Landmines: Unit 3: B. Make Landmines A Weapon of the Past

Excerpts from a speech made by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Diplomatic Conference on Landmines, Oslo, Norway, 3 September 1997
http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/UNDocs/sgsm6313.htm

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It gives me great pleasure to address your meeting at this vital point in our efforts to achieve a world-wide ban on anti-personnel mines. On behalf of the United Nations, I wish to thank the Government of Norway for hosting this Conference. It is the last step before the final culmination of your efforts in the signing of the convention in Ottawa in December...

The Ottawa Conference will be a historic event in the peacemaking efforts of our time, and I am proud to say that I will be attending the signing ceremony in Ottawa on behalf of the United Nations. This Conference will be attended by symbolic representatives of the voiceless, the victims and the maimed. The memory of those who have died will be honoured...

The elimination of land-mines has become a truly global cause, propelled by the demands of citizens everywhere and promoted tirelessly by regional and non-governmental organizations.

The tragic accident that last Sunday took the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, has robbed our global cause of one of its most compelling voices... She showed the world that one voice speaking as part of a global grass-roots movement can truly make a difference.
Koffi Annan

I believe we stand at the edge of a new age of disarmament. With the threats and fears of the Cold War behind us, the international community must seize the moment to turn the tide on the production of arms.

There is a new and growing consensus that the proliferation of arms of all kinds—whether they be weapons of mass destruction or small arms—inherently constitutes a threat to peace. Only three months ago, representatives of more than 165 nations gathered in The Hague to take a landmark step in the history of disarmament: the adoption of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

By ending the use, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons, the States parties not only divested themselves of a wicked weapon. They did even more. They declared to this and all succeeding generations that chemical weapons are instruments that no State with any respect for itself and no people with any sense of dignity would use in conflicts whether domestic or international.

Now we must bring to the struggle against land-mines the same determination and the same sense of mission that brought an end to chemical weapons. We must make land-mines, too, a weapon of the past and a symbol of shame.

In my message to the Brussels conference, I urged that we seize the opportunity to eradicate this invisible enemy. I also pledged, as I do today, the support and the commitment of the United Nations towards the aim of a total ban."

Discuss how the proposed ban on landmines is related to the ban on chemical weapons and to disarmament in general.
Do you think the United Nations should play an active role in the prohibition of landmines and other weapons of war? Why? Why not? Explain your position.
On the UN web-site on landmines (http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/), read the latest news about the Ottawa Process. Write a speech encouraging countries to sign the Convention.
Why would some countries not want to join the Ottawa Process? Are they against a total ban? What reasons would they have and what alternatives would they seek? To answer these questions, read the various country reports and news items on the UN web-site on landmines (http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/).
Also use other news sources and reports from non-governmental organizations (try the "Links to other sites").