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U.S. Campaign to Ban
Landmines Email Newsletter In this edition. . .
Visit our new and improved website: www.banminesusa.org. We have streamlined it to make it more user-friendly for you. In particular, check out the Mines and the Military category within the About the Issue section (top left) and the Get Involved section (top center) or the Resources section (top right) where you can now download the Toolkit for Action for free! Campaign Gets Two More Op Eds Published Recently, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) and the Oregonian (Portland, OR) published Op Eds that we submitted calling on the US to ban antipersonnel landmines. As far as we understand, the US military has not used AP mines in Iraq or Afghanistan. Whether because of public pressure, international pressure, humanitarian concerns, or lack of military utility, this is an important victory. The biggest beneficiaries are Iraqi civilians. US troops, future peacekeepers and deminers, and global efforts to eradicate this indiscriminate weapon will also reap the rewards. To learn more and read these Op Eds, visit www.banminesusa.org/news/965_news.htm Heather Mills McCartney Urges
Russia to Ban Landmines HEATHER Mills, the wife of Sir Paul McCartney, believes she may have persuaded the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to reconsider his country's policy towards landmines. The former model turned anti-landmines campaigner used her husband's recent trip to Moscow to lobby Mr Putin on behalf of her charity. She said she now felt "incredibly optimistic" that she had achieved a "tremendous breakthrough" during her 40-minute meeting with the Russian leader. Sir Paul and Ms Mills met Mr Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday, ahead of the former Beatle's historic concert in Red Square. Revealing details of their encounter, Ms Mills said: "I asked President Putin to take the lead, as the world's second largest manufacturer of landmines, to stop their production and use now rather than wait for some of the world's other superpowers to acquiesce. I pointed out the inhumane nature of these weapons and asked him if there wasn't another way to satisfy the needs of his military. President Putin's compassion was obvious and his statements firm. This makes me incredibly optimistic for our future. This could be a tremendous breakthrough for us in ridding the world of landmines." Mr Putin has pledged to set up meetings between Ms Mills and the Russian defence minister to discuss the issue further, she said. Ms Mills, who lost a leg in a road accident ten years ago, is the patron of the charity Adopt-A-Minefield, which is dedicated to clearing mines and rehabilitating victims. Copyright (c) 2003 The Scotsman. Marine from Maine Loses
Part of Foot from Landmine in Iraq Marine Receives Hero's Welcome The 21-year-old South Portland native lost two toes on his left
foot and broke his right foot in the April 1 incident and has been
undergoing medical treatment in Greenville, N.C. . . McCue was among the Camp Lejeune, N.C., infantrymen who marched into Nasiriyah through blinding sandstorms and put out word that they would be accepting prisoners of war. The next day, McCue was taking his turn handling those who chose to surrender. As he and another Marine headed back toward the building where his unit was holed up, a land mine exploded under his feet. He was awarded a Purple Heart. . . Bosnian Mother of Six Swaps Apron
for Demining Gear It is difficult to be a single mother of six in this impoverished, war-ravaged Balkans country. Maybe more difficult than being a mine clearance worker. 40-year-old Davorka Vrgoc is both. After splitting with her husband, faced with a seriously ill daughter, no job and no social support in sight Vrgoc decided to join a two-month demining course five years ago just because she would be paid to attend. She soon got a job with Vilakol, a Bosnian mine clearance company, and planned to work there for only a month. Five years on, she is still in demining gear, receiving 800 euros (940 dollars) for a month spent in a minefield. "I am not afraid to be a deminer. I never think about the possibility of being killed," Vrgoc said after a six-hour shift in a remote pocket outside Bratunac in eastern Bosnia. "For me, the fear of all fears is not to have anything to eat, the situation I have experienced on several occasions," she said, adding that she often repeats this argument to her children, who are very upset with what their mom does for living. Vrgoc spends some six months a year away from home in the southern town of Livno, clearing minefields left over from the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. Her mother takes care of the four girls and two boys aged from 8 to 19, while Davorka is away on the hazardous job which has taken her all over the country and to Macedonia. Vrgoc's camouflage trousers and muddy boots are in sharp contrast to her light make-up and dyed reddish hair. Her 13-year-old daugther had a tumor and the expenses of a medical treatment are hardly affordable although Vrgoc receives four times the average Bosnian salary. . . With a heavy helmet and a flak jacket down to her knees on, Davorka operates a metal detector carefully prodding a demining stick into the ground. "It takes time, you have to prick at every 2.5 centimeters (inch) to make sure the area is clean," she explained. Seven years after the war ended there are still more than 1.3 million mines and unexploded bombs at several thousand locations throughout Bosnia. Nearly 500 civilians have lost their lives in accidental mine explosions in the post-war period. . . "I feel free and safe in a minefield. It seems that it is the only place where my principles do not upset anyone," Vrgoc said with a wry smile, revealing her hopes of a future "somewhere far away from the Balkans." For more information about the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines or to donate on-line, please visit www.banminesusa.org |
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