Parties sign landmine ban agreement

Somalia's various political factions and the Transitional National Government attending reconciliation talks in the Kenyan town of Eldoret have signed a commitment to ban use of landmines in areas under their control, a Somali source told IRIN.

The leaders signed the agreement with the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation Geneva Call, and committed themselves to "destroy and clear landmines in areas under their control", said Awad Ahmad Asharo, the justice minister of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia. The leaders also committed themselves "not to use antipersonnel mines for combat purposes" in the future.

Asharo told IRIN that the Puntland authorities would not only ban the use of landmines but "will make sure that no new mines are brought in". He said the Somali leaders who signed the agreement requested the international community to help landmine victims in the country.

Asharo said the Somali groups had signed the agreement as "non-state actors", since Somalia was not party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

The Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia welcomed the agreement. "We certainly welcome any agreement which results in safer conditions for the Somali communities, including the ban on the use of landmines and the cooperative efforts to clear existing mines", Sonya Green, the spokeswoman for the office, told IRIN.

The UN Development Programme-Somalia, in collaboration with its partners, was currently conducting a landmine survey "to determine the extent and location of mines in Somalia", Green
said.