Swiss photographer Michael Grob on his work with Cambodian landmine victims: "Unlike in Afghanistan which is still in a state of war, we had to learn to adjust to the reality of such an amount of mines still being in Cambodian soil so long after the fighting has stopped. It was at times very difficult for me to deal with the impression left by the very high number of mine inflicted casualties - especially those of injured children. The work of the UN in Cambodia is, in my eyes, of utmost importance. It is for some communities the only opportunity for some kind of future. The situation touched me deeply and profoundly...my work for the United Nations mine action - as insignificant as it might be in the bigger picture - shall go on as long as needed." (©2011 Michael Grob)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Efforts to get rid of landmines are making good progress in many countries and funding is being maintained despite government budget constraints, a key meeting in Cambodia that closed 2 December shows. But work remains, with 4,000 new victims of landmines each year: six people died in Pursat Province, Cambodia, which hosted the meeting, Thursday 1 December when their truck triggered a mine.
The 11th meeting of the States Parties, the 158 nations that are part of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention finished in Phnom Penh with several strong commitments.
The Netherlands stated that “despite cuts in other areas, the government remains convinced of this matter” and it will maintain its €15 million annual contribution to demining and victim assistance.
Austria is increasing its 2012 funding slightly, to €1.9 million.
Cambodia funding stepped up
Austria announced its first contributions to demining and victim assistance in Cambodia, totaling €400,000. New Zealand, too, will contribute to a demining project in northeastern Cambodia: more than US$ 1 million in 2012.
Burundi bright spot
Cheering news came from Burundi, which says it has completed demining, a full three years ahead of the deadline to which it was committed. It is the 19th country to be declared mine-free.
Myanmar told the landmine ban meeting in Cambodia at the end of November that it is carefully considering the matter (Photo, ©2011, AP Mine Ban Convention)
The meeting, with 1,000 delegates taking part, marked progress in a number of areas and made media headlines over the first-ever participation by Myanmar, as an observer.
The isolated nation has been making commitments to reform, and at the land-mine ban meeting it said that “thorough study of the treaty will be continued”.
Its actions will be watched closely; it is one of three countries, along with Qaddafi’s Libya and Israel, who have been accused of laying mines in 2011.
“Convincing evidence” Syria is using mines
There is also “convincing evidence”, the group says, that Syria has used mines this year.
Tuvalu and South Sudan took their seats as the Convention’s newest adherents. Finland announced that it is on the verge of becoming the 159th to join the Convention.
Fifteen States that have not yet joined the Convention attended as observers, “signaling their openness to engage in a discussion on the devastating impact of anti-personnel mines”, a meeting press release states. The US is one of these and it reported that it is continuing to review its landmine policy.
Other signs of progress reported by the meeting: “Turkey reported the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines: 3 million mines. Burundi and Nigeria declared completion of their mine clearance obligations. Guinea Bissau, Jordan and Uganda announced that they will complete their demining programmes in coming months.”
A major and often under-funded part of the States’ commitments is helping survivors. Meeting host Cambodia, one of the most affected countries, says it is “assessing its national action plan on disability with a view to preparing a revised plan in 2012.”
Britain, Germany fail to meet commitments to demine
Germany is one of four countries with new reports of mine contamination that are falling far behind on their commitments to demine.
The town of Koblenz, Germany is the site this weekend of a massive project to defuse a bomb with 3,000 tons of explosives left over from the second world war; 45,000 people are being evacuated from their homes to allow the army and experts to get rid of it. The bomb became apparent this year due to lower water levels in the Rhine, reports NPR.
Britain has failed to clear any mines in the Falklands for the second year in a row.
“The UK has consistently failed to meet their clearance obligations under the treaty, and now have to clear more than 110 mined areas across over 7km2 in less than seven years,” the group notes.
Ayat Suliman’s brother brought an unexploded cluster munition into their house in Samarra, Iraq. The munition exploded and caused burns to form over 65% of Ayat’s body. In Iraq, the United States used at least 1,206 clusters, containing more than 200,000 submunitions; this number represents 4 percent of the total number of air-delivered weapons used by the Coalition (text, image: Magnus Fröderberg for Cluster Munitions Coalition)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government Monday 6 June agreed, as expected, to ratify the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). It signed the treaty in Dublin in 2008, along with 106 other countries, but needed to take the convention through several stages before ratification.
A key step was the revision of Switzerland’s war material act of 1996 to add penal provisions. “This act will be complemented by a ban on cluster munitions,” the Swiss Federal Council said in a statement.
