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Biographies

They come from over 70 countries and all have interesting stories and perspectives to share on the landmine issue. The ICBL will have 280 representatives of our global network in Bangkok, including landmine survivors, deminers and campaigners.

We can arrange interviews in various languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Thai, Khmer, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese and more.

Please write to media@icbl.org or contact Sue Wixley (ICBL Media Officer): + 66 (0) 5 164 2679. For Thai media, please call Sushira Chonhenchob (Handicap International Thailand Communications Manager): 02 619 7833 ext 14.

A sampling of ICBL representatives to the meeting

Habbouba Aoun

Aoun coordinates the Landmines Resource Centre in Beirut and does the Landmine Monitor report on the Lebanon. She speaks Arabic, English and French.

Charlie Avendãno

Coordinator of Landmine Monitor research in the America’s region, Avendãno works for Mines Action Canada. He speaks English and Spanish.

Simona Beltrami

As Coordinator of the Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines, Beltrami helped organise the global Landmine Monitor Report meeting in Rome (April 2003) and has been lobbying the Italian government during its presidency of the European Union. She speaks Italian, English and Spanish.

Liz Bernstein

ICBL’s Coordinator for five years and currently based in Washington D.C, Bernstein has lived and worked in Cambodia, Thailand and Mozambique. She speaks English, French, Khmer and Thai.

Sylvie Brigot

ICBL’s Government Relations Officer, Brigot has worked on the landmine issue since 1994 and is based in Paris. She speaks French and English.

Tun Channareth

A landmine survivor and activist from Cambodia, Tun Channareth received the Nobel Peace prize on behalf of the ICBL in 1997. He is one of the ICBL’s Ambassadors.

Purna Shova Chitrakar

Chitrakar has coordinated NGO efforts to ban mines in Nepal since 1995. In June 2003 she met with Nepalese armed opposition groups, and others, to persuade them to give up landmines.

Sushira (Oun) Chonhenchob

Chonhenchob is Communications Manager for Handicap International Thailand, one of the members of the Thai Campaign to Ban Landmine which hosts the ICBL’s delegation in Bangkok for the Fifth Meeting of States Parties. Handicap International Thailand is one of the longest serving non-government organizations working with landmine survivors in Thailand and Cambodia. 

Roman Dolgov

Dolgov provides the Landmine Monitor research for Russia and countries of Central Asia and speaks English and Russian.

Bob Eaton

Having worked on the landmine/UXO issue since 1980 (when he developed programmes in northern Laos), Eaton is now director of the Survey Action Center that has conducted Landmine Impact Surveys in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Thailand and Yemen, amongst other places.

Stephen Goose

Editor-in-chief of the ICBL’s Landmine Monitor report and head of the ICBL’s delegation in Bangkok.

Mohammed Shohab Hakimi

Hakimi is the director of the Mine Dog Centre (MDC) in Afghanistan. The MDC has demining programmes in different parts of that country, trains deminers and mine dog handlers and raises and trains mine dogs.

Song Kosal

Kosal lost her leg as a small girl in Battambang Cambodia. She has campaigned against landmines since the age of 12 and in 1997 launched the Youth Against War Campaign. Kosal is currently ICBL Ambassador.

Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan

Moser-Puangsuwan is Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator of Nonviolence International, advisor to the Mine Action Centre of Thailand and provides Landmine Monitor research on Burma (Myanmar). He is an active member of the Thai Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Margaret Arach Orech

A landmine survivor from Uganda, Orech coordinates the ICBL’s working group on victim assistance and works on victim assistance programmes in Uganda.

Yukie Osa

Osa works for one of the ICBL’s members in Japan, Association to Aid Refugees, and has set up landmine projects in Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, travelled to Afghanistan and does the Landmine Monitor report for China.

Sara Sekkenes

Sekkenes works for Norwegian Peoples Aid and chairs the ICBL’s working group on mine action. She has worked on NPA's demining projects in Angola  and the Balkans.

Susan Walker

Walker is the ICBL’s Intersessional Programme Officer. She has lived and worked in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and speaks English, French and Thai.

Mary Wareham

Global coordinator of Landmine Monitor, Wareham was previously coordinator of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines and the New Zealand Campaign.

Jody Williams

Founding coordinator of the ICBL and now ICBL Ambassador, Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the ICBL in 1997. She is one of only ten women to have received the prize and only the third woman in the U.S.