Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The United States heads into the Cartagena Summit, which opens Sunday 29 November in Colombia, now saying that it is continuing to review its policy on signing the international Mine Ban treaty. The US is sending a sizeable official observer team to the summit, with groups from the State Department, Pentagon, US Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Cartagena Summit is the second review of the 1997 Ottawa Convention that bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines. More than 1,000 delegates, including several heads of state, will participate in the summit, which will assess progress made in clearing the world of landmines.

Cause of US shift unexplained

The US said in a statement issued Wednesday 25 November that it is still reviewing its position on signing the 10-year-old Mine Ban treaty – the opposite of what it said the previous day, but it was unclear if the statement was a correction of an error, a change in tactics ahead of the Cartagena Summit that opens 29 November in Colombia, or a change of heart following harsh criticism.

A day earlier, Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly had said the US review had ended and the country would not be signing the treating.

Kelly’s Tuesday remark, made during the State Department’s daily press briefing, prompted dismay among groups who support the largely popular treaty, which has been signed by 156 countries, including all other Nato countries.

US keen to be seen to support landmine bans

Landmine survivor, Cambodia (photo, Cartagena Summit)

Landmine survivors, El Salvador (photo, Cartagena Sumit)

The second statement, that US policy is still under review, came as both a relief and a confirmation that the US intends to continue its role as a strong supporter of efforts to rid the world of mines, despite not signing the treaty, say observers.

”The fact that the USA has decided to participate in the work of the convention for the first time suggests that perhaps the door is not fully closed on the USA eventually joining the rest of the world in this important cause,” says Kerry Brinkert, director of the AP Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit, in Geneva, which has played a key role in setting up the Cartagena Summit.

The US is largely compliant with the terms of the treaty: it has not used landmines since the 1991 Gulf War and it has not produced them since 1997. It does, however, continue to hold a stockpile of 10 million landmines and the treaty calls for the destruction of stockpiles. Other large producers, such as France, have been reducing or have eliminated their stockpiles in accordance with the treaty.

The US has also spent $1.5 billion in demining efforts and programmes to help survivors, Kelly noted this week.

A US MIssion spokesperson in Geneva, Michael Parmly, insisted to GenevaLunch that the US “is engaging” in Cartagena. He also noted that the technology is changing, implying this could at some point influence a change in US attitudes towards the treaty.

The official statement on Cartagena and US participation, issued 24 November by the State Department, indeed puts the accent on action: “. . .we are the world leader in humanitarian mine action. Since 1993, the United States has delivered more than $1.5 billion in aid to nearly 50 countries, contributing to significant reductions in casualties from mines and other explosive remnants of war, and helping communities set the stage for post-conflict recovery. We share common cause with all who seek to protect innocent civilians from indiscriminately-used landmines, both antipersonnel and anti-vehicle, and we consider our participation in this conference an opportunity to engage on the future of mine action.”

Links to other sites: AFP/Yahoo, AP Mine Ban Convention, IPS news agency, Reuters

Background stories, GenevaLunch

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