Andrews praises landmark demining publication
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. David Andrews T.D., has praised the work of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines at the First Meeting of the States Parties to the Landmines Convention in Maputo. Ireland was the only EU member state represented at this meeting.
The Minister in particular lauded the publication during the conference of the first report of the Landmine Monitor - a civil society based monitoring project developed on his initiative.
The report - the content and work plan of which were agreed upon at a meeting in September 1998 in Dublin - is an effort by civil society to hold governments accountable to the obligations that they have taken on with regard to antipersonnel mines. The Irish Government part-sponsored the publication of the Landmine Monitor Report through a donation of US$150,000.
The report contains information on every country of the world with respect to landmine ban policy, use, production, transfer, stockpiling, mine clearance, mine awareness, and survivor assistance. The report criticises several States which have signed the landmines convention for their subsequent use of landmines, including Senegal, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau. The report also notes that three of the permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, USA), have not yet signed the Convention. It further notes that the number of States with landmine producing capacity has dropped from 54 to 16 and that the number of mines actually being produced has dropped dramatically.
The executive summary of the report is available on the world-wide-web at www. icbl.org/lm
