMINE AL-TAHTA, Lebanon, 12 February 2007 - Though he spoke shyly, Hassan, 9, knew very well what unexploded cluster munitions look like.

"Cluster bombs, they come in many shapes and sizes," said Hassan. "Sometimes, they're the size of tennis balls, and they can be black or grey. Some of them also come with a white ribbon attached," he added, standing before dozens of children as part of a UNICEF-supported education campaign on unexploded ordnance.

Almost six months after the ceasefire that ended the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, UNICEF warns that unexploded ordnance - including cluster bombs - remains one of the key threats affecting Lebanese children and their families.

The UN Mine Action Coordination Centre for South Lebanon estimates that there are approximately 1 million unexploded munitions left in the area, and it will take many more months - perhaps a year - to clear all of them. As of end of January, more than 200 people had been injured or killed by cluster bomb explosions since the ceasefire, including 70 children and youths under 18 years of age, 7 of whom died.

Working with Lebanon's National Demining Office and other partners, UNICEF has made educating and protecting children from unexploded munitions a top priority. Through awareness campaigns, they learn how to identify bombs and landmines, and what to do if they see one. Posters, banners, and TV and radio spots all help to spread the message among children: Don't approach, don't touch and report to the authorities.

To read the full article, go to: <http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/lebanon_38279.html> .

5) Pakistan: Agencies Urge Rethink on Border Landmines Plan

IRIN News
February 19, 2007

QUETTA, 19 February 2007 (IRIN) - Anti-landmine activists are concerned that a proposal, made in December by the Pakistani government, to mine its western border with Afghanistan will increase the landmine casualties and have called on the government to drop the plan. However, a military spokesman told IRIN the matter was still "under consideration".

"The government's position on laying landmines is a great source of concern," said Muhammad Imran Khan, deputy director of the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation - a Peshawar-based non-governmental organisation that serves as a focal point for the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in Pakistan.

Scores of Afghans and Pakistanis have fallen victim to anti-personnel mines laid along the border during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s.

Should the contentious plan go ahead, communities on both sides of the border will see many more victims, given significant population flows. According to Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, more than 14 million people cross the border annually.

Pakistan's decision followed international criticism that the country had failed to do enough to prevent alleged cross-border movements by Taliban insurgents to and from Afghanistan. Riaz Muhammad Khan, the Pakistani foreign secretary, defended the move, saying that "safe transit passages would be established along the fortified stretches of the more than 2,400km border, and mining should be done with great care in areas that require monitoring".

"We urge the government to drop the idea of mining and use alternative means to secure the borders and restrict cross-border militants' movement," Khan said.

To read the full article, go to: <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70250> .

6) Adopt-a-Minefield's Night of a Thousand Dinners 2007

Night of a Thousand Dinners is an opportunity for friends and families to join in the global community by hosting social, food related gatherings to raise funds to clear landmines and assist landmine survivors. What started out as a one-night event is now a month long series of events that take place between March 1, commemorating the day the United Nations' Mine Ban Treaty went into effect, and April 4, marked by the United Nations as the International Day for Landmine Awareness.

Night of a Thousand Dinners is an initiative of Adopt-A-Minefield (AAM), a campaign of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), in partnership with AAM Canada, AAM UK and AAM Sweden. To learn more about how to get involved, go to: <http://www.1000dinners.com/site/event.cfm> .

7) Mines to Vines

California Magazine
January/February 2007 Issue
by Erik Vance

Ana Paula gingerly crosses a field in southern Angola near her home in the central province of Huambo. She is starving, and across the field drapes a thick curtain of branches on a grove of mango trees, their swollen fruit hanging just within reach. Swollen herself at nine months pregnant, she carefully picks her footsteps, trying to feel for the small metal canisters that keep most of the hungry villagers away from these trees. She reaches toward the dangling fruit under the wide leaves. Seconds later, after as long as 30 years in concealment, the landmine she missed as she looked upward detonates.

Nine thousand miles away in Marin County, Heidi Kühn closes her eyes momentarily, as she often does for full effect, as she finishes telling the story. The 48-year-old is the founder of a nonprofit called Roots of Peace, which funds mine-removal efforts and runs education and development programs across Asia, Africa, and the Balkans. In her San Rafael office, Kühn exudes manicured "let's do lunch" suburban elegance, wearing a sassy pink low-cut blouse with frilly trim, dangly earrings, and stylish shoes. On the office walls, numerous photos show her in more formal attire with international political dignitaries. Though she is a fifth-generation Californian with Irish roots, her dark hair and strong features lead many to assume she is Eastern European or Middle Eastern.

Ana Paula survived the explosion, Kühn says, but gave birth to her child at the same time that doctors amputated her leg. She is one of an estimated 20,000 people every year maimed or killed by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). Although definite numbers are hard to find, some landmine experts have estimated that there are 60 million mines or 71,000 square miles of minefields around the world-enough to cover the entire state of Washington or to allow one explosive for every citizen of the United Kingdom. "When a seed is planted, with sunlight, water, and the human hand, it will grow. That's economic viability," Kühn says. "When a landmine is planted, it only creates a lethal harvest for generations to come."

To read the full article, go to: <http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/calmag/200701/vance.asp> .

8) Boy Hurt by Land Mine Heads Back to Iraq After AZ Healing

By Terry Tang
The Associated Press
January 24, 2007

PHOENIX - A walk to his grandfather's grave in Najaf, Iraq, almost cost Hussein Yasser his own life.

For the 11-year-old, the time between stepping on a land mine and waking up in a hospital is a blank. And he's relieved.

"I'm really happy that I don't remember anything," he said. "Some kid asked me a question one time. (I said) 'It was just an accident' and just walked away. I don't want to get into it."

Phoenix surgeons and specialists have helped Hussein move on from the 2003 land mine explosion that left him with a mangled body and almost no sight.

After 14 months of care, he will no longer have to live a life confined indoors. With his new prosthetic left forearm, an artificial right eye and a new lens on his left one, Hussein can read adventure books - large print versions - and even ride a razor scooter. He seems ready for his scheduled mid-February return to Najaf. Meanwhile, the community of Phoenix volunteers bonded by Hussein have been preparing to say goodbye to their prodigal son.

To read the full article, go to: <http://kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=5978679&amp;ClientType=Printable> .

For more information on the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, go to www.banminesusa.org

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
c/o Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 2nd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
phone: (202) 547-6000
fax: (202) 547-6019
Email: landmines@fcnl.org

To make a donation to the US Campaign to Ban Landmines go to: www.banminesusa.org/support/body.html and click on Donate.