Leang arived in Thailand the day the conference finished.She had been ill for 2 weeks with the flu. However we took the bus to the River Kwai village and fell asleep to heavy rain and thunder. We arose next morning at 5.00.a.m. and were at the start line with hundreds of others at the countdown at 6.00.a.m.

The race was 10.6 km out and 10.6 return. So much to see and think about as we poured water down and throats and over our heads as we kept up a steady pace.

Brian and Leang Hayes at awards night

As I turned at the half-way mark and started home I was really feeling the heat and to take my mind off the body pain I started counting the number of runners who I could now see behind me who were still going out to the half way turn around.

I soon got to a little over 500 and realised that this number would push our sponsorship money up to the $2,500 mark.

To distract my attention again I started to think of the landmine survivors and the heart wrenching stories they had related to us the week previous.

At this point I was spurred on by seeing Leang making very fast progress towards the half way mark. Then a loud speaker commentary on the race and its runners started to talk about the fact that 2 runners from New Zealand were running to raise funds for landmine survivors in conjunction with the 5th meeting. (It is a good thing I can understand a little Thai) This strengthened my determination as I started to pass a few runners from the 16km mark onwards, noticably a few non- Asian runners among them, who were staggering in the heat. I stopped completely and downed 2 more cups of water with a further two drenching my head. I carried on at a swifter pace and to the roar of a large crowd clocked in at 1 hour 37 mins or 48th overall in a field of over 650 runners. I was very excited to hear that I had received first prize in my 55 plus age group. Again the comentator mentioned the land mine conference to the onlookers. I now anxiously awaited Leang's arrival. About one hour later she appeared, struggling hard, but to her delight at least 10 minutes faster than she had ever done for this distance. I felt very proud of her.

That night we did a count up of the sponsor sheets and realised that we had raised the sum of $2,544.20. The next item was to deliver this to the Prosthetic Foundation in Chiang Mai in 2 days time.

Our visit to the centre was not what we had anticipated. The foundation has a mobile unit that visits hospitals close to the border areas where landmine survisors are taken to. Therefore we were only able to view the prosthetic limbs being made and we also spent some time talking with Dr Therdchai, the Sec / Gen of theFoundation. He is a retired doctor who works voluntarily running what is now a very big organisation assisting the poor in Thailand. He invented a special type of prosthetic limb from recycled yoghurt bottles. This leg is useful for rice farmers who stand in water all day, or women and children who cross difficult cliff type terrain and muddy canals in search of firewood or to plant vegetables or climb trees picking fruit. For more info their is a web site devoted to the Prosthetic Foundation Chiang Mai.

I can say that they were heartened and grateful to receive the financial support from KIWIS.

A very big thank you to all who sponsored this event. We know it will make a big difference to the lives of some of these survivors. The amount given will fund new limbs for about 50 patients. If only we could get those who profit from the sale of this evil weapon to see the suffering it causes.

On a personal note:
I was deeply moved by the real life stories we heard from victims as we socialised with them over the course of the 5 day conference. One aspect which had been unnoticed to me before was the degree of burns associated with a landmine blast as well as the blood loss, pain and finally the realisation and shock of knowing that you probably will never run again.

Again thank you to all who have given such hope to those who desperately need it.

Brian Hayes for CALM

Greece and Turkey joined the Mine Ban Treaty

On 25 September 2003, Greece and Turkey formally joined the Mine Ban Treaty during a joint ceremony organised on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, in which the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul are participating. On 6 April 2001, both countries announced simultaneously that they would ratify and accede to the Convention jointly. Greece completed its domestic ratification procedure on 19 March 2002 and the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted the accession law on 12 March 2003.

The ICBL warmly welcomes this common joining of the Convention, and thanks both countries for this expression of their commitment in the fight against antipersonnel landmines, and removal of them from their territories forever. This is a true example of how the Mine Ban Treaty is playing a great role as a confidence building instrument between two neighbouring countries.

The Ottawa process in retrospect

A personal comment - John V Head, Convenor of NZ CALM

I have just returned from the Fifth Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and left heartened by the positive news that in the last year, eleven more countries had signed or ratified the Treaty, fewer Governments and non Government forces were using mines, production of mines had dropped significantly and that another four million stockpiled mines had been destroyed. Of concern though was the increased number of mine related injuries, particularly in India, Cambodia and Palestine and the inadequate funding and assistance available for the growing number of mine survivors in 48 countries.

