From December 2-4, over 100 countries will gather in Ottawa, Canada to sign a treaty that will impose a total ban on landmines. A number of key countries will be absent from this historic signing. The Total Ban Banner in support of the treaty is placed to laud the commitment of those countries that are signing and to send a message to those countries that are not.
At the end of this message there are suggestions about what you can do and links to important sites.
This is not a rare testimony. Millions of active mines are scattered in some 70 countries and an equal number are stockpiled around the world waiting to be planted. Every month over 2,000 people are killed or maimed by mine explosions. Most of the casualties are civilians who are killed or injured after hostilities have ended. Buried landmines can remain active for over 50 years. Landmines do not recognize peace treaties or cease fires. Landmines do not discriminate. They do not distinguish between the footfall of a soldier and that of a woman or child gathering firewood. For every mine cleared, 20 are laid. In 1994, approximately 100,000 were removed, while an additional 2 million were planted.
Children, in particular, are most in danger from landmines. Their natural curiosity makes it likely they will pick up strange objects. They often cannot read the warning signs about mined fields. If a mine explodes near a child, it will cause greater damage than to an adult, who is larger and stronger. Children who are victims of mines are often from the poorest segment of society.
Landmines are increasingly used as horrifying strategic weapons meant to destroy food sources, create refugee flows, or simply cause terror. Mozambique, one of the poorest nations in Africa, can not use whole swathes of arable farm land because of mines. In Cambodia, an estimated one out of every 235 people has lost at least one limb to an exploding mine.
It can be stopped!
The Ottawa treaty is a big step in the right direction. There are also things you can do:
- Find out who’s signing the Ottawa Treaty and who’s not at:
http://www.mines.gc.ca
Write to your representatives urging them to sign, if they are not signing. - Contact the International Campaign to Ban Landmines to see if any companies in your country
or area are involved in making landmines. Urge the company to stop.
http://www.icbl.org/ - If you are part of a school community, join the Schools Demining Schools project. You can
help raise funds to demine a school ground. For information on the project check:
http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/banmines/about.asp - Inform yourself and others about the landmine crisis: surf the web,
hold a teach-in or contact an organization fighting to end the use of
landmines forever. Information and links are available at the United
Nations Demining Database or the UN
Cyberschoolbus
Links and Resources
United Nations Demining Database
http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
http://www.icbl.org
Handicap International
http://www.handicap-international.org/
Human Rights Watch Arms Project Report: Exposing the Source:
U.S. Companies and the Production of Antipersonnel Mines
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/mines
International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org
Landmine Survivors Network
http://www.landminesurvivors.org
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
http://www.vvaf.org
Text of Amended Protocol II of the United Nations Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons
http://www.un.org/Depts/mine/UNDocs/protocol.htm
Web page of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines
Coordinated by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
http://www.vvaf.org/campaign/index.shtml
The web banner campaign is organized by the UN Cyberschoolbus, a United Nations on-line education programme.
