wfn.org | Agency launches attack on landmines

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 26, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-31-71B{226}

NOTE: This report has three sidebars: UMNS #227, 228 and 229.

STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) - The plight of people being maimed or killed by
landmines has been recognized by the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries as it launches a study of new and safer means of removing the
explosives.

"The continuing conflicts around the world call us to be bolder in our
mission," declared the Rev. Randolph Nugent, the board's top staff
executive. He noted that recent incidents of Kosovar refugees being killed
by landmines provide "a grim reminder that landmines have not disappeared."

In one of many actions taken during its April 19-22 meeting, the board
agreed to conduct the study "with the view to finding any acceptable means
by which we could contribute to the removal of landmines."

Nugent pointed out that "demining is an opportunity for us to make the
environment safer for all people." Currently, in countries such as Cambodia
and Mozambique, landmines continue to cause suffering long after war has
ended. Each month, 800 people are killed and 1,200 injured worldwide by
landmines, with children making up 30 to 40 percent of the casualties.

"In many nations, there are no records of where landmines have been placed,"
Nugent said, adding that some mines can move in shifting sand, water or
dirt.

The problem is not just removal. Landmines, which are "inexpensive and far
too readily available," continue to be sewn into the earth. The United
Nations estimates that 139 million mines will be in place by next year.

Current removal techniques are slow, tedious and dangerous for the numbers
involved. For example, Nugent said, it would take 1,000 technicians a total
of 33 years just to clear mines from Bosnia and Croatia.

But board directors were shown marketing videos of machines being developed
- the "Mine-Guzzler" and "Earth Tiller" - that could remove mines much more
quickly, with maximum protection for the machine's operator.

"It's obvious that the primary issue is safety," said Paul Dirdak, chief
executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). "The only
thing less safe than removing landmines is not removing landmines."

In other business, directors approved a proposal to assist with renovations
of Methodist health care facilities around the world. The proposal noted
that many of the institutions have survived because of hard work at the
local level. But resources "have often been meager, and today many of these
places still serve vigorously, but under tremendously heavy economic
burdens," it said.

While the approved funding of nearly $10 million - from the board's
unrealized capital gains - will not provide "wholesale renovation and
restoration," it will allow for an assessment of the needs of such
facilities.

Directors also endorsed two new initiatives that had received preliminary
approval last year. The board will spend $2.5 million to establish a primary
pension benefit program for pastors and church workers in annual conferences
related to the United Methodist central conferences of Africa and Asia. It
also has set aside $5 million for capital financing and leadership
development for ministries in inner city neighborhoods. 

Nugent introduced a proposal that the board help create a primary medical
care center in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, in cooperation with the government
there. Directors agreed to release up to $3 million to the United
States/Kazakhstan International Foundation on Radiation Ecology and Health -
of which the board has a half interest - after the foundation specifies how
it will monitor and guarantee the use of the grant. The board has a history
of medical mission work in Kazakhstan, a part of the former Soviet Union. 

Board directors also:
*	Approved $300,000 for United Methodist Men to create a program of
volunteer advocates for hunger relief in the annual conferences;
*	Designated $600,000, over a three-year period, to the Food Resources
Bank, a new nonprofit corporation that UMCOR helped found.
*	Allotted $200,000 for the organization of an international HIV/AIDS
consultation in Zimbabwe next fall;
*	Approved $198,000 for establishing a community seed security project
in southern Somalia.
*	Designated $336,000 for flood relief and rehabilitation in southwest
Texas.
*	Allotted $200,000 for a "feed the hungry" project in San Francisco
Libre, a Nicaraguan town devastated by Hurricane Mitch.
*	Contributed $100,000 toward the cost of an international drug and
alcohol conference July 4-14, 2000, in Harare, Zimbabwe.
# # #

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