NEWSLETTER

It has to …………..while we still have more land mines laid than are being lifted and while someone, somewhere is being killed or maimed by a landmine every 20 minutes.

IN NEW ZEALAND our Government is giving the Canadian Government full support to its proposal to conclude a Treaty calling for the banning of anti-personnel mines. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs stated at the Conference on Disarmament that, "We are concerned to capture the political impetus for early action and therefore support the Ottawa process and will participate enthusiastically in it."

Engineer units of our Army continue to work with demining programmes overseas and their expertise and world-wide reputation were acknowledged at the recent ASEAN Regional Forum Demining Seminar held at Linton Army camp. The Government continues to fund demining programmes and the rehabilitation of those injured by landmines. But could more be done? We note the new Australian Government has announced that it will contribute an extra $4 million over the next three years to help combat the effects of land mines in Cambodia and Mozambique.

Will the Budget provide extra resources for our Army's landmine clearing teams ? Will any extra funding for our Defence forces be soaked up by the need to fund a third frigate?

INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF PRAYER FOR LANDMINE VICTIMS

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, supported by a wide range of influential religious and community leaders and NGOs, is calling for prayers to bring an end to the horror and suffering inflicted by landmines. Please join us from June 22 to 28. I have sent information to a range of religious organisations but if you want further information please contact me. From the 24th to the 27th of June Governments and NGOs will be meeting in Brussels to finalise the Treaty to be signed in Ottawa in December. We hope that all who join us in prayer will send them a note so that those meeting in Brussels will know that that the whole world is praying for an end to this suffering. You could fax - JRS-Europe in Brussels: 32 2 738-0864, or send an e-mail to hi.mines@skynet.be. You may prefer to send your message to the CALM Office at PO Box 17195 Karori, Wellington and we will act as a clearing house for New Zealand messages.

PETITION

Some months ago we lent some landmine videos to Kelda Hibbert a Secondary school student of Gisborne. They must have made quite an impact because after the videos were returned we also received a very well designed petition signed by over sixty people. Thank you Kelda and your supporters. Raising people's awareness of these issues is much appreciated.

SYDNEY COLLOQUIUM

Organised by the INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANMINES (AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND) it will be held from Monday 14th to 17th July at Sydney University. Again, we have no funds to assist with fares but if you are able to attend please let me know as soon as possible. Among an excellent range of speakers are Dr Ian Maddocks, Dr Robin Coupland of the ICRC, Chris Moon, Ms Sok Eng, Sr Denise Coghlan, Tun Chanareth from Cambodia and Sayed Aqa from Afghanistan. The programme promises to give a welcome review of regional problems plus a review of developments with the Ottawa Process and the UN Protocol 2.

PACIFIC SUPPORT

Following a request from the Maputo Conference we wrote to the political leaders of South Pacific countries advising them of the results of the Maputo Conference and seeking their support for the Ottawa Process. The response I received from the Acting Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea is of particular interest because less than twelve months ago I was seeking information from Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan about a report in the New Zealand Herald that the PNG Army had flown a plane load of landmines into southern Bougainville.

Extracts from Hon John Giheno's letter dated 2 May 1997: Para2 "Let me assure you that the Government of Papua New Guinea strongly supports the move by the international community to ban the use of landmines. This is a particularly evil weapon which has and continues to kill and maim hundreds of innocent civilians. Para3 The Government of Papua New Guinea does support a ban on the production, use, export and stockpiling of mines. To illustrate our commitment, I will be forwarding an official to Ottawa in December this year to sign the Treaty you mentioned in your letter."

DEMINING RESEARCH IN NZ

You will recall that Lawrence Carter was recently awarded a grant from World Vision to enable him to continue his research. He now reports: "Research is now at an interesting stage: we have the funds to get an IR camera, and in any case we are about to get hold of one or even two such cameras on loan. We are hopeful that we may have our first proper images of surface thermal signatures before very long. We are also about to start a series of experiments which will test the limits of the moisture-based technique, and these will (we hope) be compared with the results of computer simulations which Mike O'Sullivan is working on at the moment." Lawrence sent us a report on the ASEAN Regional Demining Seminar held at Linton. Let me know if you want a copy.