Ten years ago the situation was so very different. Worldwide, landmines were considered an essential weapon of defence and the civilian casualties were regrettable but were caused when international conventions were not understood or applied. It was the Red Cross doctors who first called for a banning of these inhuman weapons and by 1990 this call was being echoed, initially, by humanitarian organisations in North America and Europe rather than in the mine ravaged countries. In 1993, the first international conference to organise an international campaign was held in London. I was fortunate to be able to attend that conference and the establishment of NZ CALM followed shortly afterwards.

Public opinion calling for a ban grew rapidly and gradually country after country was influenced by this pressure from civil society to support an international ban on antipersonnel mines. New Zealand was the 14th country to support a ban in 1996. On our website you can read a potted history of how these changes were achieved in New Zealand.

This public opinion boiled over in 1996 when the United Nations Conference on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meeting in Geneva to discuss landmines, failed to make any significant progress. It was obvious that as long as consensus was needed by the CCW to make decisions, a ban on the use of landmines would never be achieved by that organisation. It was not just the Non Government Organisations and landmine survivors that listened to the debate that were outraged. Governments including the New Zealand Government expressed their disappointment.

The solution came when Canada's Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy called a meeting of concerned governments later that year. New Zealand was there, represented by Carolyn Forsyth from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and myself. Various proposals were debated but at the end of the week when the way forward was not clear, Lloyd Axworthy called the fifty odd nations attending the Conference to return to Ottawa in December 1997 to sign a Treaty banning the use of anti personnel mines.

An international Treaty requires precise wording and this was finally achieved in Oslo in September 1997. It was here that the ICBL was at its best with street protests and its demand that there should be "No Exceptions, No Reservations and no Loopholes" for the draft Treaty. I watched with some trepidation as one by one the eight amendments proposed by the USA were rejected. If accepted, these amendments would have "gutted" the proposed treaty. Civil society had carried the day. Shortly afterwards the ICBL and Jody Williams were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace----a fitting recognition for the determination and efforts of the well focussed campaign.

In December 1997, the Treaty was signed by 122 nations in Ottawa. By September 1998, 40 countries had ratified the Treaty and heralded by a worldwide Mexican Wave of bell ringing beginning in New Zealand, the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on the 1st March 1999. This is the fastest entry into force of any major multilateral treaty ever and certainly endorses the world wide concern, originally initiated by NGOs that anti personnel mines must be banned.

One feature of this international treaty is that the world wide verification of the provisions is largely left to the research by NGOs for the 1000 page Landmine Monitor. Every country and every aspect of landmine activity is reported on and several Government delegates at Conferences have called on the Landmine Monitor as their "Bible". No other international treaty is monitored in this way.

In March 2000, the United Nations Secretary General, speaking at a United Nations Association meeting in Wellington said, "Since the Earth Summit in 1992, civil society has made its mark on a series of World Conferences. You have made your concern heard but in recent years, you have done more than that. You have made your power felt in the lobbying successfully for the Ottawa Convention banning the use of landmines-----" He went on to say, "this new diplomacy is working. That is why I am so glad to have you as allies to the United Nations."

He will not be the only one saddened by recent events leading to the war in Iraq. Regardless of such strong public opposition within the United States and Britain, and without the support of the United Nations, these two nations, along with nominal support from Australia, plunged Iraq into a war which had no proven justification. We are left to ponder how civil society that was so strong and influential just three years ago, will again assert its power.

Universalisation of the Ottawa Convention and other challenges

Pacific Group from left to right; Rev. Simisi Nimo (Tuvalu), John Head, Mrs Andy Lynch (Vanuatu), Deborah Morris and Ema Tagicakibau (Fiji).

Deborah Morris reports on the 5th Meeting of States Parties in Bangkok 15-19 September, 2003

As delegates gathered at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok for the 5th Meeting of States Parties (5MSP) under the Ottawa Convention, mine campaigners and governments had their attention turned to the Asia Pacific region.

It was widely recognized by delegates to the meeting that more than a third of Asia is mine-affected, and it is home to some of the world's most severely contaminated countries (Afghanistan, Burma and Sri Lanka) and biggest producers and stockpilers of anti-personnel landmines (China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Singapore).

