NEWSLETTER

The recent Brussels Conference to continue the OTTAWA PROCESS was a great success and the momentum for a major international agreement to ban landmines continues to grow dramatically.

There are still some countries that see landmines as an indispensable and legitimate form of self-defence and there are other countries who say they support a ban "as soon as possible" but prefer to rely on the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD), knowing full well that a decision by that body could take decades.

For people in the 64-mine affected countries an early solution to these negotiations is essential, and it is heartening to see that France and Britain are among countries that have reversed their policies and are now fully supporting the Ottawa Process, which will culminate in the signing of a Treaty to ban landmines in December in Ottawa. Our government fully supports the Ottawa Process and has called for "a simple Treaty with no exceptions, no exclusions and no delay."

Even with encouragement from CALM, the NZ media have largely ignored these developments.

So that you will understand the difficulties of achieving a humanitarian solution to this global problem, we hope you will make a special effort to attend one of the following meetings:

Auckland: Neil Mander, Editor of the Engineers for Social Responsibility, who is attending the Sydney Colloquium, will be arranging a venue and time when he can report to Aucklanders. He can be contacted at 38 Arundel Street, Mt Roskill, Auckland, or at telephone 09-625 9306.

Wellington: Meeting at SHELL HOUSE, 100 The Terrace, at 5.30pm on THURSDAY 31 JULY 1997. Mr Bruce Middleton (Acting Director of the International Security and Arms Control Division of Foreign Affairs) will discuss the highlights of the Brussels Conference; Matthew Broadhead from ISAC, David Zwartz and John Head from CALM will form a panel to report on the PACIFIC REGIONAL COLLOQUIUM to be held in Sydney from 14 to 17 July.

Christchurch: As part of the Canterbury Branch United Nations Association's Winter Seminars, Landmines will be the topic on Wednesday 6 August at 12.15pm at the WEA ROOMS, 59 GLOUCESTER STREET. John Head will show the impact of landmines on the people of Cambodia and Mozambique and will review recent efforts to ban landmines and the involvement of the New Zealand government.

These meetings will give you a chance to influence our policies and actions, and to meet with others who share your concerns. You will get a lot of information not available from the mainstream media,or even in our newsletters!

World days of prayer

Levin

Brussels

Nearly 100 countries signed the Brussels Declaration, including Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Australia reneged, stating that they thought the CD was the proper avenue for establishing an effective ban. This caused an outcry amongst the Australian supporters of the ban. One, who will be a guest speaker at the Sydney Colloquium, said she was ashamed to be an Australian. The Sydney Morning Herald editorial the next day was entitled "Australian Hypocrisy on Landmines." Australia is now practically alone in the Commonwealth with its support for the CD, and of the NATO countries only Greece, Turkey and the United States are not supporting the Ottawa Process; but as we have found with Britain and France, national policies can change.

The United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD)

Since our last newsletter there is still no "programme of work" for the CD but on the last day of previous session it was agreed to appoint the Australian Ambassador as a special co-ordinator to investigate ways of launching negotiations at the CD on a global landmine ban. With so much division within the CD he will have a very difficult task to establish any degree of unanimity.

Our newly-appointed Ambassador to the CD is Mr Clive Pearson. Before he left to take up his position in Geneva he met representatives of the National Consultative Committee on Disarmament and I was able to explain to him just why the International Campaign to Ban Landmines had no faith in the CD ever reaching an early unanimous decision to ban landmines.

The Pacific Regional Colloquium "Towards Ottawa and beyond"

This will be in Sydney, Australia, from 14 to 17 July. The Colloquium aims to bring together the people of the Pacific to establish a common policy on banning landmines. The New Zealand team will be pressing for a MINE-FREE SOUTH PACIFIC. The Colloquium will be calling on Pacific nations to ratify the UN Protocol on Mines and to support the Ottawa Treaty. We can expect some hard talking if we are to achieve these aims. Attending from NZ are Matthew Broadhead from the ISAC Division of MFAT, and John Head, Neil Mander and David Zwartz from CALM.

We thank Oxfam for a donation of $2,000 to cover the costs of representatives from Tonga and Fiji to attend, and Dr Ian Prior for arranging donations of $1,000 for Colloquium expenses and $1,200 to cover travel costs of the representative from Samoa.

Internet is a wonderful invention

During the Brussels Conference I received regular email reports from several sources. These were immediately passed on to CALM committee members who are on the Internet and mailed to other members. One report on the hostile reaction to Australia's statement was immediately relayed by the NZ spokesperson for the Womans International League for Peace and Freedom to her counterpart in Adelaide who then asked to join our email news service. On the same day came a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald editorial "Australia's Hypocrisy on Landmines," and this was circulated on our news service. Later I received copies of letters written to Australia's PM by our contacts in Adelaide and Melbourne. If you wish to join our news service, just advise me by email.

International snippets

Kuwait: Three years ago I reported that Kuwait had spent over one BILLION dollars for mine clearing in their country. During the 7-month Iraqi occupation, five million anti personnel mines were laid. These mines killed 1,700 civilians and injured 2,300, most of them children. The "experts" lifted 1,079,000 mines and in the process 84 mine clearers were killed while another 200 were injured. Dangerous work! Now the sands shifted by the wind have exposed further mines and it is impossible to ensure that any area is safe, despite the mine-clearing efforts since 1991.
Comment: (1) How are countries like Mozambique and Afghanistan going to find a billion dollars for mine clearance? (2) We note that those who laid the mines are doing nothing about removing them and that the companies who profited from making the mines are not required to finance their removal. (3) China's Ambassador, Sha Zukang, speaking at the UN CD said that landmines are an "indispensable, legitimate and conventional means of defence". Why should armies have the "legitimate" right to cause so much suffering in today's world?

Vietnam: In our previous newsletter we reported that Vietnam had removed 100,000 landmines from its border with China. I have written to the Chinese Ambassador to seek confirmation of reciprocal Chinese action.

Papua New Guinea: Twelve months ago we were questioning reports that the PNG Army had taken a plane load of landmines into Bougainville. Last month I received a letter from the Acting PM of PNG assuring us that PNG strongly supported the international call for a ban on landmines and would sign the Ottawa Treaty.

United States: The Department of Defence reports that their Humanitarian Demining Programme is developing technologies and building prototypes for a wide variety of approaches to mine detection, neutralisation, and removal, ranging from "weed-whackers" (with extra long handles that can clear the vegetation above suspected mines safely) to integrated, sensor-fused, thermal-imaging sensors, metal detectors, and ground penetrating radars that can detect mines directly or the disturbed soil conditions that indicate their presence. They also use specially-trained mine-detecting dogs ans tele-operated miniature flails. The United States is using mine detectors, flails, and explosive foams (used for destroying mines in place) in Bosnia.
Comment: It is to be regretted that so much scientific research and money is being spent on mines that are so dangerous and so difficult to locate.

The New Zealand campaign

We are now entering a new phase in our campaign, and ask that you show your support by completing and returning the attached questionnaire by the end of the month. Funding of CALM has always been precarious and we thank those who responded to our Treasurer's call for donations in our previous newsletter.

The Treasurer's financial report for the previous twelve months follows.

Yours sincerely
John V Head
Convenor CALM