TREATY BANNING LANDMINES WILL BE LANDMARK IN DISARMAMENT HISTORY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT HAND-OVER CEREMONY

Press Release
SG/SM/6338
DC/2591

TREATY BANNING LANDMINES WILL BE LANDMARK IN DISARMAMENT HISTORY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT HAND-OVER CEREMONY

The following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement delivered this morning at the ceremony and press conference where the Foreign Minister of Norway handed over to the Foreign Minister of Canada the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction negotiated at the Diplomatic Conference on Landmines in Oslo earlier this month:

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you today to the United Nations for this historic ceremony. The hand-over of the Oslo treaty banning anti- personnel mines marks the last step before the formal signing of the treaty in Ottawa. It is a great accomplishment, and I congratulate you.

By initiating this process, Canada has set an example for all humanitarians, and by hosting the Oslo Conference, Norway underlined the partnership that is the essence of this worldwide effort.

I am also very pleased to welcome today the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. You have led the global grass-roots movement that has carried us all to this place and time.

You have spoken for all the innocent civilians killed, maimed and threatened by landmines, and your voice has been heard. To you, also, I offer my most sincere congratulations.

Three weeks ago, I had the privilege to address the Oslo Conference and sensed first-hand the energy and the determination behind this campaign.

I said then that the Ottawa treaty will be a momentous event in the peace-making efforts of our time.

Indeed, I believe it will be a landmark in the history of disarmament. The United Nations is proud to play our part in this noble cause.

- 2 - Press Release SG/SM/6338 DC/2591 26 September 1997

In December in Ottawa, almost 100 countries are expected to sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

That treaty will serve not only as a complement but also as an inspiration for greater and swifter progress in the Conference on Disarmament's own deliberations towards a total ban on landmines.

Together, the two avenues can truly lead to a worldwide prohibition, including all countries affected by landmines.

The Ottawa Convention is, however, only the beginning. We must then work with even greater persistence towards the removal of the millions of mines that plague post-conflict societies, from Bosnia to Angola to Cambodia.

With this treaty, we have seized on the opportunity of this new age of disarmament. We have, finally, turned the tide on the production and use of landmines and started a momentum which one day will include all nations in the fight against landmines.

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