UNICEF urges China and Russia on landmine ban

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UNICEF urges China and Russia on landmine ban

Friday, 5 September 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today appealed to China and the Russian Federation to join as full participants in the Canadian-led talks to conclude a treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines by December 1997.

Ms. Bellamy issued the call as 121 nations gathered in Oslo, Norway, for three weeks of negotiations on treaty language, which organizers hope will lead to a final document for signature in Ottawa. The treaty would prohibit the production, sale, stockpile and use of anti-personnel landmines.

Among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China and the Russian Federation (attending with observer status) are the only two that are not participating in the talks, known as the Ottawa Process. The United States announced two weeks ago that it would join the talks, although it has brought a number of reservations to the negotiating table.

"The number of nations that have joined the Ottawa Process has grown to a total that hardly seemed possible only 12 months ago," Ms. Bellamy said. "Among those who have been major landmine producers, it remains for China and the Russian Federation to announce their participation before the Oslo meeting comes to an end on 19 September. And that participation should be wholehearted -- with no reservations, exemptions or loopholes. In this matter of life or death, it is essential that the humanitarian impulse should override political considerations."

She quoted United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying in Oslo this week that the current discussions have "momentous implications for the continent of Africa and for the whole world. "The elimination of landmines has become a truly global cause, and the Ottawa Process has the potential, in the words of the Secretary-General, to `make landmines a weapon of the past and a symbol of shame,'" she said.

The Ottawa negotiations have gained extraordinary momentum over the past seven months, starting with the announcement by South Africa of a unilateral ban on the use, production and trade of anti-personnel landmines in February of this year. The South African initiative led to a series of commitments from southern African countries, including Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Then, in May, the newly elected UK Government announced that it would destroy its stocks of anti-personnel mines by the year 2005, and press more vigorously for a worldwide ban. In June, at the annual meeting of the Organisation of African Unity, 40 African countries supported a resolution declaring Africa a "landmine-free zone". In August, Germany announced that it would complete the destruction of its landmine stocks by the end of the year, in line with its complete renunciation of landmines last year.

A total of 90 countries are attending as participants in the current talks in Oslo, while 31 others have observer status.

"We appeal to every country that has stayed away from the talks, or is attending as an observer only, to join as full participants in this effort to finalize a treaty that could change the face of our planet," Ms. Bellamy said. The involvement of China and the Russian Federation is vital to this process, she said. "While it may be possible to build an irreversible momentum for a global ban on landmines without the participation of certain smaller nations," she explained, "it will be almost impossible to achieve without the commitment of China and the Russian Federation as permanent members of the Security Council."

"Every one of the 2,000 landmine casualties that occur each month is utterly needless and preventable. UNICEF is charged with representing the interests of the world's children. We cannot just sit back and watch the death toll mount while the debate rages," she said.

Despite the growing international outcry over the carnage caused by mines -- a million casualties since 1975, of which over 30 per cent of the dead and wounded were under the age of 15 -- between 20 and 50 new mines are still planted for every mine removed worldwide. A mine can cost as little as $3 to $10 to produce but up to $1,000 to remove.

Ms. Bellamy also stressed that an international ban on the production, sale, use and stockpile of anti-personnel mines is not sufficient in itself to counter the world-wide threat posed by more than 100 million mines that currently lie buried in the ground in 68 countries. Increased resources for mine clearance and mine awareness programmes are equally vital, and the physical needs and psychosocial rehabilitation of mine victims must also be addressed.