International Campaigns Support Efforts: USA - Ban Mines Today!

(11. July) During the past year, since May 1999 when the ICBL added the US to its 'most wanted list' of targeted nations to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, campaigns around the world have organized events and undertaken advocacy initiatives to urge the US to Ban Mines Now! Events organized include:

• AUSTRALIA: The Australian Network to Ban Landmines participated in the global 'USA Ban Landmines Today' Call for Posters. On 29 May, The Hon Alexander Downer (Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs), The Hon Graham Edwards (ALP Member for Cowan and landmine survivor) and Ms Janet Hunt (Executive Director, ACFOA) assessed the posters collected from across Australia. All three made statements urging the US to sign and ratify the Mine Ban Treaty, as well as other countries that have not yet signed and ratified. Read their report.

• BELGIUM: The Belgian Campaign to Ban Landmines, coordinated by Handicap International launched a postcard campaign 1 March 2000 in six cities and collected 5000 cards that day. They presented petitions from landmine survivors worldwide urging President Clinton to join the treaty to the US Ambassador in Belgium. They have since collected 25,000 cards, which, proportionate to the population would be the equivalent of 600,000 cards in the US. They have come to participate in USCBL events and will deliver them in Washington 11 July. Read their press statement

• CANADA: Mines Action Canada, the Canadian member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, has taken the lead in promoting the Youth Against War Treaty around the world and in collecting signatures. Through the ICBL and other networks, signatures will be collected from all corners of the world. These signatures will be presented to the next President of the United States of America. MAC is aiming to present these signatures on March 1st, 2001 – the second anniversary of the treaty becoming international law. http://www.icbl.org/youth

GUATEMALA: Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu participated in a forum on landmines 8 July after a Peace Jam event. See news article below.

JAPAN/CAMBODIA: Tun Channareth, ICBL's International Ambassador from Cambodia, visited Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Nagasaki to give a series of JCBL talks on banning landmines, before heading for Okinawa to attend a Symposium held on July 15, 2000. This Symposium is focused on the U.S. position towards ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) a week before the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit Meeting 2000. Tun Channareth was invited by JCBL (Japan Campaign to Ban Landmines) as a keynote speaker of the symposium. He is to urge U.S.A. to sign the MBT. Although Japan has already signed and ratified the treaty, it still has many stockpiled APMs in the US military bases in Japan. There were 263 U.S. Bases in 1968, and 117 of which were in Okinawa. Reth's question to the Japanese government is, "Why is this possible?…We need to build peace in each country." Reth asks the United States to make peace and justice for the world, not suffering. "It is true that the United States helps with money for mine clearance and for assisting the victims. But it is NOT ENOUGH. The problem must be addressed at its ROOT--- the production and export of mines. We need peace in every corner of the world."

• UK: The UK Working Group Against Landmines, the UK member of the ICBL, launched a postcard campaign for 1 March 2000 urging US Presidential Candidates to support the Treaty and commit to having the US join the treaty upon election.

• WORLDWIDE: Campaigns around the world delivered a Survivors Petition from 1800 landmine survivors in numerous countries calling on President Clinton to join the treaty to embassies around the world on 1 March 2000, the first anniversary of entry into force of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Numerous international visitors to the ICBL website have signed on-line petitions and sent email letters to Clinton.

Media from GUATEMALA: Nobel laureate urges U.S. to sign landmine ban.

07/07/2000 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2000.

GUATEMALA CITY, July 7 (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, an American famed for her battle to eradicate the use of landmines, on Friday urged the United States to sign an international treaty banning the devices.

"We need real leadership from the United States. We need them to sign the treaty," said Williams, who won the prize in 1997 for her International Campaign to Ban Landmines .

"In the western hemisphere, only the United States and its good friend, Cuba, haven't signed the treaty," she told reporters at a news conference in Guatemala City.

Williams was in Guatemala following an invitation from the Central American nation's own Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maya Indian activist Rigoberta Menchu. The two will participate over the weekend in a forum on landmines.

Although no comparison can be made with heavily mined countries such as Angola, where millions of landmines are planted, thousands of the devices lie hidden in war-ravaged Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Williams said she was confident the United States would not use landmines again. The country was withholding its signature for fear that such a worldwide agreement would set a precedent for international bans on other arms, such as nuclear weapons, she said.

"For me the landmine is more than a very cruel weapon that continues to kill people long after wars have finished," said Williams. "It is a metaphor for all the difficulties that come to a society after a war is over.