Canada has taken another step toward a global ban on anti-personnel land mines by pledging to eliminate its stockpile of the deadly weapons.
Defense Minister David Collenette said that two-thirds of the Canadian Forces' arsenal of 90,000 land mines will be destroyed immediately while the remainder will be eliminated when an international ban is agreed on.The action builds on a unilateral moratorium Canada announced last January not to use, manufacture or export land mines. At that time, the government said it needed the weapons to train its soldiers to lay and defuse mines. Since then, the government has been criticized as hypocritical for being unwilling to give up its stockpile even as it pushes for an international ban.
More than 300 representatives from 70 states, international agencies and non-governmental agencies convened Thursday in Ottawa for a conference aimed at securing a global agreement to ban the mines.
More than 100 million anti-personnel mines are believed to be buried in the soil of 64 countries around the world as a result of various conflicts. These weapons kill or maim 25,000 people a year, most of them civilians.
"By immediately removing two-thirds of our stocks, Canada has sent a powerful message to the world that we are committed to the eradication of these weapons," Collenette said at the opening of a land-mine exhibit at the Canadian War Museum. "We can't wait any longer, we must act now to save lives."
At least 40 of the countries sending delegations to Ottawa have pledged their support for a global ban while a dozen others are attending as observers.
China, a major maker of land mines, is not attending.
Canada is joining an exclusive club of about a dozen countries that have announced they will reduce or eliminate their stockpile of land mines.
The momentum for a ban is growing quickly as a result of persistent lobbying by well-organized international pressure groups. Efforts under the auspices of the United Nations to implement a ban have been disappointing. The Ottawa conference marks the beginning of an effort to try to secure global agreement outside the traditional U.N. structure.
Lt. Col. Ernie Fafard, a military engineer at the Canadian Forces' Ottawa headquarters, said plans are already under way for the destruction of the first 60,000 mines.