UK steps up landmine fight

 

LONDON, United-Kingdom, November 25, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A three-year extension to the UK’s de-mining programme, which will continue vital work to reduce the number of casualties caused by land mines and cluster munitions across the globe, was announced today by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander. 

 

This comes on the eve of a meeting celebrating the 10 years since the historic signing in Ottawa of the Mine Ban Convention, and just a week before the remarkable move by over one hundred countries to end the use of cluster munitions as a weapon of war.

 

Next week the UK, and over one hundred other countries, will sign the Cluster Munitions Convention in Oslo. We will be banning an entire category of weapons which can leave a deadly post-conflict legacy for civilians, claiming many innocent lives.

 

£30 million has been pledged for the clearance of landmines and other unexploded ordnance including cluster munitions from 2010 to 2013. This funding shows the UK’s continued commitment towards making the world a safer place.

 

The Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander said:

 

“Since 2001 the Department for International Development has played a leading role in ridding the world of the scourge of anti-personnel landmines and other unexploded ordnance. It is now eight years since the UK ratified the Mine Ban Treaty (the Ottawa Convention). Since then over 30 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines have been destroyed, and in Afghanistan casualties have more than halved. Despite this, much more needs to be done.

“Over the next three years, we will aim to reduce the impact of anti-personnel mines in developing countries through support to well established and effective de-mining organisations. And we will help mine affected countries develop the means to manage and deal with the remaining problems themselves.”

 

Notes to Editors

 

 

1.      Since 2001 the Department for International Development has contributed at least £10 million per year on global mine action.

2.      Much has been achieved by the international community during this period: mine casualties continue to decline; there is virtually no trading of anti-personnel mines anywhere in the world; over 30 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines have been destroyed; and large areas of land have been cleared of mines and rendered productive again.

3.      The UK has made a significant contribution to this in a number of badly affected countries. For example, since 2002 DFID has spent over £6.5 million on demining projects in Afghanistan; during that time the number of casualties has more than halved.

4.      DFID will spend this year alone over £1.5 million in Cambodia, where the number of casualties has dropped from over 1,500 per year in the early 1990s to under 500 in 2006. More recently, following the conflict in Lebanon last year, DFID provided over £2.5 million for rapid response to remove cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance from residential and agricultural areas.

 

 

 

SOURCE : UK Department for International Development (DFID)