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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A noble cause
By Sahar El-Bahr
Jody Williams, ambassador of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and a Nobel peace laureate, visited the Al-Alamein mine-fields on Monday as part of a visit to Egypt to urge the government to sign the 1997 International Treaty to Ban Landmines.
Jody Williams
checks the mine detection equipment
The treaty prohibits all anti-personnel mines, requires the destruction of stockpiled mines within four years and the removal and destruction of mines already in the ground within 10 years. It also calls for extensive programmes to help the victims.
There are up to 23 million mines in 288,000 hectares of the Western Desert, which were left behind after the British, German and Italian forces withdrew after the end of World War II. In Al-Alamein alone, there are almost 18 million mines. Over the past half a century, about 500 people have been killed and 6,000 injured by mine explosions.
"We came to this region to build public awareness, to get support for our efforts and to make people understand why this movement exists," said Williams, referring to her campaign, which started its activities in Egypt six months ago. One of the campaign coordinators, Elizabeth Bemstein, is currently working with local NGOs, including the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and the Legal Research for Human Rights Committee.
As well as urging Egypt to sign the treaty, Williams met with officials at the foreign and defence ministries to discuss the issue of Egypt's production and export of mines. "Unfortunately, Egypt was not the country that put the mines in the desert, yet, Egypt does produce and use mines and this is part of the problem. I am here to clean up the mines of the past, but I am also worried about the present and the future," she said. "Since there are so many mines in Egypt, there is no need to produce more mines. We don't want to clean up a mess, while having a new one put back on the ground. So, I would encourage Egypt to sign the International Treaty to Ban Landmines."
Williams said various countries were ready to help clear the mines in the Western Desert. "There is a donor group from the US, Britain, France, Japan, Canada and Germany that is willing to help," she said. "I am very encouraged to know that the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] is trying to coordinate efforts between donor nations to clean up the Egyptian desert. However, they want to do that in the context of a national plan to re-develop the Western Desert, that they would give resources for. The concerned ministries should meet with the Ministry of Defence to formulate this plan."
Williams said she launched her campaign because of the high number of civilians that are killed or maimed by landmines. "We came from nowhere and in five years achieved an international treaty." So far, the treaty has been signed by 133 countries and ratified by 46.
