Latest news with #InternationalCampaigntoBanLandmines
Boston Globe
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Land mines, a Cold War horror, could return to fortify Europe's borders
Recent moves by Poland, the three Baltic states and Finland — and a vow by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — to quit a mine ban treaty that came into force in 1999 won't result in any immediate surge in the use of antipersonnel mines. Formally leaving the treaty is a six-month process. But the recent rush of countries rejecting a pillar of the post-Cold War order has outraged antimine campaigners. Advertisement 'We are furious with these countries,' said Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which in 1997 won a Nobel Peace Prize for its work clearing antipersonnel weapons and its role as the driving force behind the Mine Ban Treaty, known as the Ottawa Convention. 'They know full well that this will do nothing to help them against Russia,' Gabelnick said, dismissing a retreat from the global accord as 'just political games' by officials trying to present themselves as defenders of national security. Advertisement Senior military officials in at least three of the five countries whose parliaments recently voted to withdraw from the treaty have said in the past they saw little military utility in reviving antipersonnel mines. The weapons mostly kill civilians and offer limited defense against modern mechanized armies. The war in Ukraine 'changed everything,' said Veronika Honkasalo, a left-wing member of the Finnish parliament who is opposed to leaving the treaty, a move supported by an overwhelming majority of her fellow legislators in a recent vote. Because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, she added, 'people got really scared because we have a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia and long history of war with our neighbor.' Of the European countries that share a land border with Russia, only Norway has stayed steadfast in its commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty. The treaty, according to the United Nations, led to the destruction of more than 55 million antipersonnel mines. The weapons were widely used in the Cold War era, in conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Myanmar, and many other countries, but continued to kill people long after fighting ended. Eighty percent of the casualties from antipersonnel mines are civilians, many of them children, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which estimates that the number of people killed or maimed each year has fallen to around 3,500 from more than 20,000 over the last two decades. 'It is a horrible weapon,' Honkasalo said. Russia, the United States, China, and a few other countries never signed up to the Ottawa Convention, but more than 160 others did. Advertisement Mary Wareham, a campaigner against antipersonnel mines who was involved in treaty negotiations in the 1990s, said the announced departures were a setback after decades of work to limit civilian casualties. They also 'set a terrible precedent,' she added, for the stability of a vast edifice of international law governing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and the conduct of war itself. 'Once an idea gets going it picks up steam,' said Wareham, who is the deputy director of the crisis, conflict and arms division at Human Rights Watch. 'Where does it stop?' The push by countries near Russia to leave the treaty started last year after a visit to Ukraine by Laurynas Kasciunas, then the defense minister of Lithuania. Told by Ukrainian military officers that the ban on antipersonnel mines made it difficult to hold back Russian troops, he called for a review of their use by Baltic states. 'I understand the concerns about antipersonnel mines — they've caused immense suffering in many places,' he said in an interview. But, Kasciunas added, claims that they are of little military use are untrue. 'They do not directly stop a mechanized division, but they force the enemy to either take significant risks or commit time and resources to clearing operations,' he said. Russia's widespread use of antipersonnel mines played a significant in role in blunting a major Ukrainian offensive in 2023. In March, the defense ministers of the three Baltic states and Poland, all members of NATO, said their countries needed to pull out of the mine ban accord because 'military threats to NATO member states bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased.' Finland said in April that it, too, wanted out. Advertisement Ukraine, which formally joined the treaty in 2006, initially saw little reason to revive the use of antipersonnel mines. But, after its failed 2023 offensive and Russia's increasing reliance on foot soldiers to lead assaults, it decided they were needed. In an early blow to the treaty, the Biden administration last year approved supplying Ukraine with American antipersonnel mines. Zelensky this month announced he had signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention because Russia, never a party to the treaty, was 'using antipersonnel mines with utmost cynicism.' This article originally appeared in .
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Factbox-Which countries are quitting a key landmine treaty and why?
GENEVA (Reuters) - NATO members Poland, Finland and all three Baltic states have queued up over the past few weeks to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia. The moves threaten to reverse decades of campaigning by activists who say there should be a global ban on a weapon that blights huge swathes of territory and maims and kills civilians long after conflicts have abated. Countries that quit the 1997 treaty - one of a series of international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament - will be able to start producing, using, stockpiling and transferring landmines once again. COUNTRIES EXITING All European countries bordering Russia have announced plans to quit the global treaty - apart from Norway which said this week that, for all the increased threats, it was important to maintain the stigma around the weapons. Many have said they fear that, as U.S. President Donald Trump steps up pressure to the end thee war in Ukraine, Russia could use any pause to re-arm and target them instead. Officials have suggested a withdrawal could also put them on more of an equal footing with Russia which - along with the United States, China, India and Israel - has not signed or ratified the treaty. FUNDING CUTS As countries quit the convention, global demining efforts are also backsliding amid "crippling" U.S. funding cuts, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The U.S. government, which has halted some of its programmes under Trump's foreign aid review, had been the single largest funder of mine action, providing more than $300 million a year or 40% of the total international support, according to the Landmine Monitor report in 2024. A State Department official said in March it has restarted some global humanitarian demining programs and activities, without giving details. It has previously run major programmes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Laos. CIVILIAN VICTIMS Anti-personnel landmines are generally hidden in the ground and designed to detonate automatically when someone steps on them or passes nearby. More than 80% of mine victims are civilians, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The convention includes provisions to assist victims, many of whom have lost limbs and suffer from other permanent disabilities. In October 2024, the U.N. reported that Ukraine had become the most mined country in the world. As of August 2024, it said there had been around 1,286 civilian victims of mines and explosive remnants. STOCKPILES Under the terms of the 1997 convention, countries were supposed to destroy all landmine stockpiles within four years, although not all have complied, according to the ICRC. Poland now says it is seeking to resume production. Some of the countries pulling out of the landmines treaty, including Lithuania, are also considering leaving the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. These are explosive weapons that release smaller submunitions over a vast area. The United States, which had also not signed that convention, in 2023 transferred cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.