US STIGMATISATION CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AGAINST US LANDMINE PRODUCERS

The Human Rights Watch, a New York based advocacy group issued a report on April 17th stating that 47 US firms had been producing landmines and called on them to declare that they would no longer produce components for these weapons. "Certified" letters were sent out to these 47 firms and a Stigmatisation Campaign has now been launched against the 17 companies that refused to sign and the 13 others that did not sign. Judy Lessing said in Radio NZ news that the report was written by Andrew Cooper, formerly of Wellington and the spokesperson for the campaign was Mary Wareham, also of Wellington. Mary has sent us the following report:

"At Alliant Tech Systems, the largest manufacturer of landmines in the US, over 85 people were arrested this morning at a demonstration organised by the Midgets Institute for Social Transformation and Women Against Military Madness. Over 300 people converged outside the company's headquarters in Hopkins, MN at 6:00am this morning to hear speeches. They demonstrated and blocked the doors of Alliant Tech Systems, dumping hundreds of shoes . Local police arrested over 85 people, the youngest 16, the oldest 80, including mothers, daughters, grandmothers, students, nuns, and ministers. Those arrested included well know poet and author, Robert Bly; MIST founder and Head of the Honeywell project, Marv Davidoff; founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM) ,Vernon Bellecourt.

Representatives of the Minnesota Campaign to Ban Landmines including: Susan Walker of Handicapped International; US Campaign Coordinator, Mary Wareham; and Human Rights Watch Landmines Manufacturer Researcher Andrew Cooper were there as resource people."

REVERSAL OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT LANDMINE POLICIES

On the 23rd May Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and the Defence Secretary, George Robertson announced that Britain would ban the import, export, transfer and manufacture of all forms of anti-personnel mines. They would destroy all UK stocks of landmines by the year 2005, and would not replace the destroyed "dumb" mines with "smart" mines as had been promised by the previous Government. They announced a moratorium on the operational use of anti-personnel mines but added a rider that "if , for a specific operation, the security of British Armed Forces would be jeopardised without the possibility of the use of landmines, then in these exceptional circumstances any use would be reported by the Government to Parliament." But from New Zealand's point of view one of the most significant decisions was to "negotiate" constructively for an international ban in the Ottawa Process. This also reverses the policy of the previous Government and European commentators suggest that Spain, Italy and Greece will follow Britain's lead. The main opposition to the Ottawa Process now comes from mine producing countries, and Australia and the USA, although these two countries have recently been making conciliatory statements on the Ottawa Process.

I thank the British High Commission for full details of this significant statement by their Government. Details are included in this newsletter because some of our major papers have overlooked these decisions. It was well reported by Radio NZ, TV1, TV3 and of course BBC news.

AFRICA

The Maputo conference was certainly successful in raising the awareness of the African people and their Governments that landmines must be banned and destroyed and that much more needs to be done to help survivors.

South Africa has become the first country on the African Continent to begin destroying its anti personnel mines. Four thousand seven hundred mines were blown up in a single controlled detonation and instantly a huge mushroom shaped fireball rose several hundred metres into the desert sky. A further 18 such demolitions will take place between now and October.

South Africa has agreed to send teams to Mozambique to lift landmines littered around villages in the Maputo Province.

President Chissano of Mozambique, speaking at the Islamic Conference at Pakistan in March called on all Islamic States to support "our country", and the international community in demining, and condemn the production and the trade in landmines and work towards a total ban for the benefit of all, Islamic and non-Islamic alike. His proposal was opposed by Pakistan and Indonesia.

Zimbabwe, a former landmine producer has agreed to ban the production and use of landmines.

THE ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY met in South Africa in May and among their recommendations was agreements to Accede to the 1980 UN

Convention and to support the total ban on landmines. They agreed to cooperate in the fields of demining and victim assistance and they appealed for more international support for countries plagued by landmines. Keynote speakers included Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, Jody Williams Coordinator of the ICBL and Rae McGrath, a pioneer in mine clearing. Conference notes and copies of some speeches are available from CALM.

RESOURCES

If you wish to raise local awareness of the problems caused by landmines we could assist by lending videos, coloured slides, children's art work or posters. Why not give it a go? Brian Hayes, just back from MAPUTO is keen to pass on the information he has gained and can come and talk to groups etc..

BRUSSELS CONFERENCE

This is a very important Conference to finalise the content of the proposed Ottawa Treaty. Our government will be represented. If any CALM member is likely to be in Belgium from the 24 to 27 June please let me know. We should be able to arrange accreditation as we have been invited to send a representative. There is a special programme for NGOs and we have full details.

THANKS

New Zealand's first Ambassador to Argentina is to be Caroline Forsyth, who until recently was Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affair's International Security and Arms Control Division. In recent years Caroline has given our Campaign great support and having attended the 1996 Ottawa Conference with her, I know how sincerely she supports the Ottawa Process and how determined she is to work for a landmine ban. We thank her for her support and wish her well in the future.

FINANCES

CALM finances have been stretched lately with the flurry of activity happening with the impetus and lead up to the Ottawa World-wide Treaty Ban.

The sending out of newsletters to the many organisations and people that support us costs us close to $100.00 an issue. We are completely dependent on the nominal $10.00 per year subscription from our supporters plus the generosity of our donors. (Please note that our next newsletter will contain our Treasurer's statement of account for the year ended 30 June 1997.)

Your subscription is a huge help in sustaining the campaign to have landmines banned. Please forward these to our Treasurer, P O Box 17 - 195, Karori, Wellington… A receipt will be issued.

IPPNW CONFERENCE AT CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

At the Annual Conference of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Australian Branch of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, there was a major plenary session and a workshop on landmines. Dr Ian Maddocks, who was in New Zealand to support our campaign in 1994 was the main speaker. Dr Ian Prior from Wellington said it was a very worthwhile and stimulating session and that the Australian doctors agreed to call for a destruction of Australian landmine stocks and to press their Government to give the Ottawa Process full support.

NOW FOR SOME OVERSEAS SNIPPETS FROM THE INTERNET

From: David Isenberg <disenber@cdi.org> Subject: Landmines

There are many new items posted on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) web site (www.icrc.org). I am listing a few of them here. If you have not been to the ICRC site previously I recommend you do so. It is very well done.

International meeting of experts on the possible verification of a comprehensive International treaty prohibiting anti-personnel landmines, Konigswinter, 24-25 April 1997.
http://www.icrc.org/icrcnews/4a0a.htm

Anti-personnel mines: Making a ban effective.
http://www.icrc.org/icrcnews/4926.htm

Statement of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the international meeting of experts on the possible verification of a comprehensive international treaty prohibiting anti-personnel landmines, Bonn, 24-25 April 1997.
http://www.icrc.org/icrcnews/48f6.htm

Statistics for countries most affected by mines.
http://www.icrc.org/icrcnews/491e.htm

"HANOI, Vietnam (AP). Vietnam has cleared more than 100,000 land mines from its side of the contested border with China over the past five years, the Communist Party reported today."
http://www.sunspot.net/sunspot/news/apwire/data/html/international/0467.html

From: "Qualls, Michael" {muq1@CEHOD1.EM.CDC.GOV}

By Matthew Benns in the Sahara

An athlete who lost an arm and a leg in a mine blast has run 143 miles across the Sahara in temperatures above 100F to raise money for charity. As Chris Moon crossed the finish line, he waved the Union flag in triumph at having defied every doctor's prediction. "I was told that it wasn't possible to get this far on a false limb," Mr Moon said. "To me this shows that the only limits we have are those we put on ourselves."

Two years ago, doctors told Mr Moon that he would never run again. He was working in Mozambique for the Halo Trust, the mine-clearing charity, when an explosion blew off his right leg below the knee and his right arm below the elbow. A year later he completed the London Marathon and the next year he was fighting for survival in what has been called the "toughest foot race on Earth".

"Failure is not an option for me," said Mr Moon, 34, who ran to raise 100,000 for an International Committee of the Red Cross false limb programme in Vietnam. "Every step I take helps to raise money for other mine victims and beats my own disability. It also pushes back the barriers of what is possible for people with false limbs. I have no lower leg muscle so I have had to develop a technique of leaning forward on my false leg to get me up the dunes."

As Mr Moon prepared for the fourth day's run, a 50-mile trek, he said: "My biggest fear has been my stump shredding in the sand. But I have overcome that problem by stopping and massaging it every hour or so. My left foot has got blisters just like everybody else. This race, like any other, is about putting one foot in front of the other."

Mr Moon crossed the finish line at 5.30am, 21 hours after setting out. He whooped with joy, waking up the camp.

Chris Moon is a real survivor and is a great example to us all. He was at the Ottawa Conference and I look forward to meeting him again at the Sydney Colloquium. Can you join David Zwartz and me in Sydney?