Experts gathered in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Wednesday to draw up plans to eliminate landmines from sub-Saharan Africa, the most heavily mined region in the world.
The three-day conference attended by diplomats, landmine experts and other officials is expected to come up with a common stand on landmines that kill and cripple 15 000 people every year worldwide.
The experts will also assess hurdles in clearing mined areas and assisting victims in Africa, officials said.
”The greatest harm to the civilian population and children is from landmines,” said Wolfgang Petritsch, Austria’s ambassador to the United Nations. ”We must eliminate this weapon.”
Angola and Mozambique are Africa’s most heavily mined countries, a legacy of years of civil war.
The experts are meeting ahead of a major summit to review implementation of the Ottawa Convention, which calls for banning and destroying all landmines by 2009.
A total of 143 states, including 48 African nations — 90% of the continent — have joined the convention.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco and Somalia are the only African countries that have not ratified the convention, which came into force in 1999.
Petritsch, who is the president of the November Summit on a Mine-Free World, called for the destruction of the estimated 200-million landmines stockpiled in the world.
”The effects of these weapons are there many years after the conflict,” he said.
Global landmine casualties have halved from an estimated 35 000 a year since the convention came into force.
An estimated 37-million landmines have been destroyed but there are still 200-million left in the world.
Eighteen countries are believed to have the potential to manufacture landmines, with the largest producers being Russia, China and Singapore.
Nations must be free of landmines within 10 years of joining the convention. So far, only Costa Rica and Djibouti have cleared their mines. — Sapa-AP