Warring parties sign anti-mine pact

The United Nations system has signed an agreement with both the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on UN support to remove landmines from the war-torn country. Both the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A would, with help form the UN, jointly develop a national mine action strategy to meet emergency humanitarian needs, the UN said on Friday. Although peace talks between the government and rebels are currently stalled, the strategy would also attempt to deal with the needs in a post-conflict Sudan, and mine action offices would be established in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as well as the southern aid centre of Rumbek. The agreement was signed during the Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Convention, which took place in Geneva last week, the UN said. Sudan has signed, but not yet ratified the Ottawa Treaty against landmine use, and has repeatedly denied recently laying landmines, claiming the SPLM/A is primarily responsible for their use in Sudan. After citing continued use of mines by rebel groups, the Commissioner General of the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission said in May the government would ratify the Ottawa Treaty, but only when "the above-mentioned violations will be ceased", The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its Landmine Monitor report for 2002. If the government were to ratify the treaty, it would have to observe a timetable in which it would be required to destroy landmine stockpiles, humanitarian sources told IRIN recently. The SPLM/A is not a party to the mine ban treaty, as it can only be signed by recognised national governments. However, the rebel group did sign in October 2001 a separate agreement on a total ban on antipersonnel mines throughout territories under its control - the Geneva Call Commitment to Non-Use. At the Fourth States Parties meeting, delegates had "agreed to urge non-State actors to cease and renounce the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines", Ambassador Jean Lint of Belgium, president of the meeting said. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, figures compiled by the Sudanese government show there are some two to three million landmines and unexploded ordnance in Sudan, and mine accidents have resulted in more than 70,000 amputees and an equal number of deaths.