Along with this, a number of states in the region remain outside the convention, including, in the South Pacific, Tuvalu, Tonga, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Papua New Guinea whose accessions are outstanding; and the Marshall Islands, Cook Islands and Vanuatu who are yet to ratify.

Recognising that the focus would be on this region, earlier this year CALM took the opportunity to work with the New Zealand Government to sponsor the attendance of non-governmental (NGO) delegates from Tuvalu (Rev Semisi Nimo), Vanuatu (Andy Lynch) and Fiji (Ema Tagicakibau). Our efforts, and the investment of the Labour Government, were rewarded with the attendance of three strong Pacific Island delegates committed to advancing universal sign up to the convention and keeping the South Pacific mine-free.

The 5MSP attracted a high level of participation by over 400 Government delegates from 84 States Parties and 27 countries yet to ratify or accede to the Treaty. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) noted in particular the attendance of Government representatives from Burma, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Sri Lanka. A representative of Mongolia's government visited the meeting on the final day. The ICBL arranged for 280 NGO delegates to be present and many of these were survivors of landmine injuries.

As always, delegates at the meeting heard directly from some of those survivors participating in the "Raising the Voices" programme. At 5MSP, Prakaikul Thepnork and Thawee Khemprapha, both from the heavily mined Isaan (North - Eastern) region of Thailand, bravely took the stage and described the landmine incident that robbed them of limbs and changed their lives forever. These presentations often renew the motivation and determination of campaigners and governments alike.

For the first time ever, the ICBL delegation to 5MSP also included a youth delegation. A number of campaigns are recognizing the growing importance of involving young people in the ICBL and in the Meetings of States Parties. At 5MSP NZ CALM was invited to support the international effort to secure a higher level of youth participation.

During the course of the meeting, one of the key issues raised by the ICBL was the need for wider agreement on the interpretation of, and definitions within, the Articles of the Ottawa Convention. States parties agreed, and as a result the Bangkok declaration confirmed the need for common understanding on the interpretation of the Articles and this will be a key focus ahead of the 2004 Review Conference to be held in Kenya.

Review conferences are always an important milestone in the life of an international treaty and in the case of the Ottawa convention, the 2004 meeting is deemed particularly important as states will agree and confirm future plans for achieving the goal of a mine-free world.

Head of the ICBL delegation, Steve Goose said, "the Review Conference should be a watershed event in the life of the Mine Ban Treaty, not so much for the opportunity to review the past five years, but as a means of ensuring commitments, and facilitating concrete and results oriented planning for the next five years. We encourage States Parties to participate at the highest possible level."

As that milestone approaches, New Zealand is poised to play a key role. The 5MSP confirmed the New Zealand Government will take up the position of co-rapporteur of a special committee on the General Status and Operation of the Ottawa convention in 2004, to be followed by co-chair in 2005. Participation in this standing committee confirms our government's high level of commitment to the Ottawa convention and ensures New Zealand will participate at a high level in the lead up to, during and after the Review Conference. CALM congratulates the government on taking up this responsibility.

While many States Parties at 5MSP made strong statements about their commitment to implement and promote the treaty, thereby renewing the political will to fulfill the objectives of the convention, significant challenges remain. These include:

• The number of new mine casualties each year not decreasing in the way one would expect with expanded mine action programs
  
  
• In 48 of the 65 countries reporting new casualties, assistance is inadequate to meet the needs of mine survivors-and as the number of survivors grows each year, so does the need for increased resources for survivor assistance
  
  
• Despite increased global spending totals, too many affected countries and too many mine action organizations continue to report funding shortages
  
  
• Many States Parties anticipating difficulty meeting the ten-year mine clearance deadline
  
  
• Achieving universalisation of the Mine Ban Treaty and the norm it represents remains one of our greatest challenges, notably in Asia, with its disproportionate number of hold-out states and non-state actors, mine users, mine producers, and major antipersonnel mine stockpilers.

These are challenges that the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and domestic campaigns such as CALM, must work with governments to address. Certainly, CALM will be doing its bit to ensure noticeable progress ahead of the Review Conference. Here's to another year of important work for CALM, with the support of all our good members.

