Landmines... again

For Christmas I posted a delightful blog about landmines, namely in Bosnia. This was to remind you that despite the Christmas cheer (personally the commercialisation of Christmas had defeated the whole point of it) the landmine issue was not resolved.

The late Princess Diana with the Halo Trust put the landmine issue on the map with the Ottawa Treaty (aka the Land Mine Treaty) which has been signed and ratified by 100 countries. Its purpose is to prohibit, prevent the use of and remove all landmines 10 years after it’s signing – which basically is now. Has Bosnia been cleared? Has Cyprus?

The landmine is now a stigmatised weapon, no government wants to be seen using it (only two countries used it last year) but this has still not curtailed its use. This is not helped by the fact that the UN is shifting its funding elsewhere as some of the places that need to be de-mined are just too dangerous to work in. Other places like Bosnia have political difficulties which does not help their country’s demining.

America has not signed the Ottawa Treaty – due to Korea although by 2010 all US mines are meant to self-destruct. The UK too hasn’t signed the Treaty, despite Diana being a patron of it, due to the war in Las Malvinas/Falkland Islands. The UK has yet to clear out the mine from the Islands saying that they have lived there with them and the landmine areas are clearly marked so why bother with the cost. The argument against this is that clearing out landmines is a legal obligation.