Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States provided the first clue to its unchanged landmine treaty policy Tuesday 1 December in Cartagena, Colombia, saying its ongoing review of the policy will take time. The US baffled the world a week ago by first saying it had decided not to sign the Ottawa Convention, then two days later saying the matter was still under review. No explanation was given at the time. The Ottawa Convention, signed by 156 countries and in force since 1999, is also known as the international Mine Ban treaty. The Cartagena Summit in Colombia this week is the second five-year review of the progress made under the treaty.
The US issued a brief statement at the conference, saying that “the Administration’s decision to attend this Review Conference is the result of an on-going comprehensive review of US landmine policy initiated at the direction of President Obama.
Danger sign for landmines
Updated 17:20 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The goal of the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-free World, meeting in Colombia 29 November to 4 December, is to eradicate the suffering caused by anti-personnel mines once and for all.
Colombia has had the dubious distinction until recently of being the country with the most casualties from anti-personnel mines. It was overtaken by Afghanistan in 2009. Colombia alone counts 8,081 casualties of landmines since 1990, but it also has 6,285 survivors, people who have lost a limb. Landmines caused almost 5,200 casualties worldwide in 2008, one-third of them children. The 2009 Landmine Monitor Report points out that deaths from landmines are steadily decreasing, down from an average of 7,300 a year for the previous 10 years. Landmine ban groups are keen to get rid of the mines but they are also focusing more on helping survivors.
In Colombia, too, the number of casualties has been falling: 777 deaths in 2008, compared to 895 the previous year.
In Colombia, rebel groups such as Farc and the ELN, as well as paramilitary groups, have planted anti-personnel mines on an estimated 60 percent of the territory. Insurgents increasingly finance themselves through the drugs trade, reported Human Rights Watch in a section on Colombia in its World Report 2009, published in January. They have been invading peripheral regions in the south of the country on the border with Ecuador, ejecting the indigenous populations, and protecting their territories from army incursions by the simple means of sowing anti-personnel mines, many home-made and attractive to children.
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.
US to be observer only at Cartagena summit
Demining demonstration in Tirana (photo: Cartagena Summit)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States will be attending the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-free World in Colombia 30 November as an observer only, following a review and recent decision not to sign the landmine treaty, US State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly said at a daily briefing in Washington Tuesday 24 November. The summit is the Second Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention, informally known as the landmines ban treaty. CNN reports that the decision comes as a surprise to observers who believed the US has been considering joining the 156 other nations who have signed the treaty, citing Human Rights Watch’s reaction. The decision also dashes hopes of the Geneva-based Cartagena Summit secretariat that the US would soon be a party to the treaty.
The official name of the treaty is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction. It’s also often referred to as the AP (anti-personnel) Mine Ban Convention. It entered into force in 1999. China and Russia are the only other major powers not to have signed the convention.
Not in interests of US defense needs
Kelly’s response when asked why the US is not signing the treaty was that “we made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs, nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland will lead efforts to backup a major conference that opens 29 November in Colombia, the Cartagena summit on a mine-free world. The conference marks the 10th anniversary of the Ottawa Treaty entering into force and provides the opportunity for its second review conference to assess progress and how well the convention is being respected.
