Biographies
Author/Origin: Media mediaSPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTERicbl.org |
(Friday 30 April 2004 ) We can arrange media interviews with one of our many experts or campaigners in Sarajevo for the Global Landmine Monitor Researchers Meeting, Sarajevo, May 3-5, 2004.
They come from over 70 countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia, and all have interesting stories, perspectives and expert knowledge on the landmine issue.
The ICBL will have 130 experts from our global network in Sarajevo, including representatives from each geographical region and thematic experts on antipersonnel landmine issues such as mine clearance, victim assistance, and mine risk education. Interviews can be arranged in various languages: English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Khmer, Thai and more.
To request an interview please write to media - insert "SPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTER" - icbl.org or contact Sue Wixley (ICBL Media Officer) or Nancy Ingram at: (+ 387) (0) 33 764 481, mobile: (+ 387) (0) 61 347 305. For Bosnian media, please call Damir Atikovic, Norwegian Peoples Aid, tel: (+387) (0) 61 133 282.
Here is a sampling of ICBL representatives and their areas of expertise attending the Global Landmine Monitor Meeting:
I. Landmine Monitor
Stephen Goose
Editor-in-chief of the ICBL’s Landmine Monitor report and the Executive Director of the Arms division at Human Rights Watch.Mary Wareham
Global Coordinator of Landmine Monitor, Wareham was previously Coordinator of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines and the New Zealand Campaign.
II. International Campaign to Ban Landmines(ICBL)
Liz Bernstein
ICBL’s Coordinator for six years and currently based in Ottawa, Bernstein has lived and worked in Cambodia, Thailand and Mozambique. She speaks English, French, Khmer and Thai.Jody Williams
Founding Coordinator of the ICBL and now ICBL Ambassador, Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the ICBL in 1997. She is one of only eleven women to have received the prize and only the third woman in the U.S.
III. Victim Assistance
Sheree Bailey
Bailey is the Thematic Coordinator for Victim Assistance research for the Landmine Monitor report and works with Handicap International Belgium.
IV. Mine Clearance
Sara Sekkenes
Sekkenes works for Norwegian Peoples Aid and chairs the ICBL’s working group on mine action. She has worked on NPA's demining projects in Angola and the Balkans.Paul Collinson
Collinson works for Norwegian Peoples Aid’s Mine Action Unit and is the Regional Program Manager for South East Europe. He has managed programs in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
V. Mine Risk Education
Stan Brabant
Brabant works for Handicap International Belgium on mine clearance and mine risk education projects in Afghanistan, Cambodia and elsewhere. He serves as Landmine Monitor Research Coordinator for mine risk education and speaks Dutch, English, and French.
VI. Africa
Mereso Agina
Agina is the National Secretary of the Maendeleo Ya Wanawawake - Kenya’s largest and oldest women’s organisation with over five million members. She is representing the Kenyan Coalition Against Landmines (KCAL), a member of the ICBL’s Coordinating Committee since June 1997 and Landmine Monitor’s Research Coordinator for Anglophone Africa.KCAL will play an integral role for the ICBL in the preparations for the upcoming 2004 Nairobi Summit on a Mine Free World, November 29-December 3. This is the first Review Conference on the Mine Ban Treaty and the most important diplomatic meeting on the Treaty since the 1997 negotiations.
Charles Ndayiziga
Ndgayiziga is the Coordinator of the Burundi Campaign to Ban Landmines. In addition, he is also the Coordinator for the Prevention of Conflict and Alert Center (CENAP), a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) working to promote peace in Burundi. He speaks French.
VII. Americas
Charlie Avendãno
Coordinator of Landmine Monitor research in the America’s region, Avendãno works for Mines Action Canada. He speaks English and Spanish.
VIII. Asia-PacificC
Purna Shova Chitrakar
Chitrakar has coordinated NGO efforts to ban mines in Nepal since 1995. In June 2003 she met with Nepalese armed opposition groups, and others, to persuade them to give up landmines.Yukie Osa
Osa works for one of the ICBL’s members in Japan, Association to Aid Refugees, and has set up landmine projects in Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, travelled to Afghanistan and does the Landmine Monitor report for China.
IX. Europe
Damir Atikovic
Atikovic had completed two years of university when war broke out in his country in 1992 forcing him to quit his university studies. He then joined the army and there received his first training about landmines. After the war he joined Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) humanitarian mine action team. He has over five years of experience in work with demining operations including manual, dog and mechanical demining teams, and is currently based in Sarajevo.Sylvie Brigot
ICBL’s Government Relations Officer, Brigot has worked on the landmine issue since 1994 and is based in Paris. She speaks French and English.
X. Former Soviet Union
Roman Dolgov
Dolgov provides the Landmine Monitor research for Russia and countries of Central Asia and speaks English and Russian.