Reuters
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Which countries are quitting a key landmine treaty and why?
GENEVA, April 4 (Reuters) - NATO members Poland, Finland and all three Baltic states have queued up over the past few weeks to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia. The moves threaten to reverse decades of campaigning by activists who say there should be a global ban on a weapon that blights huge swathes of territory and maims and kills civilians long after conflicts have abated. Countries that quit the 1997 treaty - one of a series of international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament - will be able to start producing, using, stockpiling and transferring landmines once again. COUNTRIES EXITING All European countries bordering Russia have announced plans to quit the global treaty - apart from Norway which said this week that, for all the increased threats, it was important to maintain the stigma around the weapons. Many have said they fear that, as U.S. President Donald Trump steps up pressure to the end thee war in Ukraine, Russia could use any pause to re-arm and target them instead. Officials have suggested a withdrawal could also put them on more of an equal footing with Russia which - along with the United States, China, India and Israel - has not signed or ratified the treaty. FUNDING CUTS As countries quit the convention, global demining efforts are also backsliding amid "crippling" U.S. funding cuts, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The U.S. government, which has halted some of its programmes under Trump's foreign aid review, had been the single largest funder of mine action, providing more than $300 million a year or 40% of the total international support, according to the Landmine Monitor report in 2024. A State Department official said in March it has restarted some global humanitarian demining programs and activities, without giving details. It has previously run major programmes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Laos. CIVILIAN VICTIMS Anti-personnel landmines are generally hidden in the ground and designed to detonate automatically when someone steps on them or passes nearby. More than 80% of mine victims are civilians, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The convention includes provisions to assist victims, many of whom have lost limbs and suffer from other permanent disabilities. In October 2024, the U.N. reported that Ukraine had become the most mined country in the world. As of August 2024, it said there had been around 1,286 civilian victims of mines and explosive remnants. STOCKPILES Under the terms of the 1997 convention, countries were supposed to destroy all landmine stockpiles within four years, although not all have complied, according to the ICRC. Poland now says it is seeking to resume production. Some of the countries pulling out of the landmines treaty, including Lithuania, are also considering leaving the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. These are explosive weapons that release smaller submunitions over a vast area. The United States, which had also not signed that convention, in 2023 transferred cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.
The National
04-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
Algeria pushes through anti-landmine vote at UN
A UN council on Friday backed an anti-landmine push championed by Algeria, urging countries to stick to a global ban, even as neighbours of Russia say they can no longer afford that luxury. Algeria said anti-personnel mines "violate the most sacred of rights" by harming civilians and children, and turning roads and villages into "deadly traps". The UN's human rights council backed a resolution calling on states to "implement fully" the terms of a 1997 mine ban treaty. That treaty is creaking though, as Finland this week became the fifth European state to announce its withdrawal, following Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. None of the five Nato countries are members of the UN council. Finland said its security landscape had "deteriorated fundamentally" as Russia, which is not part of the mine ban treaty, poses a "long-term threat to Europe". It promised that the Finnish armed forces would not use landmines in "normal conditions". Friday's resolution was drawn up by Algeria and several other states including Britain, France and South Africa, revealing a divide over the issue. The UK said this week it "remains committed" to a treaty that was championed in the 1990s by Diana, Princess of Wales. Rachid Bladehane, Algeria's representative on the UN council in Geneva, described the push to ban landmines as a "fight for human rights". The North African country has linked its stance to its own experience of French colonial mines left behind from the 1950s war of independence. "These weapons mostly affect civilians, including children, and they violate the most sacred of rights: the right to life," Mr Bladehane said. "They undermine the right to safety by instilling a climate of fear in the affected regions. They undermine the right to freedom of movement by transforming lands, roads and villages into deadly traps." Kuwait, which was left contaminated by landmines after the Gulf War, called Friday's vote a "very relevant" initiative. "Mines do not make any distinctions between those responsible and innocent victims, between combatants and civilians, between children and adults," said Kuwaiti delegate Nasser Abdullah Alhayen. The agreed text says countries should "strengthen their efforts" to put an end to landmine casualties. It says countries who are not part of the treaty should "seriously consider" joining. More than 160 countries have signed up to the mine ban treaty, including nuclear-armed states Britain and France. They agreed they would 'never under any circumstances' develop or use anti-personnel mines and committed to destroying existing stockpiles. Landmines have recently been used in Ukraine, North Korea and Myanmar with a 'direct, brutal impact' that could persist for decades, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said last month. It said withdrawing from the treaty would 'send the wrong signal at the worst possible time". The Baltic states say though that they need to have "every necessary measure" available to counter Russia. "'It is not right that we are prohibiting ourselves from using weapons that Russia is prepared to use against us,' Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said.
