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U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines Email Newsletter In this edition. . .
Action Alert for World Cup: A Goal for All! In celebration of the World Cup soccer events in Japan and Korea, the Japan and Korean Campaigns to Ban Landmines have organized "A Goal for All!" Citizens (that's you!) are asked to write a peace message or draw an illustration to show solidarity with landmine survivors and to call for the whole world to ban antipersonnel mines. The campaign will draw worldwide attention to the issue. Collected postcards will be displayed in June at the NGO booth near Yokohama Arena in Tokyo, Japan, where the final game will be held. The deadline is July 12, 2002. Peace messages, postcards, and illustrations can be posted to: Japan Campaign to Ban Landmines
(JCBL) Participants will be entered into a drawing and 20 lucky people will be rewarded with a Japan Campaign to Ban Landmines poster or T-shirt. For a copy of the campaign postcard and additional details please visit http://www.jca.apc.org/~banmines/cover-e.html or contact: Japan Campaign to Ban Landmines at banmines@jca.apc.org Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines at kcbl@netian.com U.S. and Russia May Face Anti-Mine Pressure from G8 Only two G8 countries are not States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty --Russia and the U.S.A., and they may face peer pressure to reject mine use and commit to the global ban at the Group summit in Kananaskis, Canada on 26 and 27 June. International Campaign to Ban Landmines members, including representatives from the U.S., have recently approached leaders in the six G8 countries that are party to the Mine Ban Treaty (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom), urging them to promote a comprehensive ban on antipersonnel landmines with the two non-signatories. Activists have also lobbied the European Commission, which will be represented at the Summit. It is hoped that the mine issue will form part of the group's discussions since, as the ICBL argues, eradicating the scourge of landmines is intertwined with the G8's goal of strengthening economic growth and fighting terrorism. The USCBL has also urged G8 member countries to raise the dangerous direction in which it appears new U.S. landmine policies are headed with the U.S. government at bilateral meetings. For more information, visit http://www.icbl.org/cgi-bin/clickcount.cgi?url=http://www.icbl.org/news/2002 /187.php Over a Million Mines and Bombs Cleared by Halo Trust June 19, 2002 Excerpted from BusinessWire The HALO Trust, the world's largest non-profit mine-clearing organization, today announced that it has cleared over 1,000,000 landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). "I've seen first-hand the effect these unexploded devices have on people's lives," says Paul Heslop, Vice President, HALO USA. "It goes beyond the horrific loss of life and limbs of innocent people. When a farmer can't plow his field, a child can't play in a schoolyard, or emergency medical personnel can't travel roads to those in need of assistance, there is a psychological and economic impact that leads to banditry, terrorism and ultimately a failed state." "We started by clearing 20 mines per month in Afghanistan," continued Mr. Heslop. "We are now destroying over 20 every hour in that country. Even so, without an increase in assistance, mines will continue to kill and maim the poorest people on the planet for the next 20 years." Among the supporters of HALO is the U.S. government from which the organization receives $7 million - over 20% of its annual revenues. Other governments, the European Commission, the United Nations, and an increasing number of individual donors, many of whom are Americans, are also rallying to support HALO. The organization welcomes support in various forms, including critical pro bono services such as those being provided by the global law firm of Shearman & Sterling. The HALO Trust is based in London and is the world's largest and most experienced mine clearance organization. It currently employs over 4,500 people, the vast majority of whom are recruited locally. They work in cooperation with the United Nations (UNICEF, UNHRC, UNDP, WHO), and many other aid agencies including Doctors Without Borders, Concern, Save the Children and the International Red Cross. HALO conducts education programs in addition to mine clearance in all of the countries in which it operates. It is a neutral, non-political, non-religious organization. For more information, visit www.halotrust.org. Kashmir's Wheat Fields Turned into a Basket Of Mines CHANDUCHAK, India, June 11, 2002 By Jay Shankar of AFP/Space Daily A Kashmiri refugee Abdul Raheem shows his artificial leg in front of a makeshift camp near the town of Garhi Dopatta, 25 kilometers south of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir capital city Muzaffarabed, 30 December 2001. Raheem lost his leg in land mine blast at the Line of Control, de facto border between Pakistan and India. Refugees in this dusty camp alongside the Jhelum river are anxiously following the latest flare-up in the decades-old dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. Shelling in 1998 forced them to flee their homes along the border for this shabby tent village. At the last Indian village along the international border with Pakistan, school teacher Joginder Singh treads warily along a road lined either side with barbed wire fences and red warning triangles. Sprawling wheatfields lie behind the fences -- but far from offering villagers the staff of life, the fields are death traps. For Full Story: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-india-pakistan-02w2.html
Sri
Lankan Refugees Return Home to Landmines Refugees from Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula are looking forward to working their land once again after almost two decades of ethnic war. With the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam working toward peace talks sometime this month or in July the risks of war are diminishing, paving the way for more than a million refugees who fled the fighting to return to the north and east of the country. But while hostilities may have stopped -- a cease-fire was declared in February - it could be years before the countryside that once yielded rice and other crops is free of land mines. About 64,000 people have died in the war that began in 1983 and some 1.3 million of the country's 19 million population have been displaced. During the conflict the 750,000 population in the Jaffna peninsula, the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers during much of the fighting, was cut in half because of casualties and people fleeing. The Jaffna center of a charity organization that provides artificial limbs sees about 40 victims each month and the number is rising after the recent opening of roads closed during the war, said Nagalingam Sivanathan, an official at the center. Demining dogs, trained to use their highly sensitive sense of smell to detect a mine, strain at their leashes and pull ahead in a straight line until the handler calls a stop. If the dog smells a mine, it is trained to sit down. The work of the dogs and deminers is painstaking, clearing areas 10 feet by 10 feet at a time; it is deliberate and demands high levels of concentration. But there are times when the quiet work is interrupted with a bang. The field, where the only sound is of a strong wind blowing from a nearby lagoon, is suddenly alive as a hundred birds are startled by a carefully conducted detonation. Huge mounds of soil are thrown up in the air, villagers peep out of their homes and for a few moments Sarasali is reminded of its days of war. 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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