Monday 29 November 2004, 22:12 Makka Time, 19:12 GMT
Ethiopia, one of the world's most mine-infested countries, has joined a global landmine ban as more than 100 nations met to rejuvenate the campaign to eradicate the weapons and aid victims worldwide.
Experts in Ethiopia say up to 250,000 mines lie along its contentious border with Eritrea - undetected until a child or farmer stumbles across them.
However, there may be four times that number littered across the huge Horn of Africa country.
"It's one of the most infested countries in the world," UNICEF Country Director for Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungqvist said. "It comes from a long history of war, starting from Italian occupation." <snip>
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A15728E0-9773-411E-89CA-7E6B50CE42EB.htmThailand urges global landmine fund
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Thailand called for a global fund to finance landmine removal and aid for victims Monday at the first five-year review of the international treaty to ban landmines.
Activists and government officials have claimed some successes but despair that the world's largest landmine producers still make, use and sell the deadly devices. Thailand, the first Southeast Asian country to sign the treaty, proposed the new fund, saying it could push governments to act faster in eliminating landmines.
"Firm commitment and resolve is not enough. Adequate resources must be made available," Thailand's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sorajak Kasemsuvan told more than 1,300 delegates representing more than 100 countries, multilateral organizations, activist organizations and survivor groups. <snip>
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/11/29/740262-ap.htmlAngola rebuilds on carpet of landmines
LUANDA, Nov 29 (Reuters) After nearly three decades of war, Angolans are rebuilding their lives on a carpet of landmines.
''In places like (the northeastern province) Moxico where lots of people are returning home from neighbouring countries after the end of the war, thousands of people are actually living in minefields. It's extraordinary,'' said one aid worker.
''People go into minefields all the time, just to do the things they need to do to survive. They weigh up the risks and choose to go in anyway,'' she said. <snip>
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=83329Evidence of Afghan mine problem not hard to find
Monday November 29, 2004 (1321 PST)
KABUL, November 30 (Online): It doesn't take long for a visitor to Afghanistan to grasp that it is the most heavily mined country on the planet.
The first Afghans many foreigners see as their plane comes in to land at Kabul's war-battered international airport are U.N.-contracted deminers using bayonets to probe inch-by-inch for lethal ordnance left over from a quarter century of war.
While this picture -- and the wreckage of destroyed aircraft and bombed out airport buildings -- may not encourage the nervous traveller, the work is a vital part of internationally backed reconstruction efforts.
It is also a tribute to the success of the world's biggest mine action programme which the government hopes will receive fresh support from a global conference on landmines opening in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday.
Patrick Fruchet, spokesman for the U.N. Mine Action Centre in Kabul, said the airport project showed the Afghan mine clearance effort had moved from a purely humanitarian phase, which involved clearing land needed for agriculture or returning refugees, to the additional task of facilitating development. <snip>
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=85159
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