The ICBL General Meeting

REPORT BY JOHN HEAD, Convenor of NZCALM

Preceding the major Conference, the Thai Campaign organised two all day bus tours to the Cambodian border where we could witness the clearing of landmines from fertile farmland. We left the area, impressed with the thoroughness of the work, but understanding the concerns of the Thai people and their Government at the time it would take to complete this difficult work.

On the two days following the 5MSP in Bangkok the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) held its biennial General Meeting. It was a specially significant meeting because it was to lay the groundwork for a major restructuring of the ICBL in the following year.

Following a spiritual welcome by Father Vichai Phokthavi, Chair of the Thai CBL, Tun Chanareth an ICBL Ambassador and Cambodian mine survivor called on the 200 plus attending to work harder for the support of Mine Survivors. Jody Williams, another ICBL Ambassador reminded us that emotions must be backed up by actions. She recalled with warmth that her first overseas visit as the newly established ICBL Coordinator was to Australia and New Zealand in 1993.

Although the administrative workload during the two day AGM was heavy, it was a great time for developing personal relationships and "holding hands against mines". As the agenda was so thoroughly prepared and efficiently implemented, and because of the emphasis on developing friendships, many considered this to be the best ICBL meeting ever.

The many ICBL Working Groups reported on their activities and their involvement at the Government Intersessional Standing Committee meetings. Steve Goose said that the States Parties to the Treaty were still very supportive but he regretted that their positive statements were not supported by the necessary increase in funding. He asserted that our concerns over issues such as definitions, sensitive fuses and limiting the numbers of mines in stockpiles must be agreed on prior to or at the 2004 Review Conference (Rev Con), or we would have lost the battle.

Regional Group meetings were held and included in the aims of the Asia Pacific Group were the Ratification of the Treaty by Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Marshall Islands along with accession by Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Tuvalu. The meeting welcomed the participation of Ema Tagicakibau from Fiji, Andy Lynch from Vanuatu and Rev Simisi Nimo from Tuvalu.

The meeting adopted a three page action plan to be implemented prior to the Rev Con and with very little debate adopted the proposal to replace the ICBL Coordinating Committee with an Executive Committee of five members, supported by an Advisory Committee of ten members that would meet with the Executive Committee once a year to review progress and policy.

What better way to end two days of debate than to have a final dinner and river cruise on the Chao Phraya River. It was a tremendous end to the Conference and gave us all an opportunity to congratulate long time campaigner Susan Walker on her 50th birthday.

Non-State actors

Chris Swain reports from 5MSP

The engagement of non-state actors (NSAs) in constructive landmine action has long been recognised by the ICBL as an end in itself, but also as a necessary condition for broadening state adherence to the Ottawa Treaty.

The convergence this September of the 5MSP, and an ICBL General Meeting, provided the opportunity for a series of workshops on the prospect and retrospect of working with Non-State Actors (NSAs) on the elimination of landmines.Representatives of mine action NGOs, and of several NSAs associated with mine-use participated in these workshops, sharing challenges, successes, and experiences of the human costs of landmines as weapons of war.

Particular points of discussion revolved around Landmine Action, and how it may be conducted both within and outside of established peace processes, and both with and without ëpeaceí. Participants also worked to clarify the working relationship between Geneva Call (GC) and the ICBL NSA Working Group, with respect to the use of the GC Deed of Commitment as a tool for engaging NSAs.

Chris Swain at 5MSP

Youth-related aspects of 5MSP

Chris Swain reports from 5MSP

The 5MSP saw signs of widespread support within the ICBL for increased awareness and support of the role played by youth in sustaining the campaign internationally.

This year was the first in which youth delegates have attended an MSP. Young campaigners from Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Uruguay participated in a series of workshops to build on their existing advocacy skills, and also had the opportunity to work with Cambodian campaigners from the group ëRaising the Voicesí.

CALM NZ entirely supports an enhanced role for youth in the ICBL. Youth participation is seen as vital for the sustainability and eventual success of the Campaign. In light of the approaching 2004 Review conference, the NZ campaign will be working to with counterparts to enhance the role of New Zealand youth in the international campaign.

