Moscow Kicks Off/Ukraine

Update Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 13:36:54 PDT
From: liz bernstein
Subject: moscow kicks off/ukraine

hi ya'll -

the moscow conference was opened this morning by
Mary Robinson, who began an inspiring speech by noting she was
'conscious of the human rights issues of banning landmines' and its
relevence to her work as commissioner of human rights. she commented
that it was good to see this meeting happening here and seeing the
russian federation give leadership by signing/ratifying the treaty this
year would be wonderful.

it was a full day of speeches and presentations of the 150 participants
from russia, CIS as well as international participants,
and more info will be coming soon. for now here is an article
from the ukraine trip done just prior to moscow.

ban em yeltsin!!!
liz

Subject: World: Campaigners Press For Landmine Destruction
Date sent:Wed, 27 May 1998 08:37:09 -0400

http://www.rferl.org:80/nca/features/1998/05/F.RU.980526123727.html

World: Campaigners Press For Landmine Destruction

By Katya Gorchinskaya

Kyiv, 26 May 1998 (RFE/RL) -- Last year's Nobel Prize winner, Jody
Williams, is visiting Ukraine
in a bid to persuade the government to join her effort to ban landmines
worldwide.

The campaign, started in Canada, has already attracted 126 countries
that signed an agreement last year to destroy their mines. Under this
agreement, countries are committed to get rid of all their mines within
four years. Ukraine has not joined this agreement so far, but has
recently been
destroying some of its mines. According to Williams, 1,100 mines have so
far been destroyed out of the country's estimated ten-million.

Williams said the number is but "a drop in the ocean." Still, she said
she believes the country
understands the issue and is very interested in continuing the process.

Williams and fellow activists from the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines yesterday met
several Cabinet officials, including Presidential Chief-of-Staff Yevhen
Kushnaryov and Foreign
Minister Borys Tarasyuk. They also met Afgan war veterans, activist
groups and students.

Williams said the government members she met showed an interest in
continuing disarmament, and even joining the anti-mine agreement. But
she said they wanted to make sure they receive adequate support from the
international community to provide them with the resources to comply
with terms of the treaty.

Canadian Ambassador Christopher Westdal said that Ukraine's failure to
sign the anti-mine treaty
would be inconsistent with the country's record of disarmament and
peacekeeping. Since its
independence in 1991, Ukraine has destroyed or exported all of its
nuclear weapons, and has
participated in many peace keeping efforts across the globe.

Williams will continue her peace mission in Russia, which also has a
large number of mines to be
destroyed.

Russian news agencies (Interfax/Itar-Tass) yesterday quoted the Defense
Ministry as saying that
Russia has decided to destroy up to half-a-million anti-personnel mines
this year, in addition to an
earlier approved target for 1998. The country's industry is reported
already to have processed more than 80,000 such mines. The ministry said
Russia could n-o-t destroy all its mines at once, primarily due to, what
it called, "financial and technical reasons."

Estimates suggest that developing alternative weapons and accumulating
their minimum reserves
would take at least ten years.

About 100 delegates from the Commonwealth of Independent states and
Baltic countries are due to convene in Moscow tomorrow for a three-day
conference -- the theme of which is about taking
steps toward a future without landmines.

According to United Nations' estimates, land mines kill 26,000 people
every year, and around
100-million mines are buried in more than 60 countries all over the
world.

26-05-98