Implement landmine ban, workshop urges governments

A regional workshop to discuss landmines in East Africa has ended in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, with an urgent call for renewed commitment by governments to implement the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines. The workshop, organised jointly by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Governments of Kenya and Canada, concluded that although significant progress had been made in ridding the region of anti-personnel mines, governments needed to increase their efforts to fulfil the obligations of the Convention, ICRC said in a statement on Monday. Five years after the entry into force of the 1997 Ottawa Convention of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, it said, 46 of the 48 nations of Sub-Saharan Africa were now party to the treaty. Yet Africa remained the most mine-affected continent in the world, the meeting, which brought together defence and foreign affairs officials from 10 African East African countries, along with envoys from Thailand and Austria, noted. Although 141 State Parties have signed the Convention, there are only five years to go before the 2009 deadline for clearing the majority of mine-affected areas, ICRC said. This deadline could only be met if increased technical, material and financial resources were made available. Pascal Cuttat, the head of ICRC's Regional Delegation said the treaty was a "unique example of States, international organizations and civil society working together in partnership to try to resolve an urgent humanitarian crisis". The meeting was held as part of preparations for the Summit for a Mine Free World, to be held in Nairobi in November. That summit is expected to bring together all 141 States Parties to the Convention to take stock of global progress made since the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention and to plan future action.