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Created by and for survivors, LSN empowers individuals and communities affected by landmines to recover from trauma, reclaim their lives and fulfill their rights.
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World Landmine News
Campaigners warn US off use of anti-personnel landmines in Iraq
GENEVA, Switzerland, 16 sept 02 (AFP)--
Anti-landmine campaigners warned the United States on Monday against using
anti-personnel landmines if it takes any military action against Iraq.
\"The United States should not use anti-personnel mines in Iraq or elsewhere,\" Jody Williams, of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), said here in a written statement.
\"At the least, it should pledge now not to use anti-personnel mines in joint operations with Mine Ban Treaty countries, thereby putting them at risk of violating the treaty,\" she added.
Williams and the ICBL, who were jointly awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, are taking part in the fourth meeting of parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention.
Delegates from 120 countries are taking part in the five-day meeting at the UN\'s European headquarters to assess progress in the implementation of the 1999 treaty.
The US has not joined the treaty, which entered into force in March 1999, but, according to the ICBL, its current policy is to try to do so by 2006.
\"The campaign position has always been that any involvement by state parties in a military operation where anti-personnel mines are used would be contrary to the spirit of the mine ban treaty,\" Stephen Goose, head of the ICBL delegation.
\"Depending on the nature of the state party involvement in that military operation it could rise to the level of violation of the convention,\" he added.
He said that the last time the US used anti-personnel mines was against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
The US had not exported them since 1992 nor produced them since 1997, he said.
Washington is the main contributor to mine action programmes but reserves the right to use and produce the devices, Goose said, adding: \"Our fears are still there.\"
Posted: Tuesday, October 1, 2002
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