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May 30, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.5.4.5]

BRITAIN: Government bans landmines

(The Independent) The British Government has announced the complete ban
on anti-personnel landmines. Landmines are estimated to kill or maim
20,000 people a year, mainly in the poorest areas of the world. British
stockpiles of landmines will be destroyed by 2005, or sooner if an
international ban is agreed.

Until 2005 there will be a moratorium on the use of landmines by the
British Armed Forces. Some mines will be used "in exceptional
circumstances", and only with Parliamentary approval. The British ban
includes the manufacture, transfer, import, and export of anti-personnel
landmines.

Tony Blair, the new Prime Minister of Britain, told Members of
Parliament that the mines caused "enormous carnage", often to innocent
civilians and children, and the sooner Britain took the lead in getting
rid of them the better.

The ban follows a highly publicised campaign led by the Red Cross which
reached its height when Diana, Princess of Wales, visited Angola for the
Red Cross in January and talked with the victims of landmines.