Statement by Angelina Jolie: for the Fifth Meeting Of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty

(Monday 15 September 2003 ) Angelina Jolie, American actress and Academy Award winner, sent this statement of support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines for distribution at the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in Bangkok, Thailand (15 – 19 September 2003).

“This year I cleared a bunch of antipersonnel landmines from my backyard. I hired a small team of deminers to detect and remove them. They found and destroyed 48 landmines. It is my home in Cambodia - one of the most mine-devastated spots on earth.

Before I went to Cambodia to film ‘Tomb Raider’, I hadn’t seen with my own eyes what antipersonnel mines could do. I hadn’t yet seen the old man of the village being led around by his grandson: a mine that he set off while working his field blinded him. I hadn’t heard the grief of a mother whose child was blown apart by the weapon: her daughter was on her way to the river, to swim with friends. I hadn’t gotten used to the ‘Beware of Mines’ signs dotted around the place or the mine risk education posters nailed to trees, nor learnt about keeping to the footpath and watching your step.

No, before that I couldn’t have imagined how, if you live somewhere like Cambodia, mines affect everything. Nor could I have guessed at how difficult, how dangerous and time-consuming, it is to clear these weapons once they are laid.

Most Cambodians have mines in their backyard. But they do not have the same options I had of hiring a demining unit or waiting for the land to be cleared before using it. That’s because mines tend to affect the poorest and the most isolated communities, making life much harder. And Cambodia is far from unique -- the story elsewhere in Asia, and beyond, is very similar.

I am pleased that so much has already been done to tackle landmines in Cambodia and other countries. But I am also worried about the other backyards that are waiting to be cleared – and there are many of them. Also, there are governments and armed groups that still use landmines, who need convincing to stop, and others that need to be dissuaded from producing or stockpiling them in such large numbers.

I am a staunch supporter of your important work in banning these terrible weapons.

I wish you well in your deliberations for the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. You are doing an important job, and a job that must be finished. Thank you.”