CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR COMMONWEALTH BAN ON LANDMINES
(11 November 1999) On the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban, South Africa, the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) called on the ten Commonwealth members that have not yet joined the ban on antipersonnel landmines to do so immediately.
“These ten governments are clearly out of touch with the rest of the Commonwealth when it comes to banning landmines,” said Liz Bernstein, Coordinator of the ICBL. The ten governments are India, Kiribati, Nauru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tonga and Tuvalu. “Their positions are morally reprehensible - they stand against the tide of history and should join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty now,” she said.
The ICBL is particularly concerned about allegations of mine use in recent conflicts by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. India, Pakistan and Singapore should be especially embarrassed to be among the 16 remaining countries that refuse to halt production of landmines. Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Tuvalu seem disturbingly ambivalent to the ban ­ a position that is clearly out of step with their neighbors that have joined the ban treaty. One promising country is Nigeria, which recently stated its intent to join the treaty very shortly.
The ICBL also called on the seventeen CHOGM member states that have signed but not ratified the ban treaty to ratify immediately, at the very least by the anniversary of entry into force of the ban treaty on 1 March 2000. They are Bangladesh, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Cyprus, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Maldives, Malta, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, Vanuatu and Zambia.
The ICBL called for continued and increased funding for mine clearance and victim assistance in mine-affected countries. At least fourteen Commonwealth countries are mine-affected including Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Of the 54 CHOGM member states, 27 have signed and ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, 17 have signed but not ratified and ten have yet to join. The treaty bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel landmines, requires destruction of stockpiled mines within four years, clearance of mined areas within ten years and assistance for mine victims. Several Commonwealth members worked closely with the ICBL to negotiate the Mine Ban Treaty including Canada, Mozambique, New Zealand and South Africa. The ICBL was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for Peace for turning a ban on mines from “a vision to a feasible reality.”
The 27 CHOGM States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty are Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Jamaica, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe.
Contact: Liz Bernstein, Tel. +1-202-612-4355, email: banemnow-at-icbl-org
