| U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines In this edition. . .
ICBL:
Progress on Mine Clearance and Stockpile Destruction Cited at Global
Meeting December 2, 2005 Zagreb, Croatia - "In the first year since the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, encouraging progress has been made in terms of destroying stockpiled mines, clearing mined land, and assisting victims," said Steve Goose, Head of Delegation of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). "We have also seen positive movement towards the Mine Ban Treaty by States yet to join." Over 600 delegates, representing governments, civil society and international organizations from more than 115 countries, converged in the Croatian capital of Zagreb for the 6th annual global meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. This was the first opportunity for the world's mine action community to assess whether any real progress has been made on the 70-point, five-year Action Plan agreed to during the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, the first Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in November 2004. Key announcements at the meeting included: Guatemala completing mine clearance; Algeria and Guinea-Bissau completing stockpile destruction; Nigeria destroying mines previously retained for training; and Australia pledging $75 million Australian dollars for mine action over five years. At the opening of the meeting, the ICBL, represented by over 180 delegates from 63 countries, clearly stated its expectations for outcomes. Expectations and assessment of outcomes included: Countries remaining outside the Mine Ban Treaty would report significant progress towards their membership to the Treaty To read the full release, go to: http://www.icbl.org/news/final_press_release Further reading on the 6th Meeting of States Parties to
the Mine Ban Treaty: Statement by Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Co-Laureate: http://www.icbl.org/news/williams_6msp_statement Statement of the Department of State on the Zagreb meeting: http://usinfo.state.gov/eur/Archive/2005/Nov/29-707807.html By Kim Housego BOGOTA - The number of reported land mine casualties worldwide declined for the sixth year in a row, but efforts to treat victims remain grossly inadequate, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in a report Tuesday. At least 6,521 people were killed or maimed by land mine blasts last year, compared with 8,065 in 2003, the group said in its annual Landmine Monitor report, which was released during a conference in Medellin, Colombia's second-biggest city. The actual casualty figures, however, could be as high as 20,000 since many cases go unreported, said Kathleen Maes of Handicap International, a victims' group that helped produce the report. The vast majority of casualties were civilians, and one-fifth were children, the report said. ''There are still far too many innocent civilians, including children, killed and maimed by land mines every year in every region of the world,'' Maes said at the conference, held to discuss improving global assistance to victims. To read the full article, go to: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13237908.htm Old Enemy Renders Significant Portion of Iraq "Uninhabitable" Washington, D.C., December 5, 2005 -- One in five communities in northern and southern Iraq are endangered by landmines and other unexploded ordnance, according to the latest update from the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) conducted by the U.S.-based NGO Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), an international humanitarian organization that addresses on the causes, conduct and consequences of war through programs of advocacy and service to victims of conflict. More than 10,000 communities in Iraq were visited for this survey. "It comes as a surprise to no one that after decades of internal and international conflict, Iraq is littered with landmines and bombs," said VVAF Vice President Joe Donahue. "The present conflict notwithstanding, Iraq has no hope of healing and recovering its economic footing without prompt attention to this problem by the rest of the world." VVAF's LIS surveys are unique in a number of ways. In addition to using cutting-edge landmine mapping technology, survey staff hold town meetings, as well as smaller group meetings, in communities where local residents have learned to live amongst landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO). Residents are asked to draw maps of landmine locations, which are then used in combination with data from survey forms specially designed to allow for rapid data analysis. Maps of landmine and UXO locations are plotted digitally with coordinates using topographic maps and GPS coordinates as resources. To read the full release, go to: http://www.vvaf.org/newsroom/2005/old-enemy-renders.html Junkyard Dogs of War
At a sprawling, run-down industrial complex in Donetsk, Ukraine, weeds grow along a rusty rail spur that winds among World War II-era warehouses and factories. Little security is evident, and the facility looks like a giant junkyard. In a way, it is -- except the "junk" consists of thousands of tons of live military munitions. When we went there last summer, we saw mortar rounds, land mines and artillery shells of all sizes stacked in huge piles and strewn carelessly about. Sold on the black market, these conventional weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists or militant extremists anywhere in the world. Donetsk is only one of several ill-secured stockpiles of conventional weapons in Ukraine, a major dumping ground for weapons, and there are perhaps scores more in dozens of countries around the world. These vast numbers of unused conventional weapons, particularly shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles that can hit civilian airliners, pose a major security risk to America and democracies everywhere. That's why we have introduced legislation to seek out and destroy surplus and unguarded stocks of conventional arms in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Our bill would launch a major nonproliferation initiative by addressing the growing threat from unsecured conventional weapons and by bolstering a key line of defense against weapons of mass destruction. Modeled after the successful Nunn-Lugar program to dismantle former Soviet nuclear weapons, the Lugar-Obama bill would seek to build cooperative relationships with willing countries. To read the full article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201509_pf.html For more information on the legislation recently introduced by Sens. Lugar and Obama, go to: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1620&issue_id=46 Chaos of land mine
provided clarity By Lynn Franey SPRINGFIELD - Ken Rutherford made a deal that December day in 1993 as he lay on the Somalian grassland, mangled from the explosion of a buried land mine. Keep me alive, God, and I'll begin my life anew, the 31-year-old thought. I'll leave the nomadic life of an international aid worker and become a professor, like my dad. I'll marry my fiancée, Kim, back home in America. We'll
have a family. And he kept his promises. Now he is a professor of international relations at Missouri State University, formerly Southwest Missouri State University, and he and Kim have four children. Rutherford has tapped his experiences to improve the lives of thousands of land mine victims around the world, has contributed to efforts to ban land mines and inspires his students to challenge themselves to achieve their dreams. All while navigating the world on prosthetic legs, his daily reminder of an explosion he now recalls with gratitude. It made his body incomplete. His life, however, was made complete. To read the full article, go to: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/13279939.htm 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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