|
|
Change Your Life! |
Princess Diana’s effort lives on |
|
News
|
|
|
September 12, 2000
GENEVA (AP) - Anti-land mine campaigners Monday urged governments that have stopped using the weapons to show "more vigor" in shaming and isolating countries that have yet to join them. Countries such as Angola that continue to use land mines despite having signed the global ban should come under special pressure, said 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL). "We expect a little bit more vigor after the end of this week," Williams said as delegates gathered for the second annual meeting of countries that have ratified the 1997 Ottawa treaty outlawing the weapons. The treaty came into force March 1, 1999. It has been signed by 138 governments and ratified by 101. Williams said pressure also should be applied to countries such as the United States, China and Russia that have yet to sign. The meeting, which opened Monday, will review progress on the accord, which bans stockpiles of mines and commits nations to destroy stocks within four years and clear all mines from their territories in 10 years. "There is still a very long way to go before we can cts the United States to approve the treaty by 2006, but only if the armed forces are able to come up with an alternative. The ICBL study estimated that more than 250 million mines remain stockpiled in 105 nations. China leads the list with some 110 million mines, followed by Russia with 60-70 million, Belarus with 10-15 million and the United States with 11 million, it said. Ukraine, Pakistan and India each were estimated to have stocks of more than 4 million mines. Of those countries, only Ukraine has signed the treaty.
|