Newsletter August 2001 [No. 2 2001]

LANDMINES CAMPAIGN CONDEMNS RECENT MINE USE
- URGES ACTION BY G8 LEADERS
(19 July 2001)

As leaders of the G8 gathered in Genoa for their annual meeting, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) called on them to step up action against mines, a weapon already banned by two-thirds of the world.

"Just last week Uzbekistan laid fresh antipersonnel mines along its borders, resulting in even more civilian casualties," said Elizabeth Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator. "We are outraged that mine use continues and urge the G8 leaders to condemn this and other instances of mine use in the strongest possible terms. Landmines cause poverty, they stop people in the poorest countries using their land. The G8 can and must do much more to fund mine clearance and to help victims," she added.

According to the ICBL, despite a dramatic increase in civilian casualties, Uzbekistan continues to lay antipersonnel mines along its borders. Government and opposition forces in Burma, Chechnya and Sri Lanka, all countries with significant mine problems, continue to use the weapon. These and other recent mine users will be documented in full by the ICBL's Landmine Monitor Report 2001, due for release on 12 September 2001.

Meeting representatives are urged to reaffirm the emerging international norm against antipersonnel mines and to explicitly state that the G8's objective is to have universal acceptance of a comprehensive prohibition on antipersonnel mines as soon as possible. Commitment to expanded mine action programs, including mine clearance, awareness, stock destruction and survivor assistance, is also encouraged.

The ICBL also issued a specific call to Russia and the U.S., the only G8 members that remain outside the treaty, to reaffirm their commitment to joining the Mine Ban Treaty in the future, and set a date by which they will do so.

The ICBL hopes that the G8 will build on last year's statements in Miyakazi, where Foreign Ministers said that "they were determined to support efforts, including those under the Ottawa Treaty, aimed at the elimination of landmines, including humanitarian demining activities and stockpile destruction". In September 2000, Italy, which is due to take over presidency of the G8 this week, promised to prioritise the elimination of landmines when it became president.

"As members of the ban treaty, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. all have a legal and a moral obligation to promote its universalisation and effective implementation," said Giancarlo Tenaglia of the ICBL's Campagna Italiana Contro le Mine. "Continued use of this indiscriminate weapon shows that there is a long way to go!" he added.

For more information please go to http://www.icbl.org or write to media@icbl.org or contact:

* Liz Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, +1-202-547-2667

The USA attitude towards NGO participation in international negotiations

This letter from Jody Williams highlights one of the major problems facing not only the ICBL, but also other NGO groups who have the potential to have a significant and worthwhile input to international negotiations. We note this with particular concern in the light of our international landmine campaign where cooperation between Governments and NGOs was one of the major contributors to success. The increasing abrasiveness and isolation of the USA in international matters is a real concern.

As you all know, there was a three-week conference underway at the UN to try to deal with the proliferation of light arms and small weapons. You might have read the news reports of the US's very hostile position toward the conference. There were articles about it in the Washington Post and opinion pieces in the New York Times to name just a couple, this past week. But what I had not seen mentioned was that the US was not only hostile to the negotiations it is also trying to block the open participation of citizens in the discussions.

In case you haven't seen it, John R. Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, addressed the Plenary Session of the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons for the U.S. And he said: "We do not support the promotion of international advocacy activity by international or non-governmental organizations, particularly when those political or policy views advocated are not consistent with the views of all member states. What individual governments do in this regard is for them to decide, but we do not regard the international governmental support of particular political viewpoints to be consistent with democratic principles. Accordingly, the provisions of the draft Program that contemplate such activity should be modified or eliminated."
(If you wish to read the entire address it can be found at:
http://www.state.gov/t/us/rm/2001/index.cfm?docid=4038)

In other words, Bolton and the Bush administration are saying that NGOs should not be allowed to express views on issues under negotiation -- particularly, as Mr. Bolton notes in so many words, if such views "offend" any single country (such as the U.S., for example). The administration is trying to re-establish the tyranny of consensus that we were able to avoid in the Ottawa Process and with government-civil society partnership in that process. And he is saying that the rules of procedure of the negotiations should be changed to silence our voices.

In so many words, the Bush administration is saying that having a point of view and expressing it is not "consistent with democratic principles." Am I alone in feeling that I've fallen through the looking glass and the jabberwocky is talking gibberish?

We all know that what we have achieved in the ICBL is much more than the eventual elimination of landmines. It is the model itself and the empowerment that we all have gotten by working together for a common goal -- even if we don't always agree on every detail of how to get there. As we all know, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is about a whole lot more than just landmines. Even if we only were able to get rid of this indiscriminate weapon and help landmine survivors around the world, it would be a significant contribution to a better world. But, the Campaign has done so much more than that and has become a powerful example of what ordinary citizens can do when they work together and express their views. For that, in part, we received the Nobel Peace Prize.

You might recall that in its announcement of the 1997 award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, among other things, "that the ICBL, in making up a network through which it has been possible to express and mediate a broad wave of popular commitment in an unprecedented way.....has grown into a convincing example of an effective policy for peace." In concluding, the Nobel Committee noted that as "a model for similar processes in the future, it could prove of decisive importance to the international effort for disarmament and peace."

