An international treaty to ban landmines will become law by the weekend. The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, was on stand-by in New York yesterday to accept formal ratification from the required 40 countries.
Last night, the 40th country, Burkina Faso, ratified the Ottawa Treaty. The 39 other countries, including Ireland, had already done so. Anti-landmine campaigners attending an international conference in Dublin this week were confident they would have the required 40 countries. Last night the Minister for Foreign Affairs, MrAndrews and the Irish section of Pax Christi welcomed the breakthrough.
The conference is aimed at developing an effective system to monitor the destruction of stockpiles within four years of the treaty becoming law and the clearing of mined areas within 10.
Delegates include UN and government representatives and demining and humanitarian aid agencies. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British charity, has 2,000 men and women working as de-miners in countries such as Angola, Cambodia, Laos and northern Iraq. Mr Tim Carstairs of MAG said he believed "banning and clearing mines are two parts of the same effort".
Banning landmines was an important part but the treaty, once ratified, only became law for the countries that ratified it, he said.
The funding, training and projects to keep de-mining going had to continue, he said. "All this noise and talk is going on, but groups like us are struggling to get funding together to pay the deminers, local men and women. A week ago we nearly had to put 700 de-miners out of work because we did not have the funding."
The day this was about to happen they got the funding to keep the de-miners at work for a year, a commitment of $3.5 million from a major donor, he added.
Mr Carstairs said millions of dollars had been pledged to landmine clearance, "but where is it going?" MAG was associated with Princess Diana, "but the Diana Memorial Fund is a real problem for us. Everybody assumes we're getting money from it but nobody is, and there is £70 million in the fund. The public perception is that we're doing fine."
A public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today in Dublin Castle and the Nobel laureate, Jody Williams, will be among the speakers.
