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  until the next mine victim. Time for change.  
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UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Wednesday on nations to do more to ensure landmines are banned and destroyed around the world. Annan told an international conference on a protocol to the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention, which is meeting in Geneva this week, that new ratifications have dropped from 11 in 2000 to five this year. In a message delivered by the head of the UN office in Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Annan said "the international community should do its utmost to reverse this trend. The goal of universal membership needs to be brought significantly closer year by year." The protocol, adopted in 1996, aims to eliminate the threat to humans from landmines not banned by the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention. So far 73 nations have ratified the protocol or signaled their intention to be bound by it. Annan said "landmines continue to take the lives of innocent civilians, to maim men, women and children indiscriminately, to aggravate the disastrous economic consequences of armed conflicts,and to threaten future generations." More News |
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