Tuesday, October 21, 1997
International campaign to ban land mines begins
BUS TOUR Lobbyists go to Canada in attempt to get Clinton to
sign treaty
By Cecilia Fuentes
Daily Bruin Contributor
A kickoff rally is scheduled at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza
Thursday for the "Ban Bus To Ottawa Tour," a cross-country drive to
raise awareness for the signing of the International Treaty To Ban
Landmines in December.
The Ban Bus is scheduled to reach 23 U.S. cities, ending in
Ottawa, Canada, where the treaty will be signed. The tour is
intended "to send a message to President Clinton to sign the
treaty," said Professor Jerry Sanders of Berkeley’s Peace and
Conflict Studies Program.
President Clinton has said he will not sign the treaty because
negotiators would not allow the exceptions he has proposed. These
exceptions would create a longer period of time to remove existing
land mines and to preserve anti-tank mines.
The event at Berkeley is sponsored by the Peace and Conflict
Studies Program, the Peace Studies Student Association and
International House.
"The students are very enthusiastic about this rally and have
been active in putting on this event," said Sanders, whose interest
in the issue began on a trip to Cambodia where he saw the effects
of land mines firsthand.
The Ban Bus Tour will stop next at UC Davis, where the events
will be sponsored by Campus NOW and the Gender and Global Issues
Program.
"UC Davis has a chancellor-driven series of initiatives which
asks faculty to think about how global issues can be integrated
into the curriculum," said professor Margaret Swain, of the UC
Davis’ Gender and Global Issues Program. "Our program is
particularly involved because of the number of women and children
maimed and killed each year by land mines."
Just one week since winning the Nobel Peace Prize, The
International Campaign To Ban Landmines (ICBL), a coalition of over
1,000 international non-governmental organizations working for a
worldwide ban on land mines, is still struggling to gain
recognition and sympathy for its cause.
ICBL’s director Jody Williams is only the third American woman
to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Neither ICBL, nor its director Jody Williams, have received a
congratulatory phone call from President Clinton, which they find
questionable. Though Williams chided the President on ABC’s "This
Week," saying, "he calls winners of the Super Bowl," it no longer
seems to be cause for consternation.
At ICBL headquarters, Jill Greenberg, assistant coordinator for
the U.S. Campaign To Ban Landmines (USCBL) said, "I don’t think we
have anything to say about that. We still have a lot of work to
do."
The articles of the Ottawa Treaty call for the prohibition of
the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel
mines, and for their destruction.
Twenty-six thousand people are killed or maimed every year by
the anti-personnel mines, and millions of acres of land in poor
nations are lying fallow due to mine infestation, exacerbating the
famine and poverty which often follow a war, according to the
ICBL.
"The focus needs to be on creating an overwhelming public appeal
to get (Clinton) to change his mind (about signing the ban)," said
Dr. Mary Ellen Dolcini, president of the Northern California
division of the United Nations Association.
The Clinton administration cites the need to continue its use of
land mines in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
In a Sept. 17 briefing at the White House, Clinton referred to an
armistice agreement from the United Nations.
"We are there fulfilling the worldwide community’s
responsibility to preserve peace and safety there," Clinton
said.
The treaty is scheduled to be signed Dec. 4 in Ottawa by more
than 100 nations, including Russia and Japan, who joined the
coalition in the days since the Nobel Prize was awarded.