Kabul, Afghanistan
27-29 March 2004
Representatives of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its Landmine Monitor research network met in Kabul, Afghanistan from 27-29 March 2004 for their annual Asia-wide regional meeting to prepare the ICBL’s sixth annual report on landmines.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted an opening ceremony for their meeting, including a press conference. High-level government officials and mine action practicioners that spoke included Mr. Amin Arsalah, Vice-President, and Dr. Haider Reza, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chair of the Mine Action Consultative Group. The ICBL called for Afghan leadership within the region “where antipersonnel mines are still laid, used and produced with impunity.”
The participants met with the “Father of the Nation,” Afghanistan’s former king Zahir Shah, who returned in April 2002 from 28 years in exile in Italy. He agreed to act on a suggestion to contact royal leadership in Bhutan and Brunei to lobby for swift ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty.
The campaigners visited the rehabilitation clinic of the International Committee of the Red Cross. They also joined deminers and mine survivors in a rally by through the center of Kabul, marking the beginning of the ACBL’s Mine Awareness month. The rally ended at the United Nations where a petition addressed to non-States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty was handed over calling for an end to landmine production and for universalization of the treaty. They attended a bicycle rally in Kabul’s central stadium by organized by Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation and Recreation (AABRAR), vice-chair of the ACBL.
Current chair of the Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines (ACBL), the Mine Detection and Dog Center (MDC), hosted a mine action exhibition for the representatives, which featured demining and mine risk education demonstrations by Afghanistan’s leading mine action NGOs: Agency for Rehabilitation & Energy Conservation (AREA), Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), Danish Demining Group (DDG), Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA), HALO Trust, Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA), Monitoring, Evaluation and Training Agency (META), and the Organization for Mine Awareness and Afghan Rehabilitation (OMAR).
The closed ICBL/Landmine Monitor meeting took place on Monday 28 March. Participants discussed their advocacy activities and strategies for the region in the lead-up to the Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, which opens in Nairobi, Kenya on 28 November 2004. They met in pairs with Landmine Monitor research coordinators for their region, and for ban policy, mine action, MRE, and victim assistance to discuss their draft updates for Landmine Monitor Report 2004, which is scheduled for release on Thursday, 18 November 2004.
Ten researchers for the following countries attended the Afghanistan meeting: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Indonesia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, and Taiwan. The Australia, Cambodia, China, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand researchers were unable to attend. The opening plenary received good media coverage on national television, print and radio, as well as on the BBC and other global services.
The meeting took place at the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul, where the participants also stayed. Our sincerest appreciation goes to our host, Sohrab Hakimi and his staff at MDC for their tireless work in organizing the meeting. We are also grateful to the ACBL member organizations, including the demining agencies listed above, and United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan for their generous contributions of staff-time, vehicles, and resources. Thanks also to Annalisa Formiconi, Landmine Monitor’s Regional Coordinator for Asia, for her dedicated work on this meeting.
The Kabul meeting was the last of Landmine Monitor’s regional meetings held to prepare the 2004 report. Next, from 3-5 May, researchers will come together one last time before print for the Global Meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
For more information please contact lm- at - icbl.org . Or see www.icbl.org/lm/research/
Posted by Briana Wilson at 15:16, 26 April 2004