New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines (CALM)
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We
Must Keep Going
CALM Committee Meeting in Wellington. When: Monday 25 March 2002 at 5.00pm Where: Room G005, Ground floor, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. (Enter at the rubber door, ground floor level just to the right of the main steps, and register at the security desk. Room G005 is in the select committee corridor to the right. The meeting is open to CALM members and supporters. Cluster Bombs As part of its concern for the effects of unexploded landmines and the submunitions from cluster bombs (which act like landmines), CALM drafted a policy on Cluster Bombs. After circulating it to NZ CALM members, and overseas, we have settled on the following policy statement. The New Zealand government has been advised of this new policy and we are now working to implement it.
CALM Policy on Cluster Bombs
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has always recognised the humanitarian impact of unexploded ordnance other than anti-personnel landmines. Indeed, the field experience of member organisations of the ICBL is that, like anti-personnel mines, such explosive remnants of war cause widespread civilian casualties and hinder reconstruction and development by preventing safe access to infrastructure and land. The work of ICBL members has also shown that, among the range of explosive remnants of war, cluster submunitions that have failed to explode on impact can cause particularly severe humanitarian problems, in part because of the sheer volume of sensitive ordnance that can be spread over wide areas. In recognition of this problem, some members of the ICBL have called for a moratorium on the use, production and trade of cluster weapons until the humanitarian concerns can be effectively addressed. The ICBL has decided to support these calls for a moratorium on the use, production and trade of cluster munitions. The ICBL also strongly supports efforts to create new international humanitarian law on the wider problem of explosive remnants of war, including cluster weapons. ICBL members implementing mine risk reduction education (mine awareness), mine clearance and/or victim assistance programmes cannot and will not ignore the long-term dangers and damage caused by munitions other than anti-personnel landmines. The ICBL supports the urgent negotiation of a new protocol on explosive remnants of war in the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). To make an effective difference to the lives and livelihoods of communities affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance, such a protocol should include, among others, the following principles:
The ICBL remains focused on the complete eradication of anti-personnel mines and the full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. The ICBL also encourages its members and supporters to work to alleviate the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war. - Geneva, Switzerland, December 2001.
NZ Government's Landmine Action At a meeting of the National Consultative Committee for Disarmament [NCCD] with the Minister of Disarmament, Hon Matt Robson, at the end of January, CALM spokesman John Head was delighted to hear of recent Government initiatives and support for the landmine campaign. Speaking at the Ministerial Conference on Reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan in Tokyo on 21-22 January, Mr Robson not only promised major grants to the UN Consolidated Appeal for Afghanistan and the NZODA Emergency Disaster Relief Funding, but in a later press release stated that some of this latter grant would be for the removal of landmines. "Perhaps even more significant, though, was that Mr Robson was prepared to speak to the Afghani leaders and seek their support for acceding to the Mine Ban Treaty," John Head reported. "Matt indicated that their response was positive. He will be able to further develop these issues when he goes to Afghanistan." CALM has lodged an application for some of the Disaster Relief Funding to be made available to the HALO Trust for demining in Afghanistan. "Matt Robson also reported that when our Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Phil Goff met Fidel Castro in Cuba in January he urged Castro to support the Mine Ban Treaty. We did not hear what the response was," John Head added.
The NCCD meeting
with Matt Robson was not just about landmines, but John Head had the
opportunity to also:
Vietnam Veterans of America urge President Bush to Ban Landmines Immediately In anticipation of an announcement in March on US landmine policy, the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation (VVAF) have launched a campaign appealing to President Bush to join the US's NATO allies and the majority of the world's nations and immediately ban landmines. The USA is not a signatory to the international treaty banning landmines -- signed by 142 nations -- and is the only NATO country not to renounce the weapon. The Bush administration is reviewing all policies of the Clinton administration. Current US policy on landmines, which was declared by President Clinton in 1998, calls for a ban on landmines by 2006 if alternative weapons are adopted by then. VVAF maintains that sophisticated and extremely effective alternative weapons already exist and the US military has no need for an obsolete weapon like landmines in today's modern battles. "The truth is our military doesn't use landmines anymore -- and hasn't used them in the last 10 years," said Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, Jr., (USA, Ret.), an artillery commander in Vietnam and former president of The National Defense University. "They just haven't declared it policy. Weapons exist today that are lighter, more precise and simply more lethal than landmines. Landmines are weapons that have no place in today's high-tech military." VVAF's public
information campaign to ban landmines -- which includes television,
radio, print, outdoor ads, banner ads on AOL and Yahoo and internet
outreach -- not only highlights the obsolescence of landmines in
today's modern military and the fact that landmines actually maim
more US soldiers than they protect, it also asks President Bush
if, in a critical time of international coalition building, it is
wise for the USA to stand apart from its NATO allies on the issue
of banning "Cooperation between our military forces and those of other nations is critical to future successes," Gard said. "US insistence on continued use of landmines pose a threat to future combined missions with our allies. Landmines are relics of past battles and put our troops in harm's way." VVAF's ban landmines public information campaign can be viewed at: www.vvaf.org. CALM has also expressed its concern about a possible change of US policy. CALM Convenor Neil Mander received the following letter on 16 January 2002 after writing to the Prime Minister:
Dear Neil, Thank you for your letter of 11 December 2001 regarding the
United States' position on the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. New Zealand
shares your belief that key countries such as the United States
should sign the Ottawa Convention, and thus adhere to the global
norm against anti-personnel mines. Along with my colleague Matt
Robson, the Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, I follow
this issue closely, and indeed, in December we asked our Embassy
in Washington to report on United States policy on landmines.
