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Campaign to Ban Landmines In this edition. . .
1)
Tiptoeing Around Landmines
REMEMBER the International Campaign to Ban Landmines? (It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.) Remember Princess Diana's visits to minefields in Bosnia and Angola? We do. As U.S. State Department officials during the peak of the global landmine crisis in the 1990s, we saw the human toll in Honduras and El Salvador, Somalia and Mozambique, Afghanistan and Cambodia. We also participated in the fierce debate within the U.S. government on whether to join the global ban on these hidden killers. It's been 10 years since the Ottawa Convention, the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. There has been great progress in the last decade, but the United States must make a new push to move the world into a post-landmine future. At least 38 countries have ceased production of landmines. Only a handful of countries remain active producers. A de facto global ban on landmine trade is in effect. Mine use has fallen. Almost 40 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed. A record amount of land was cleared last year, and a few countries have been declared mine-free. That's the good news. Unfortunately, tens of millions of landmines continue to be a daily threat and exact a terrible toll in more than 80 countries. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people are killed or disabled by these indiscriminate, inhumane weapons every year. One in every five of these victims is a child. A growing number of landmine survivors — half a million at last count — face getting new limbs and then getting on with their shattered lives. To read the full article, go to: 2) ICBL Urges Pakistan to Drop Plan to Lay Landmines on Afghan Border On 11 January 2007, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) wrote to Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, urging him to abandon immediately the proposal to lay landmines along its border with Afghanistan, announced in late December 2006. "Using antipersonnel mines is not the answer to a country’s legitimate security problems," said ICBL’s Executive Director Sylvie Brigot. "History has shown that the human cost of using these weapons is far greater than their military utility, as recognised by the overwhelming majority of the world’s nations." In the course of a joint press conference held by the Pakistani and Canadian governments in Islamabad on 9 January, authorities said they might reconsider their proposal after receiving assurances from Canada for technical assistance in monitoring and prevention of unwanted movement of people across the border. In its letter, the ICBL urged Pakistan to look for alternatives to address its security concerns without resorting to antipersonnel mines to avoid joining the ever-dwindling "club of shame" of antipersonnel mine users. The proposal for selective fencing and mining of the 2,430 km border was announced by Pakistani officials in late December as a measure to stem cross-border militant infiltrations. The announcement sparked immediate condemnation from civil society, led by ICBL member organizations, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghanistan, a State party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty has also rejected the proposal. Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said: "Fencing or mining the border is neither helpful nor practical. That's why we are against it. The border is not where the problem lies." Pakistan acknowledged in 2002 that "problems of landmines in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) near the Afghan border still persist to some extent." The contamination dates from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989), when mines were scattered by Soviet and Afghan forces from helicopters and mujahideen used mines to protect their bases in the tribal areas. "It is unbelievable," said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan who works for Mines Action Canada, "that the Pakistani authorities are planning to sow more mines in the very same areas where they say they still suffer from mines scattered by others." To read the entire statement, go to: http://www.icbl.org/news/pakistan_minelaying_plans . 3) U.S. Supports Southeast Asian, Balkan Mine Removal Projects By Jacquelyn S. Porth Vietnam was the most recent beneficiary of U.S. financial aid, receiving $1 million worth of advanced equipment to remove land mines and unexploded ordnance that have plagued the countryside there. Vietnam has been part of the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program for six years. During that time, the United States has provided $37 million to Vietnam to fund mine-risk education programs, assistance for mine victims, the purchase of mine removal equipment, as well as a survey of land areas with munitions left over from long past conflicts. The equipment being channeled to the Vietnamese Army Engineer Command’s Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal includes mine detectors, protective gear for mine removal personnel and medical trauma kits that would be used in treating any injuries occurring during mine clearance operations. The State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement said January 9 some of the U.S.