ICBL Press Conference: Opening Day of the Third Meeting of States Parties

(Tuesday 18 September 2001 Managua - Nicaragua)

Jody Williams: It is difficult to start without remembering the victims of the tragic events one week ago today in the United States. But it would also be inappropriate not to remember there are thousands around the world who live with acts of terror every day – people like my colleague Diana Roa-Castro, seated here beside me, from Colombia, who will speak later, or my ICBL colleagues in Chechnya, in Afghanistan, all over Africa, who live every day with terror.

One of our goals in forming the ICBL was to deal with one type of terror –a terror less visible than the dramatic acts in the United States -- that goes on every day. Antipersonnel landmines take the lives or limbs of innocent civilians every single day. They are weapons of silent terror that cause daily casualties so that thousands of people around the world do not know, day-by-day, if they will lose life or limb.

Civil society came together in the early 90s to deal with this silent terror. Through solid strong work around the world we formed partnerships with governments which led to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The goal of the treaty is to eventually eliminate all antipersonnel landmines, to remove all mines from the ground and to aid all the victims of this indiscriminate weapon.

It is in that context that we are here in Managua this week. The First Meeting of States Parties of the Mine Ban Treaty took place in Maputo, Mozambique, a mine-affected country, the second one in Geneva, and now we are back in a mine-affected country in Nicaragua. This annual meeting is a political conference to assess both the achievements of the ban movement and the challenges that still face us regarding the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

We of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines are here with governments that are party to the treaty in order to look at different aspects of the landmine problem -- mine clearance, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, and implementation of and compliance with the treaty -- and see what remains before us in order to meet our goals. Yesterday, for example, the Nicaraguan government detonated some of its stockpiled landmines. This is one visible symbol of just one of the obligations of the Mine Ban Treaty but there are many other obligations that all states must meet. This week the conference will be assessing compliance with these treaty obligations. Other colleagues will talk more specifically about these issues in a moment.

Before I end I want to thank the government of Nicaragua for hosting this very important meeting and particularly for making the courageous decision to go forward with the meeting in this most difficult time facing the global community. In moving forward with this conference we recognize that all victims of terror are important –the thousands who died in a matter of minutes in the massive attacks in the US last week or those who fall casualty to landmines --one-by-one, day-by-day . We have survivors here who can talk very personally about the individual terror that thousands face, and we thank them for being here to remind us that there are many people who do face this terror day after day, year after year.