wfn.org | Ban on Landmines

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3482 notes).

Note 3482 by UMNS on March 11, 1997 at 16:18 Eastern (2125 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                          128(10-21-71B){3482}
          New York (212) 870-3803                   March 11, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: This story is a sidebar to UMNS #127 {3480}

U.S. urged to join drive
for immediate landmine ban

          by United Methodist News Service

     An estimated 110 million landmines are buried in 68 nations,
according to the United Nations and U.S. State Department, with
another 100 million stockpiled.
     The nearly 25-member U.S. delegation attending the recent
Fourth International NGO Conference on Landmines in Maputo,
Mozambique, has called upon the U.S. government to join the drive
to ban immediately the production, stockpile, use and transfer of
these antipersonnel landmines.
     The Rev. R. Randy Day, a United Methodist pastor from
Ridgefield, Conn., was part of that delegation. He noted that the
U.S. government has endorsed a slower approach than the "Ottawa
process," a Canadian-led initiative to sign a ban treaty next
December.
     "There is a moral urgency here crying out for global
leadership from the world's one remaining superpower," he
declared.
     The American delegation also is calling upon President
Clinton to step up U.S. efforts to clear minefields and increase
resources for rehabilitation of an estimated 300,000 mine victims
worldwide.
     Day pointed out that the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund
for Assistance in Mine Clearance has been established for this
purpose. "I join other voices in calling upon those countries and
companies that have profited from the sale of mines to be required
to contribute funds clearly designated for mine clearance and mine
awareness programs," he said.
     The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has been endorsed
by many different groups, including the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries and the World and National Councils of Churches.
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