Landmines

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Landmines and Mine Clearance Technologies
By Mr. Vehbi Dincerler (Turkey), Special Rapporteur, International Secretariat, October 1995.
Land Mines conference self-destructs
By GreenPeace, 24 October 1995. In Vienna, government experts reached an impasse in negotiations to strengthen the landmines protocol of the Convention on Conventional Weapons. The meeting apparently will reconvene in December in Geneva. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines despaired at what it saw at the conference.
Landmines: from Global Negotiations to National and Regional Initiatives
Intervention by Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the ICRC, Geneva, 2 July 1996.
Banning Anti-Personnel Landmines
U.S. National Security Council Fact Sheet. Last Updated: August 20, 1996. US government lists its record of accomplishments, but excerpts areas where it has strategic interests.
Why U.S.Won't Sign Land-Mine Treaty
By Deirdre Griswold, from Workers World, 10 July 1997. Representatives of 150 countries met in Brussels at the end of June for a conference sponsored by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL) and the Belgian government. At the end, 97 countries pledged to sign a binding treaty to ban land mines, but the United States was not among them.
Final Statement of the ICBL Regional Conference on Landmines
Budapest, Hungary, 28 March 1998. Budapest, Hungary, 28 March 1998. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the Hungarian Campaign to Ban Landmines, in cooperation with the government of Hungary, hosted a regional conference aimed at promoting a comprehensive ban on antipersonnel mines.
Logistics prevent Laos from signing mine pact
By Bhanravee Tansubhapol, The Post, 30 June 1998. The main reason Vientiane is staying out of the Ottawa convention is the obligation to rid the country of the devices within four years it cannot afford. Unlike Cambodia, which is widely covered with landmines planted from the time of the Vietnam War to recent internal conflicts, Laos is largely threatened by unexploded small bombs carpeted by the United States during its secret war in the 1970s to prevent the spread of communism and Vietnamese influence in Laos.
Ottawa Landmines Treaty Enters Into Force
By Rachel Stohl, 9 March 1999. On March 1, 1999 the Ottawa Treaty banning the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines entered into force. The Treaty was signed in December, 1997 in Ottawa, Canada by representatives from 122 of the 159 countries that were meeting. Major world powers such as Russia, China, and the United States, along with “rogue” states such as Libya, Iraq, and North Korea, still refuse to sign the Treaty.
New U.S. Mines Would Violate Treaty
Human Rights Watch, 7 April 2000. the Pentagon is pursuing a replacement for antipersonnel mines that will violate the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which the United States has said it will join in 2006. The mine allows the weapon to be victim-activated, rather than controlled by the U.S. military. This “battlefield-override-system” turns the weapon into the type the U.S. has said for years must be banned worldwide because it does not discriminate between civilians and combatants.
U.S. Also Bears Responsibility For Landmines Crisis
Human Rights Watch (New York), 5 March 2001. Human Rights Watch released fresh research showing that U.S.-manufactured antipersonnel mines have been used by government or rebel forces in at least twenty-eight countries or regions, causing numerous civilian casualties.
Washington Boycotts Global Summit on Land Mines
Radio Havana Cuba, 29 November 2004. The US, has urged the international community to consider banning all sales of antitank and other heavy land mines, but is boycotting an international conference on mines designed to kill or injure people.
Washington Plans to Produce More Landmines
Radio Havana Cuba, 29 December 2005, Today Washington not only stands in opposition to an international treaty that bans the use and production of antipersonnel landmines, but also intends to produce new ones. In reversal of its earlier policy, the U.S. is reportedly planning to produce a new generation of landmines called “Spider”.
If It Looks Like a Landmine, Smells Like a Landmine…
By Scott Stedjan and Matt Schaaf, Foreign Policy in Focus, 28 August 2006. For the first time in nearly a decade, the Bush administration plans to begin production of a new generation of antipersonnel mines. These networked munitions systems are high-tech landmines and carry the same abhorrent side effects they always have.