On the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh, Human Rights Watch today released Killers in the Commonwealth, a report that calls for a Commonwealth-wide ban on antipersonnel landmines.
In reviewing the landmine policies of all fifty-two active Commonwealth members, Human Rights Watch identifies six governments that oppose a global ban on mines.
"These six governments--India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cyprus--are clearly out of touch with the rest of the Commonwealth when it comes to banning landmines. They are on the wrong side of humanity," said Alex Vines, the author of the report. "India, Pakistan and Singapore should be especially embarrassed to be among the rapidly dwindling number of countries still producing these insidious, indiscriminate weapons," Vines added. Five other Commonwealth members--Canada, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe--have called a permanent halt to their mine production.
"We are also concerned that Australia, Kenya, Gambia and a handful of other Commonwealth members, while expressing support for a ban, have not yecommitted to signing the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines in Ottawa, Canada in December," said Vines.
Thirty-four Commonwealth nations have already committed to signing the ban treaty in December. Canada and South Africa in particular have been at the forefront of the global movement to eradicate antipersonnel landmines.
The report states that at least fourteen Commonwealth countries are suffering from an estimated two to five million landmines planted in their soil, with the most heavily infested being Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. In many of these countries antipersonnel mines pose a daily threat to rural development and free trade movement, the very focus of the Edinburgh meeting.
Human Rights Watch calls on all Commonwealth governments to commit to the December ban treaty. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting should issue a declaration in support of the treaty and the urgent need to ban and destroy all antipersonnel mines. The Commonwealth should follow the example of the Central American, Caricom (Caribbean), and Southern African Development Community states and seek to make the Commonwealth a mine-free zone.
