ICBL Denounces Attacks on Mine Clearers in Afghanistan
Author/Origin: Sue Wixley wixleySPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTERicbl.org |
(Wednesday 17 October 2001 Washington DC) The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is alarmed by reports that mine clearance organisations in Afghanistan are being targeted by the Taliban and condemns attacks on demining staff and offices in the strongest possible terms.
The ICBL has received detailed information from its member organisation, the Afghan Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ACBL), about a raid on an office of a mine clearance organisation in Mazar-e-Sharif earlier in the week.
According to a Peshawar-based spokesperson for the ACBL, armed personnel of the Taliban authorities forced their way into the demining organisation’s site office in Mazar-e-Sharif north of Kabul at 17h00 on 15 October. “They beat our guards after that they broke the locks of the doors and entered into the office,” said the spokesperson who did not want to be named for security reasons. “They looted all the office equipment and left nothing behind”, he added. The looted property includes vehicles, communication equipment and computers.
Staff at some of the organisation’s other offices in Afghanistan have also been threatened and ordered to “hand over all vehicles and communications systems to the Taliban otherwise they will snatch them by force”, said the representative.
On 11 October, the United States started using CBU-87s it its air campaign over Afghanistan, apparently against airfields. These are cluster munitions and not, as reported by the New York Times, the CBU-89 Gator which includes antipersonnel mines. The ICBL calls for a total ban on antipersonnel mines and still seeks confirmation from the Pentagon that it has not and does not intend to use antipersonnel mines in Afghanistan. The ICBL is also concerned with the use of weapons that may have similar effects to antipersonnel mines, such as cluster munitions.
For more information please see the ICBL Afghanistan and Landmines page - www.icbl.org/country/afghanistan/, particularly the ICBL press statement, “ICBL Dismayed at Bombing of Demining Organisation in Afghanistan, Urges No Mine Use”.
Contact: SPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTERicbl.org">mediaSPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTERicbl.org or:
- Liz Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, +1-202-547-2667 (Washington DC)
- Sue Wixley, ICBL Advocacy and Communications Officer, + 44 20 7820 9577 (London)