“There will also be a ban on the financing of prohibited war material. Such material already includes nuclear weapons, biological and capital weapons and antipersonnel mines. Now cluster munitions will be added to the list.”
Ratification would force banks to completely dis-invest in cluster munitions companies
The move comes 10 days after a report issued by Handicap International drew attention to what it called the “Hall of Shame” of banks that invest in companies which produce cluster munitions. The two large Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, figured on the list, along with 14 other Swiss financial institutions. Both vehemently denied that they finance cluster munitions, pointing out that many of the investments listed were made before they tightened their policies in 2010 to avoid future investments in the large conglomerates which are often behind the manufacturers.
The report says, based on publicly available information, that 166 financial institutions in 15 countries have financial interests in eight companies that produce cluster munitions.
Handicap International says progress has been made in the financing area, but far more needs to be done.
Switzerland spends CHF16 billion a year on demining
French artist Raphael Dellaporto in 2008 exhibited his photos of small, delicate-looking landmines, in Geneva
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss federal government has opened a public consultation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), approved in Dublin in May 2008 and to date ratified by 46 countries. Switzerland is one of 108 countries that have signed it, but several steps will need to be completed, including consulting interested parties, before it can be ratified.
The CCM bans the use, development, production, acquisition, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, which have been in use since the second world war. They were widely used in the 1960s and 1970s in southeast Asia, particularly in Laos and Vietnam. Laos alone is estimated to have 78 million pieces of unexploded bombs, 40 years after the war there ended.
“The high incidence of unexploded cluster bombs in conflict zones is a serious humanitarian problem: unexploded ordinance continues to cause countless deaths and injuries for many years after conflicts have ended and impedes the post-conflict reconstruction of affected countries,” the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department notes in a press release on the consultation.
Switzerland spends CHF16 billion a year on humanitarian demining and clearing explosive remnants of war. But it also owns munitions.
3 Couronnes fitness room affected; anyone who used the area Monday should call police
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Aarau, canton Aargau, northwest of Zurich, evacuated 120 people Monday 11 October after the discovery of two rusty grenades dating back to the first world war. The discovery was made when family members of a person who died more than a year ago were cleaning out a building and discovered personal effects. The grenades were underneath a garage. De-miners had dismantled the grenades by midnight, but police confirmed they were indeed dangerous.
It was the second evacuation Monday, with the other at the Trois Couronnes five-star hotel in Vevey. Some 50 guests and staff were led out of the hotel after an employee who was cleaning the swimming pool was seriously injured by toxic chlorine fumes from sulphuric acid being mixed with bleach. Eight other employees were taken to hospital after emergency treatment for inhaling the fumes and the area around the hotel was closed until the toxic product could be neutralized, mid-afternoon.
Anyone who used the fitness area and left without alerting police should call 144 to check if medical measures should be taken, say Vaud police.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three people working to defuse a second world war bomb were killed and another six who were involved in the job in central Germany were injured Tuesday, reports AFP. The news agency says four bombs have been found in Berlin in the past month, pointing to the frequency with which old bombs, still live, are found in the country. The deaths come as Jordan’s Prince Mired has been drawing the attention of world leaders to the dangers of landmines left from old wars, in his role as the Ottawa Convention president’s special envoy on the universalization of the Mine Ban Convention (see GenevaLunch feature interview with Prince Mired, 2 June 2010).
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.
What landmines do: an eloquent image
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Good progress has been made in reducing the number of landmines throughout the world, but much more work remains to be done, with 70 countries still having mines or explosive remnants of war, concludes the Landmine Monitor Report 2009: Toward a Mine-Free World, an annual report published Thursday 12 November by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. This year’s report includes a 10-year summary since the reports began in 1999. The group is the research and monitoring programme of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Eighty percent of the world’s countries are party to the treaty but the report notes that “Thirty-nine countries—including China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States—have yet to join the treaty, but most are in de facto compliance with many of the treaty’s key provisions. In recent years, Myanmar and Russia are the only states using antipersonnel mines. Use by non-state armed groups decreased from a high of 19 countries in 2001 to seven countries in 2008.”
Juanes, Cuban Peace Without Borders Concert (image: 4VFnet)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Colombian superstar, 17-time Grammy award winning musician Juanes, is giving his voice to the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-free World that takes place in Cartagena, Colombia 29 November-4 December. Juanes, who has sold more than 9 million albums worldwide, in 2006 became the first musician ever to perform in the European Parliament’s debating chamber, as part of the European Union’s commitment to eradicate landmines. He organized the Peace Without Borders concert in September 2009 in Cuba, which Entertainment Daily called “the largest open air gig since the 1959 Revolution”, with half a million people attending.
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.
