The European Parliament has appealed to all countries to sign “without delay” the Convention on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines and their destruction. The appeal is contained in the resolution of the EP on the preparation of the first Conference on the reform of the Treaty of Ottawa on anti-personnel mines due to be held in Nairobi later this year. Recalling that one of the ambitious aspects of the treaty on the banning of mines concerned the fixing of de-mining objectives at the world level with 2009 as the deadline for mine-clearance operations, the EP observed that the slow progress being made by these operations and the use of further land mines during current conflicts are preventing the achievement of these objectives without “a clear demonstration of political will and without further resources being made available by all the States that are party to the Convention”. MEPs also pointed out that the EU has pledged to allocate 240 million euros to a five-point action strategy for the period from 2002 to 2009: actions aimed at stigmatising the use of anti-personnel mines and support for their total ban, education in the risks linked to mines, mine-clearance operations, assistance to the victims, and the destruction of stockpiles.
