Still thousands of victims” “

Five years since the Ottawa Treaty on the banning of landmines, over 34 million anti-personnel mines, of which 7 million in the last year, have been destroyed by 61 countries. But in spite of this reduction, the arsenals of 94 countries (especially in China, Russia, the USA, Ukraine, Pakistan, India, Belarus) still remain stockpiled with some 230 million landmines and some 90 countries still remain in some way held to ransom by landmines and unexploded bombs. The annual number of new victims of landmines is roughly 15,000-20,000. In 2001 the cases reported of people newly maimed amounted to 7,987 (more or less the same as in 2000), but many such injuries are never reported. These are just some of the figures contained in the “Landmine Monitor Report 2002”, the annual report of the international Campaign for the banning of landmines, presented in recent days at the world level (for further information consult the website www.icbl.org/lm/2002). And last week the 4th Conference of the States that are party to the Convention was held in Geneva. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin , permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions, in his speech during the conference, urged that “the greatest possible understanding and cooperation” be developed with the nations that have not yet signed the Convention, in the hope of its “rapid and universal ratification”. Though acknowledging the great progress that has been made since the signing of the Convention, Archbishop Martin did not pass over in silence the still unacceptably high number of the victims of landmines. “The efforts required to finally eliminate anti-personnel mines – he said – may be achieved by every nation, agency and sector of society”. But how is Europe conducting itself? “In general fairly well, but we are concerned by Finland and Turkey which have not yet signed the Treaty – comments Father Tonio Dell’Olio , national coordinator of the Italian Campaign -. Italy too has made progress in this area by increasing the funds allocated to de-mining operations, however a lot more could be done by exerting political pressure on these countries”. And reading the Report we may discover both negative and positive features. On 4 April 2002 Albania completed the destruction of 1,683,860 landmines and in the previous year 302,000 square metres of land were cleared of 744 mines. Austria and Belgium are playing an important role in the promotion of the Treaty, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina a new mine clearance law was approved in February 2002. Mine clearance operations involved an overall area of from 5.5 to 6 million square metres of land in 2001. In Bulgaria an accord with Turkey on the non-use of mines and their removal from shared frontiers was signed in 2002. In Croazia 132,048 landmines were destroyed in 2001, but in 2002 there have so far been 13 victims, including two mine clearance personnel. The Czech Republic completed the destruction of 360,000 mines in June 2001, while Denmark allocated 14.4 million dollars for mine clearance. France continued to play an important role in pressing for universal ratification of the Treaty and allocated 2.7 million dollars to mine clearance, an increase over the previous year. Germany too allocated 12.3 million dollars in 2001 and 15.3 million in 2002. Reports from Hungary on the removal of unexploded bombs, especially from the second world war and the period of Soviet occupation, arrive each year, even though the destruction of Uka-63, that function as anti-personnel mines, has not yet been confirmed. A significant increase in funding has also been made by Ireland, with an allocation of 2,014,397 dollars in 2001. Italy allocated 5 million dollars in 2001 but, by May 2002, “only 460,000 anti-personnel mines” had been destroyed, notes the Report, while a stockpile of 7.1 million landmines still remains to be destroyed. Moldavia has declared a stockpile of 12,121 mines but signed an agreement with NATO in 2001 for assistance in the destruction of landmines, to be completed by the end of this year. The Netherlands play a leading role in the promotion of the Treaty and contributed 13.9 million dollars in 2002. The same goes for Norway (which allocated 19.65 million dollars in 2001), while Portugal reported a reduction of its stockpile of landmines at the end of 2001 (40,629 less, for a total of 231,781); their destruction began in 2002 (so far 36,654 have been destroyed). Here it will not be necessary to approve a domestic law since the penal code already prohibits such activities. By April 2002 Romania had destroyed 130,474 landmines and is planning to complete the operation in 2004, a year before the deadline expires. Slovakia has sent six mine clearance teams with an UN mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea, while Slovenia has destroyed 121,919 mines. Spain has opened an international Centre for training in mine clearance, with two special courses for Lebanese and South American participants and sent three teams of mine clearance experts to Afghanistan. In September 2001 the Spanish Parliament approved a further increase in mine clearance funding. Sweden entirely completed its programme of destroying its stockpile in 2001 and made an allocation of 8.5 million dollars in the same year. Roughly the same appropriation was made by Switzerland, which this month hosted the fourth meeting of the signatory countries of the Ottawa Treaty in Geneva. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, the allocation of funds has dropped (12 million dollars in 2001/2002 as against 16 million in the previous year) and it is presumed that supplies of landmines have continued to be exported, in contravention both of national laws and the Treaty bannning their production and use. Patrizia Caiffa