PRESS CONFERENCE ON 2006 MINE ACTION PROJECTS

PRESS CONFERENCE ON 2006 MINE ACTION PROJECTS

(Issued on 23 November 2003.)

While landmines and other explosive remnants of war continued to kill and maim thousands of people every year, the number of new victims had been steadily decreasing since the treaty banning anti-personnel mines went into effect six years ago, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference today.  

Speaking on the release of the new report Portfolio of Mine Action Projects 2006, Dermont Carty, Landmines Coordinator, Landmines and Small Arms Team of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the decrease in the human toll of landmines could be attributed to the international communities’ concerted effort to clear mined land, teach people how to avoid danger, and destroy stockpiled mines, and the goal of achieving a world free of landmines could be achieved in a matter of years. 

“It will require sustained effort by mine affected countries themselves, non-governmental organizations and the 14 United Nations agencies and programs involved in mine action”, Mr. Carty said.

Using the Sudan as an example of the Project’s work, he said demining efforts were being made in the Sudan to ensure for the safe deployment of peacekeepers, the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees, and the delivery of humanitarian aid.  Projects in Afghanistan would lend to reconstruction and development, and ongoing projects in Cambodia were focused on strengthening the Government to implement their own mine action projects.

The 2006 Projects, sponsored by UNICEF, the UN Mine Action Service, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), featured 350 mine action project proposals for a total of 30 countries and 3 territories, Mr. Carty said.  Currently, there was a $391,000,000 short fall in funding for the projects.  The battle against landmines could be won and the actions described in the new portfolio of Mine Action projects would help to win that battle sooner, he added.

Asked about the number of landmines left in the world, he said there was no exact number available, but many surveys were being conducted to try and determine the figure, including the Survey Action Centre in Washington.  The Centre was currently in the process of completing 13 landmine impact surveys, and material on the subject was available on their website.

In response to a question about land mine removal activities being disrupted because of violence within specific countries, John Flanagan, Chief of the Programme Support Section, United Nations Mine Action Service, said that during 2005 there were a number of activities that had to be altered because of threats to the security of demining personnel, notably in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan. 

Operations in parts of the temporary security zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea also had to be suspended due to the inability to evacuate potentially injured deminers because of the restrictions against helicopters in that area, Mr. Flanagan said.  He added that there was no way to tell if deminers were being specifically targeted, but in places like Afghanistan, the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there had been serious incidents specifically involving deminers in the past year.

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For information media • not an official record