Nations embrace anti-mine action plan

The summit on a mine-free world ended in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday with delegates adopting a declaration renewing their commitment to rid the world of the weapons and endorsing a comprehensive five-year plan aimed at expediting the clearance and destruction of landmines.

"We renew our unwavering commitment to achieving the goal of a world free of anti-personnel mines in which there will be zero new victims," the delegates said in their Nairobi Declaration. "We will strengthen our efforts to clear mined areas and destroy stockpiled anti-personnel mines in accordance with our time-bound obligations. We will assist mine victims and vigorously promote the universal acceptance of the convention [against landmines]."

The summit was the first review conference of the 1997 UN Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, also known as the Ottawa Convention. The convention was ratified by 144 countries and is looking for new member states.

The plan of action commits governments to a wide range of measures to combat mines and provide care for victims of the weapons during the next five years. Member nations are obliged to promote the universalisation of the convention, expedite mine destruction efforts, meet their 10-year, mine-clearance deadlines and continue providing care to mine victims.

"State parties will enhance the care, rehabilitation and re-integration efforts during the period 2005-2009," according to the plan.

"Only action will save lives and restore victim's dignity," Peter Herby, head of the mines unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said. "This plan must now be used by people who care about mine victims to ensure more and better action and better resources in the crucial five years ahead." He added, however, that the plan was "solid".

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) vowed to keep up the pressure to ensure the universal implementation of the mine ban treaty. It described the five-year Nairobi action plan as "concrete and forward-looking".

"The summit has given us renewed energy, focus and commitment for the hard work ahead," said Jody Williams, co-laureate with the ICBL of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. "The Nairobi Summit will be measured by how vigorously the action plan adopted this week is carried out."

The ICBL, however, noted that some important issues were not addressed during the summit. They include whether anti-vehicle mines that have sensitive fuses, such tripwires or tilt rods that could easily be set off by a pedestrians, are banned.

It also failed to discuss the question of what activities are allowed during joint military exercises with states that are not party to the convention and the issue of the number of anti-personnel mines retained for training by state parties to the convention, according to ICBL.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said anti-vehicle mines were also a threat to human beings.

"We cannot rest until all landmines are cleared and these indiscriminate weapons [are] banished forever," Annan said in a speech telecast from New York to delegates at the end of the summit. "We must persuade more states, including some of the world's largest, to become parties to the treaty."

Hailing what he described as a "resounding success of the conference", the president of the Nairobi Summit, Wolfgang Petritsch of Austria, said the convention was "an outstanding example of multilateralism working the way it should".

Anti-landmine campaigners were encouraged by the participation of 23 states that are not party to the treaty, including China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Sri Lanka, according to the ICBL.

"Even countries outside the Mine Ban Treaty are taking steps towards it and are complying in many ways," said Stephen Goose, head of ICBL's delegation in the Nairobi Summit. "This shows that an international norm that rejects landmines is taking hold."

Handicap International said more resources were needed to ensure the success of mine-action programmes.

"Without increased and sustained resources, and lacking better prioritisation of mine action, many states will not be able to meet the 10-year deadline for clearance provisioned by the treaty," the aid agency said in a statement. "This would potentially translate into the death and maiming of thousands of more mine victims."

According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2004, published by the ICBL, there are currently 300,000 to 400,000 mine survivors. In 2003, 86 percent of the new casualties reported were civilians and 23 percent children, according to the report.

SEE: IRIN Web Special on Humanitarian Mine Action, (with special focus on the 2004 Nairobi Summit of a Mine Free World)