Judy Collins continues campaign against landmines

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Judy Collins continues campaign against landmines

Wednesday, 10 September 1997: Singer-songwriter Judy Collins, back yesterday from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, spoke out strongly against landmines.

A UNICEF Special Representative for the Performing Arts since September 1995, she visited the region to raise awareness, particularly in the US, against these weapons. Her eight-day mission coincided with the gathering of 121 nations in Oslo, Norway to negotiate a treaty that would effectively ban anti-personnel landmines by the end of the year.

Ms. Collins visited schools where landmine awareness classes are now an integral part of the curriculum, and promised children that she would carry home their message and advocate for a total ban on the production and use of landmines.

"When you see the faces and hear the stories of children who have experienced war first-hand, you realize that there can be no possible justification for the existence of landmines," she said.

She saw projects for psycho-social rehabilitation that use music and art as a tool for counselling children traumatized by war. In the divided city of Mostar, she visited a UNICEF-sponsored youth centre, where children from both the Muslim and Croat communities are able meet, take part in sports, sing and dance, and perform in theatre groups.

"Art and music not only bring personal healing," said Ms. Collins. "They also help to unite and build understanding."

In the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, the singer performed her Song for Sarajevo: I Dream of Peace in front of crowds of children and their families in the city's historic cathedral square. Written in 1994, following her first UNICEF trip to the region but never sung in Sarajevo until now, the song was performed with a new verse celebrating the courage of the population and the coming of peace:

We have prayed and wept for Sarajevo
Peace has come at last
Now the bombs are still
Children dance again in Sarajevo.

On her return, Ms. Collins emphasized that although the five-year war was over, no true peace was possible until every child was safe from the threat of landmines.

"The momentum must be kept up for a total ban," she said. "There can be no half measures."