-funded equipment also will be used by Vietnamese explosive ordnance disposal teams that are supporting an ongoing land mine impact survey in central Vietnam. The nongovernmental organization Veterans for America and the Vietnamese government are managing the multimillion dollar survey funded by the U.S. State Department. To read the full article, go to: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=January&x=20070111142155sjhtrop7.265872e-02 . 4) De-mining Official Expects South to be Clear of Cluster Bombs by Year's End The Daily Star TYRE: The last Israeli cluster bombs will be cleared from the South by the end of 2007, Dahlia Farran, the media officer for the Center for the Coordination of De-mining Works in Southern Lebanon (CCDSL), said Wednesday. Farran said the UN-demarcated Blue Line will be the only area containing cluster bombs or other unexploded ordnance. There are thought to be around 275,000 landmines along the border zone with Israel. One of the major difficulties of clearing cluster bombs, she said, is the fact that there are no maps marking the areas or land stretches sowed with cluster bombs and mines. "We have already sent an appeal to the United Nations urging them to press on Israel [the need] to provide us with cluster bomb maps, in addition to maps that reveal the location of slapdash landmines in the Deir Mimas region, yet we have not received any reply," Farran said. The de-mining center had already obtained maps on the location of landmines and other unexploded munitions predating the 2006 summer war with Israel, she added. Farran said there were 829 sites infested with cluster bombs and other unexploded munitions in South Lebanon. To read the full article, go to: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78428 5) New Request for Applications for Grants to Advance Humanitarian Mine Action and Stem Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons Trafficking Media Note The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has issued its fourth "Request for Applications" for Federal grants for projects to reduce the humanitarian impact of persistent landmines and stop the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons, including man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). Grant applications will be accepted from non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and international organizations. A total of approximately $1.5 million dollars has been allocated for this initiative. The six project categories being considered for grant applications are:
Depending on the quality of the proposals and changes in programming assumptions, the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement reserves the right to make no awards. Applications must be submitted via the www.grants.gov website where information on the application review, grant award process, obtaining a DUNS number, registry in the Central Contractor Registration database, how to develop and submit a grant application, suggested grant formats, and mandatory application forms can be found. This particular Request for Applications is posted at http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?oppId=12162&mode=VIEW . The deadline for submissions is February 16, 2007. 6) California Student Group Rallies to Support LSN Landmine Survivors Network On the morning of November 28, 2006, you could hear a pin drop as Dr. Ken Rutherford, Ph.D. — co-founder of Landmine Survivors Network — spoke to over 2,000 students and described the day that changed his life forever. In 1993, he was working for the International Rescue Committee in Somalia. His jeep slowed down to avoid a donkey and hit a landmine. He lost both of his legs in the incident and since that time has traveled the world promoting a landmine ban and raising awareness of the tremendous suffering caused by these weapons. In his talk, he told the students how landmines have killed more people than chemical, nuclear and biological weapons combined. Ninety percent of landmine victims are civilians and many are children. Most of them die. Rutherford stressed that landmines are weapons designed to take off body parts, but keep the enemy alive. There were artificial landmines scattered in the school plaza, and the gymnasium was covered with dozens of colorful signs with statistics about landmines such as: "More than 30 different types of antipersonnel mines exist" and "Landmines can remain active for 50 years. Ones from WWII are still a threat." The events were sponsored by Club Anthro, a global awareness student group at Corona del Mar High School. Rutherford was introduced by Zan Margolis, a Corona del Mar high-school senior, who co-founded Club Anthro with Amanda Knuppel. Margolis spearheaded the day of activities that raised awareness about the danger of landmines and the power of survivorship. In addition, Club Anthro (in conjunction with Mozambique restaurant in Laguna Beach, Calif.), raised over $10,000 at a benefit for Landmine Survivors Network. To read the full article, go to: http://www.landminesurvivors.org/news_feature.php?id=113 . For more information on the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, go to www.banminesusa.org U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines To make a donation to the US Campaign to Ban Landmines go to: www.banminesusa.org/support/body.html and click on Donate. |
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