Apparently, the Bush administration recognizes that our model could prove of decisive importance and wants to stop it now. I hope many if not all of you share my outrage at this attempt to take away our voices -- and that you will let your governments know that you are outraged that the 'world's greatest democracy' is behaving in such an undemocratic fashion.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Jody Williams

Landmine Monitor Report 2001
Neil Mander, with assistance from John Head, has prepared individual Country Reports on New Zealand and a dozen Pacific Island States, for the 2001 edition of Landmine Monitor which will be a world-wide detailed report on progress towards a landmine-free world. We expect this Report to be published and released in mid-September.

Cluster Bombs and Unexploded Remnants of War
In August, September and December this year there will be further meetings of States Parties to the CCW (Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons) which are working towards the preparation of an additional Protocol to the CCW. This is to introduce some controls over unexploded remnants of war, including cluster bombs, and the needless human suffering they cause. Measures being proposed include a moratorium on the use and production of the present high-failure-rate weapons and a requirement on warring parties using them to clean up afterwards. We hope to have CALM representation at one of these meetings at least.

U.N. Reports Success of "Adopt-A-Minefield" Campaign in Afghanistan

A privately funded effort to remove landmines has achieved its best results in Afghanistan, the United Nations announced in a statement Monday. The "Adopt-a-Minefield" campaign has raised over 620,000 U.S. dollars to clear 22 sites in the country this year, it said.

The campaign seeks national and international sponsors to adopt minefields that the U.N. has identified as being in urgent need of clearance. Since its launch in March 1999, the campaign has raised 3.5 million dollars for demining. According to the U.N., individuals, community groups, and businesses have adopted more than 90 minefields in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia and Mozambique. Some 20,000 people have participated in the programme worldwide. But it is the programme's activities in Afghanistan that are according it the most acclaim. In the last 18 months, 22 sites have been adopted, and another five sites will be adopted by September.

"Afghanistan has, from the very beginning, been our most popular and successful programme," said the program's Executive Director Oren Schlein. Most popular from a fund-raising perspective, they have raised US $750,000 for the Afghan programme alone, and are gearing themselves up for more.

Choosing from a list of high-priority minefields provided by the Afghan national mine-action programme in the country every six months, Adopt-A-Minefield then promotes them among its donor base to raise funds. "A minefield can be as large or as small as you want it to be. We ask the centres to divide the fields into manageable chunks, so that we can sell them for around US $30,000," he explained.

Clearance of a field typically takes about a month, and donors are particularly keen on adopting those areas that are going to promote the wellbeing of the community most, where refugees can resettle and really live a normal life. Such areas included agricultural land, grazing land or prospective areas of resettlement for refugees or internally displaced people, he added.

CALM Fund raising initiative

CALM members and supporters will learn soon about a major fund-raising initiative to help demining and victim assistance in Mozambique. Run in conjunction with Unicef, it will involve asking members to host dinners in their own homes, with their guests making donations. It is based on a Canadian Anti-landmine Campaign scheme (which they are calling "The night of a thousand dinners").

There will be more about this in the next newsletter.

Mine Action Calendar

• Date and venue to be announced; CALM annual general meeting.
• 12 Sept: Release of Landmine Monitor Report 2001.
• 18-21 September 2001 Managua, Nicaragua. Third Meeting of States Parties.
• 24-28 September 2001 Geneva, Switzerland. CCW PrepCom.
• October 2001 CALM fund raising programme.

Landmine warning for Central Asia

An international expert on landmines has urged Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to adhere to the international ban on anti-personnel landmines.

Speaking at the end of a fact-finding mission to assess the impact of mines on civilians in Central Asia, Stuart Maslen also called for minefields in the region to be clearly marked, and for local residents to be informed of the danger.

The BBC Central Asia correspondent says Uzbekistan has mined its borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in an effort to protect itself from incursions by Islamic rebels. But the mines are said to have killed or injured at least 50 Tajik civilians.

Mr Maslen said minefields in Central Asia represented a growing problem, although not on the scale experienced in Afghanistan or Cambodia.

NPOs to call for abolition of land mines at exhibition

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) plan to call for the removal and abolition of the 60-70 million landmines estimated to remain worldwide at an exhibition of caricatures and photographs in Tokyo starting in July.

Among the organizers of the exhibition to be held at the Ginza Dentsu Gallery from July 23 through Aug. 30 are the Tokyo-based Association for aid and Relief, Japan and the Fukuoka-based Cambodia Mines-Remove Campaign.

In addition to about 300 caricatures drawn by artists from 34 countries, including France, Bulgaria and Iran, photos of de-mining activities and several kinds of landmines will be displayed, the organizers said.

Picture books for children and T-shirts with designs appealing for landmine abolition will also be on sale, they said.

Discussions on the theme of landmine removal and peace will also be held on the opening day and on Aug. 11, 19 and 24, they said.

CALM (New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines)