Kabul Accepts Treaty Banning Mines
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 28, 2002 (AP)
By Charles J. Hanley

The leaders of Afghanistan, probably the world's most land mine-afflicted country, announced Sunday they would join the five-year-old global treaty banning the weapons.

"Every Afghan woman, man and child will rest assured that no one in this country will ever again be targeted by antipersonnel land mines," Foreign Minister Abdullah, speaking with President Hamid Karzai by his side, said at the opening of an international conference on Afghanistan's scourge of mines.

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that 200,000 Afghans have been killed or wounded by mines in 23 years of war.

The recent anti-Taliban offensive heightened the dangers. Perhaps close to 2,000 U.S. bombs remain unexploded on the ground in Afghanistan, based on estimates by a U.N. mine-clearance specialist.

Afghanistan would become the 126th country to fully accept the Ottawa Convention, the 1997 treaty whose parties agree to ban the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of land mines. The United States, Russia and China are among the countries that have not signed; another 18 have signed but not ratified.

In addition to destroying the government's stocks of mines, all armed factions in Afghanistan will be urged to destroy theirs, Abdullah said.

Karzai's transitional government, successor to the Taliban regime ousted last December, has yet to disarm the warlord groups that emerged in two decades of war.

These local commanders "have to turn over their mines," Abdullah, who uses only one name, told reporters. If they don't, "then we will take more serious measures to ensure we are following the convention."

He said he expects the Afghan Cabinet to approve accession to the treaty on Monday. In the absence of an Afghan Parliament during an 18-month transition, Cabinet approval is all that's required for ratification, he said.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan, hailed the Afghan leaders' decision as a recognition that "a comprehensive mine management strategy is essential for the recovery of this country." Mines have made agricultural land inaccessible and some roads dangerous, and generally handicapped the economy.

Anti-mine activists said it was symbolically significant for a nation that has become almost synonymous with land mines to embrace the treaty. Some activists said it wasn't an easy move for the Karzai government, since almost all of Afghanistan's neighbors have not accepted the pact.

The Red Cross estimates land mines continue to kill or wound between 150 and 300 people each month in Afghanistan. Some 7,000 Afghans work as "de-miners," disabling mines across the country in a U.N.-overseen operation that will cost up to $60 million this year.

In addition, many of the thousands of missiles and bombs dropped by U.S. forces since Oct. 7 did not detonate and remain scattered around the countryside.

"An estimate of at least 10 percent is credible," Tammy Hall, external relations director of the U.N. Mine Action Program, said of the proportion of unexploded ordnance.

That would work out to 1,800 unexploded bombs, based on a figure of 18,000 bombs dropped, as reported last February by the war's top U.S. commander, Gen. Tommy Franks.

A spokesman for Franks' Central Command said the total of bombs dropped has not been updated since February. As for how many may remain unexploded on the ground, "we don't track that," said the spokesman, Gunnery Sgt. Charles A. Portman.

Mine-clearance specialists here are concerned particularly about unexploded antipersonnel cluster bomblets, more than 200 of which are scattered from each U.S. cluster bomb. The shape and small size of the bomblets can be dangerously attractive to children and unwary adults.

Fazel Karim, head of the Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines, said the U.S. military has directed mine-clearance organizations to some 250 locations across Afghanistan where cluster bombs were dropped.

"This new technology is unfamiliar and has created a lot of problems for de-miners and for the surrounding communities," Karim said.

The recent Afghan experience helped spur the ICBL this year to call for a ban on use of cluster bombs.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines News Release
(on USCBL letterhead)

News Release Embargoed Until Sunday, July 28, 2002
Web-site: www.banminesusa.org

AFGHAN GOVERNMENT MOVES TOWARDS BANNNING LANDMINES; WHITE HOUSE POSITION ON MINE BAN STILL UNKNOWN

Today, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will meet Mine Ban Treaty advocates that include former International Campaign to Ban Landmines Coordinator and 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Co-Recipient Jody Williams as well as Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan who serves as Patron and Honorary Chair of the Landmine Survivors Network. From July 28-31 an international meeting, "Building a Peaceful Future for Afghanistan: A Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines," is being held in Kabul at the Hotel Intercontinental. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration remains tight-lipped about the unreleased inter-agency review of U.S. landmine policy.

"Just as winning the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is a joint operation between Afghans and the United States, so too will be the continuing fight for peace and security in Afghanistan," said U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines Coordinator Gina Coplon-Newfield. "As Afghanistan moves towards banning antipersonnel (AP) landmines, we hope the U.S. government will follow Afghanistan's example and advance more quickly towards this important goal as well."

At the conference, participants will discuss the steps Afghanistan would need to take to accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the use, production, trade, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines. It is also likely that the conference will boost demining and mine awareness activities in Afghanistan, one of the most mine-affected countries in the world, suffering tremendous civilian casualties from AP mines each year.

The U.S. government pledged $7 million for demining efforts in Afghanistan during this fiscal year, an amount more than in previous years but less than the cost of damages caused by Coalition air strikes to the infrastructure of Afghanistan's demining programs. An estimated $11 million in damages was incurred during the bombing campaign that includes the loss of equipment, vehicles, mine-clearance dogs, computers, communications infrastructure, and buildings.

During the conference, Roots of Peace, a group raising funds and awareness on the landmine issue, will hand over a check for $57,000 to HALO Trust for demining operations in Afghanistan's Shamali Valley. This money is donated by American citizens, many of whom are from Marin County, California, where Roots of Peace is based.

"I believe Americans want to see the people of Afghanistan safe from the horrors of landmines and want to see the United States join with the majority of the world in banning this indiscriminate weapon," says Jerry White, Executive Director of the Landmine Survivors Network. White, who lost his right leg after stepping on a landmine while hiking in Israel in the mid-1980s, will also attend the conference in Kabul.

A presidential directive from 1998 supports conditional US ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty by the year 2006, but reports indicate that the Bush Administration may move to indefinitely retain this weapon in the US arsenal. Such a policy decision would move the US further from joining this global agreement signed by 143 nations and ratified by 125. Angola is the most recent country to have acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, having officially done so earlier this month.

The State Department and National Security Council are reportedly reviewing the issue and will add their recommendations to those made by the Defense Department last year. It is not known when or if President Bush will officially announce his administration's policy on the Mine Ban Treaty. In December of last year, 124 Members of the House of Representatives asked the President to move towards banning antipersonnel landmines. Many members of the Senate have also recently voiced their concern that the Bush Administration may be planning to further repudiate this effective accord. According to the Landmine Monitor, since entering into force three years ago, the Mine Ban Treaty has been the catalyst for significant reductions in landmine use, production, trade, stockpiling, and casualties.

The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of nearly 500 religious, medical, veterans, peace, humanitarian, and human rights organizations and thousands of individuals from all 50 states advocating for U.S. participation in the Mine Ban Treaty and increased U.S. resources for landmine victim assistance and demining. The USCBL, a member of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is coordinated by and based at Physicians for Human Rights in Boston, Massachusetts.