Myanmar's 'humanminesweepers' (BURMA)

BANGKOK, Thailand, 15 September 2003 (Asia Times), Richard S Ehrlich

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EI16Ae04.html

Myanmar's military is killing people by forcing them to walk across minefields to reveal where explosives are buried. "Atrocity demining is the use of human beings to remove landmines," said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, an American who is Landmine Monitor's researcher on Myanmar. "More and more people are being taken for forced demining who are prisoners" in Myanmar, Moser-Puangsuwan said in a taped interview.

"In a suspected mine area, they [the regime] will take these people and they will march them ahead of military units to trigger any mines that may be there, intentionally to detonate any mines that may be there," he said. "Up to 70 percent of these people die during their military service. They can die being caught in the crossfire, they can die due to malnutrition and malaria, but they are also being killed by landmines, by being casualties simply in a war zone but also as human mine sweepers," he said.

London-based Amnesty International, Washington-based Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented "human minesweepers" dating back to 1985, he said. Asked about the evidence, Moser-Puangsuwan, who is based in Thailand, replied: "It is mostly reports from people who have escaped portering [for the military] and have crossed the border into this country, because they were fleeing that type of service."

Giant rats being trained to sniff out mines

MOROGORO, Tanzania, 13 September 2003 (AP), George Mwangi

Mathias and his pals are hard at work in rural Tanzania learning how to locate landmines. When they succeed, they get bits of ripe bananas. In their little red, black and blue harnesses, they look like miniature sniffer dogs. But their trainers at Sokoine University of Agriculture say the giant African pouched rats can do a much better job.

"Rats are good, clever to learn, small, like performing repeated tasks and have a better sense of smell than dogs," said Christophe Cox, the Belgian coordinator of the rat training project.

Cox and his Kenyan wife, Judy, oversee the training of some 300 rats to locate mines by recognizing the smell of dynamite and TNT. The rats are trained in two groups, those in the simulated minefield and the ones trained in the laboratory to smell TNT.

Some 30 trainers put the rats through their paces in the simulated minefield where anti-personnel and anti-tank mines have no detonators.

"People are happy when I tell them I am working with the rats because they think I will help to eliminate them," project veterinarian Mwambewe Martin said. "But when I tell them I am training them, they don't understand how rats can be trained."

Harnessed rats are hitched to a sliding rail mounted on a metal grid about a metre high and six metres wide. Two human handlers roll the grid over a suspected minefield. When a rat scratches and sniffs at a mine, the handler activates a clicker and pulls the rat over to the side by his lead to reward him with a banana bit.
When fully trained, the rats sniff out a mine, then sit and scratch at the spot until they are rewarded with food. A human de-miner destroys the mine. The rats are not heavy enough to detonate active mines.

The rodents also undergo laboratory training to detect TNT by digging for TNT "eggs" buried on soil-covered tables. Judy Cox, the project supervisor, says it's fun working with the rats, although in real conditions, it can be very dangerous.

"You will be following your rats through a minefield ... you have to be 100-per-cent sure of your rats," she said.

Explosive Remnants of War

Almost daily we receive reports of terrible injuries and deaths from cluster bombs to children and adults in Iraq. Join our Clear Up Campaign by contacting John Head and he will send you brochures and petition forms.

Would all who have petition forms please mail them to CALM PO Box 17 195 by Monday 10th November. Every signature helps. Thank you.

Explosive Remnants of War affect New Zealanders as well as those people in war torn lands. Already last month the Manawatu Gorge was closed for road traffic for several hours while an aerial bomb found near the road was destroyed.The entrance to the Queen Elizabeth Park in Kapiti was closed for some days while Army Engineers located and destroyed live 87 anti tank rifle grenades,131 rifle grenades,100 detonators and 2873 rounds of various small arms ammunition.Some of these items were in a dangerous state.They had all been buried in the swamp by the 2nd US Marines Division before they headed to Tarawa in World War II.

The NZ Army has also contributed to the ERW problem. During World War II, when the 3rd Division left Green Island in the Solomons, they bulldozed surplus munitions and stores over a cliff and then over the cliff went some vehicles and the bulldozers.

CALM operates a news group for people who want to receive by email, this newsletter, world media reports and other important information to ban landmines. To join this news group please email our Secretary at <s.beresford@paradise.net.nz>

This newsletter has been prepared by John Head, typeset by Nathan Donaldson and Louise Head and printed and distributed by Stuart Beresford.