We understand that the United States is conducting an inter-agency
review of its policies, but that a conclusion to this review is
some months away. We hope that the scenario that you set out in
your letter, whereby the United States goes back on its qualified
commitment to sign the Convention by 2006, does not come to pass.
We subsequently instructed our officials to register New Zealand's
view with the United States and to continue to work actively,
in coordination with other like-minded countries, to reinforce
to all the non-signatories of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty the importance
of upholding this critical new disarmament norm.
Yours sincerely
The PipeHawk system is designed to be attached to the side of either a manned or robot vehicle. This drives along a strip of land already cleared by conventional means, surveying the area immediately adjacent to it. The system uses custom-designed software to process a combination of metal detecting, infrared and GPR data to detect and map the position of each mine, giving clearance teams the precise location of each device. Each strip can then be mapped and cleared in turn until the area is free of mines. The system will be further tested in a live Bosnian minefield in May.
The ICBL has issued a special Youth Action Alert to support the third anniversary of the entry-into-force of the treaty banning landmines, on 1 March 1999. It wants special action on India and Pakistan, which have used landmines in three previous conflicts with each other, and recently planted mines along their shared border. Neither India nor Pakistan has joined the treaty banning landmines. What Can You Do To Take Action?
An M-60 tank without a turret, the Panther sports two Israeli mine rollers - each weighing more than three tons - on its front slope. Once at the minefield, the driver hops off, sets up a suitcase-sized remote station, and toggles the Panther into action. No soldiers are put at risk operating the vehicle. Already, three Marines were wounded when one of them stepped on a land mine during clearing operations at the Kandahar airport. The Marine who detonated the mine lost his foot, the other two suffered shrapnel wounds. Coalition forces are using remote-controlled vehicles to clear mines in Afghanistan. Some troops are using the Aardvark, a British-made flailing device supplied by the Jordanian military. In the past, land-mine detection was a slow and dangerous process that involved soldiers lightly poking sticks into the dirt, knowing that a mistake could cost them their lives. While metal detectors are helpful, many mines are made from plastic. Dogs trained to sniff explosives can also aid in mine detection.
Four Karori couples had a fun-filled learning experience about Mozambique while at the same time raising funds for UNICEF'S work with landmine victims. Following the Canadian-inspired theme of "a night of a thousand dinners" the guests were invited to attend "dressed in the colours representative of the National Flag of Mozambique." They brought a written general knowledge question about Mozambique which another guest had to answer (before being allowed to commence on the dinner's main course.) Fortunately there were plenty of handy reference books available, as well as a photograph booklet from the host's attendance at a landmine conference in Mozambique some 4 years earlier. Signs and general housekeeping instructions were written in Portuguese, and the dinner was three courses, using Mozambican recipes. (Entrée - lamb and goat fetta cheese with olives and sesame biscuits; Main - lamb casserole in red wine, which took several hours and lots of red wine (to keep it moist, according to the chef), pumpkin casseroles, spinach, rice / potatoes; Dessert - fresh fruits.) For Newsletter readers who want to repeat the dinner's success, its organiser Brian Hayes (CALM's Treasurer) suggests: keep the group to a maximum of 10 persons; not too long a time span for the evening (3 hours max); guests all within walking distance; a few simple fun activities; and an inexpensive menu. The sum of $100 was raised and sent to UNICEF for its work with Mozambique landmine victims. Christchurch Central MP Tim Barnett must also know the recipe for a successful dinner evening, as he held one and sent $300 to UNICEF. Congratulations to Tim and Brian. [CALM can provide Mozambican recipes.] The CALM/UNICEF reception at Parliament, reported in an earlier Newsletter, raised $2800 for UNICEF's Mozambique landmine-related aid programme.
Kenya
will destroy:
Treaty Universalisation Progress There are now 142 signatories/accessions. Of these, 122 have completed the ratification/accession process. The most recent ratifications/accessions are from:
Signatories in the Pacific include Cook Islands, Marshall Islands and Vanuatu. Non-signatories include Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, and Tonga.
Contributions
for this newsletter came from David Zwartz, John Head and Neil Mander. |
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CALM is the New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines.
CALM is a member of ICBL, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
which was co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1997.
