09 March 2006

Significant Progress Made To Reduce Land Mine Effects

Land mine problem can be solved sooner rather than later, State's Kidd says

By Wendy Lubetkin
Washington File Staff Writer

Geneva -- Through concerted international action, real progress is being made in clearing land mines and reducing their effects on lives and livelihoods in countries around the world, U.S. and U.N. officials said March 8.

The effect of land mines is a “solvable problem” that “can and will be addressed, not in some distant time frame, but in the immediate future,” said Richard Kidd, director of the State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

The number of annual casualties from land mines has declined from 26,000 three years ago to 10,000 in 2005, Kidd said.  Although that number is still significant, “there has been a marked improvement in terms of the severity of the impacts around the world,” he said.

Among the successes are Guatemala, which became mine-free in December 2005; Angola, where there has been a significant decrease in the number of mine casualties; and Afghanistan, which has registered a 12 percent decrease in casualties. The State Department considers a country to be “mine-free” when the most pressing humanitarian effects of land mines have been addressed but does not guarantee that every single mine has been removed.

Kidd said that U.S. financial support for humanitarian mine action recently surpassed the $1 billion milestone.  This includes U.S. contributions made since 1993 when the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action program was established.

Kidd spoke at a joint press conference with Paula Claycomb, director of UNICEF’s Landmines and Small Arms Unit.  Both were in Geneva to participate in a March 7 meeting of the Mine Action Support Group (MASG), an information-sharing organization that facilitates coordination among major donors and mine-action partners.  The United States recently assumed the group’s chairmanship, which rotates among donor countries.

Speakers at the Mine Action Support Group offered a variety of predictions on how long it will take to completely eliminate the negative effects of land mines on land use, according to Kidd.  “None of those predictions was more than 28 years -- and that was the worst case scenario, basically -- to eliminate the problem entirely,” he said.  But significant success in addressing the worst-affected areas can be expected even sooner, he added.

“In the case of Afghanistan, in as little as five years we will be able to address those minefields that are killing people and those minefields that are causing the greatest social and economic impact,” Kidd said.

Claycomb noted that mine action will be in the spotlight in events surrounding the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance to Mine Action, which will be commemorated for the first time on April 4.

Kidd spoke one day after the U.S. Department of State, through its Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA), announced $1.9 million in grants to UNICEF and 10 nongovernmental organizations for programs to reinforce humanitarian mine action (See related press release.)

Up to $2 million in new grants will be available from WRA in 2006 (See related press release.)

Asked how he reconciled the U.S. role as the largest supporter of land mine action with the U.S. policy decision not to sign the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning land mines, Kidd said the policy debate had not distracted mine action partners from “the common purpose of reducing the humanitarian threats from the mines that are in the ground right now, today.” That treaty’s formal name is the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer or Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

He said the United States has extensive security commitments around the world, but has worked hard to strike a balance between military requirements and humanitarian goals.

“The U.S. land mines policy, which was announced in 2004, has made it very clear that the United States will leave no mine behind, on any battlefield, anywhere in the world,” Kidd said, noting that this includes large anti-tank mines that are not covered by the Ottawa Convention.  “That is the most comprehensive commitment yet of any country,” he added.

For more information, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)