Maghreb states call for Ottawa convention on anti-personnel land mines
The Maghreban conference on anti-personnel Land mines that took place here January 25-26 called on Maghreban countries to fully adhere to the Ottawa convention on anti-personnel land mines.
The conference, the first of the kind ever to discuss the issue of anti-personnel land mines in the Arab Maghreb, underlined that the mines seriously threaten the region and impact on economic and social life as well as on the environment.
It called on the states that were behind the placing of these mines in the Maghreb during World War II and during the colonial era to cooperate with Maghreban countries to clear the mines from the region.
International organizations were likewise urged to extend assistance to Maghreban countries and NGOs to free the region from the mines and take care of the victims.
Participants recommended the elaboration of strategies to foster awareness of institutions and the public opinion to the anti-personnel land mines problems. They called in this respect the Arab Human Rights Institute to work out training and information programs to the attention of the civil society.
The conference, sponsored by the Tunis-based Arab human Rights Institute in cooperation with the United Nations, is part of the efforts to implement the provisions of the Convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and on their destruction that was signed in Ottawa, Canada, by 127 countries.
Experts representing mainly non-governmental organizations from Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia attended the conference.
Only five Arab countries --Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar and Yemen-- have so far signed the convention that will come into force next March 1st.
According to the director of the France-based armaments transfer observatory, North Africa counts no less than 10 million anti-personnel mines placed during the colonial era.
The Ottawa convention stresses the need to put an end to the sufferings and casualties caused by anti-personnel mines, that kill or maim hundreds of people every week, mostly innocent and defenseless civilians and especially children and underlines that these mines obstruct economic development and reconstruction, inhibit the repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons, and have other severe consequences for years after emplacement.