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World Landmine News
Blair to rush through UK landmines legislation

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Britain's cabinet agreed on Thursday to push legislation through parliament ratifying an international convention banning the use of landmines before the August 31 anniversary of Princess Diana's death.

Some 20 nations have already ratified the Ottawa Convention banning the manufacture, sale or use of landmines, an issue on which Princess Diana took a high profile stance in the months before she died.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's press spokesman said parliament would be asked to sit for an extra day, perhaps even a Saturday, to pass the necessary bill.

But he said the government would first need to sort out a difficult legal problem -- how British soldiers could take part in joint military operations with countries which had not ratified the convention.

"All our efforts will be directed towards getting ratification before the summer (parliamentary recess) provided this matter can be resolved," the spokesman said.

The recess is expected to begin around the end of July, with parliament not reconvening until the autumn.

Popular newspapers have recently been calling for Britain to ratify before the anniversary of the Paris car crash in which she died, saying not to do so would be an insult to her memory.

The Convention will only enter into force as an international treaty when the number of ratifying countries reaches 40. "We as the British government have taken a lead on this issue, and we want to be in the first 40," the spokesman said.

The legal problem is compounded by the fact that the United States has said it cannot sign the Convention until 2006 because it needs to keep landmine defences in South Korea at the boundary with North Korea.

The spokesman said that unless a solution was found, British servicemen could find themselves charged with breaching the Convention if they engaged in military exercises with the troops of other countries which were using landmines.

He said the government's senior law officer, Attorney General John Morris, was looking at how this problem could be avoided. "It is not as simple as it looks," the spokesman said.

Britain's House of Commons normally sits from Monday until Thursday or Friday. A Saturday sitting would usually be regarded as a sign of an emergency, such as happened at the outbreak of the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.


Posted: Friday, June 25, 1999



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