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| Tuesday, 30 November 2004 |
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Summit calls for total landmine ban NAIROBI, Monday (Xinhua) An international conference on landmine opened here with participants calling for total ban of production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmine to make the world mine-free. In his opening remarks, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said " unless all the existing stocks are destroyed, and unless production of these lethal weapons is brought to an end, the threat posed by landmines will continue to be with us." He urged governments to intensify conflict resolution efforts by resolving conflicts before they escalate into full-scale war. Jointly organized by the United Nations, International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Kenyan Coalition Against Landmines, the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, has brought together senior government officials of 143 countries across the world. The summit, to be held in Kenya's capital Nairobi from Nov. 29 - Dec. 3, will see the first review conference of the milestone Ottawa Convention and the most significant event of the treaty since its signing in 1997, according to the organizers. During the conference, participants will review the progress of the efforts made in ridding the world of landmines, and produce a concrete action plan for the next five years. The President-Designate of the Nairobi Summit Wolfgang Petritsch also called at the opening ceremony for increased efforts and action to address the man-made humanitarian catastrophe posed by landmines. "The problem of anti-personnel mines is unique, as the solution to it is within our reach if we maintain the same intensity and even increase in coming years as we have in the past. My expectation is that the summit will propel us close to our dream of a world free of landmines," Petritsch said. The Ottawa Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, was signed in 1997 and entered into force in 1999. Africa is the world's most mine-affected region and many saw it as fitting that the First Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention is being held in Africa. |
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