STRUGGLE TO ELIMINATE ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES KEY IN EFFORT AGAINST WEAPONS WHICH KILL AND MAIM CIVILIANS INDISCRIMINATELY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS
Press Release
SG/SM/6906
STRUGGLE TO ELIMINATE ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES KEY IN EFFORT AGAINST WEAPONS WHICH KILL AND MAIM CIVILIANS INDISCRIMINATELY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS
19990226 ADVANCE TEXT Following is the text of a message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) on Monday, 1 March:Today, March 1st 1999, marks the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines. It is a day whose arrival few could have predicted, and whose import to the millions whose lives or limbs may be saved from these barbarous weapons cannot be overestimated. For the global community of conscience who fought against all odds to see this day arrive, it is a milestone indeed.
I would particularly like to pay tribute to the efforts of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the International Committee for the Red Cross, whose visionary advocacy for what seemed a lost cause has made it a reality. They have built the foundation of a new era in the struggle against small arms and all weapons which kill and maim civilians indiscriminately. The struggle to eliminate anti-personnel mines is paramount in this effort, not only for the damage they have done, but for the permanent threat they represent to communities and villages throughout the world, from the Balkans to Africa and Asia.
The battle ahead is to make this treaty fully effective not just in law, but also in implementation; not just in the capitals of the signatories, but also in the fields and forests where mines still exist; not just in principle, but in practice. The United Nations remains deeply engaged in this effort by assisting States in locating and clearing these weapons.
I have invited all States members of the United Nations and observer States to attend the First Meeting of States Parties to this Convention, which will be held in Maputo, Mozambique, from 3 to 7 May, and hope that as many States as possible will be able to join in opening the second chapter in this vital endeavour for humankind.
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