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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS TO THE CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON HUMANITARIAN DEMINING AND LANDMINE VICTIM ASSISTANCE - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 97/6 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TO THE CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON HUMANITARIAN DEMINING AND LANDMINE VICTIM ASSISTANCE WINNIPEG, Manitoba January 31, 1997 This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca Introduction I have made the campaign against anti-personnel landmines one of my top priorities as Minister of Foreign Affairs. I am therefore particularly pleased to be here today to open this important conference on Canadian capabilities in two key areas of the landmines issue: developing and providing products and services for humanitarian demining, and assisting in the rehabilitation of landmine victims. I am also pleased to see so many representatives of non-governmental organizations [NGOs], the private sector and the academic world here today. I would like to extend a particular welcome to delegates from the Secretariat of the Organization of African Unity [OAU] and from South Africa, who have braved the Winnipeg winter to join our discussions. Today's meeting is a great opportunity for all of us to come together, to learn from each other and to discuss new approaches. Your presence here today is important because it is you above all who have provided the impetus behind the campaign for a global ban on landmines. It is you who are increasing Canadian awareness of the terrible suffering caused by anti-personnel mines, and the enormously difficult and dangerous task of finding and removing them. And it is only through our combined efforts that we can address the horrors that landmines inflict on civilian populations. Growing Awareness, Increased Momentum The fear created by even the suspected presence of landmines was brought home to me last year when I visited the Bosnian town of Coralici. I had planned to go for an early morning jog in this war-damaged but seemingly peaceful town. I was just about to set out when security people stopped me. The street I was heading down was believed to be mined. No one knew for sure, but the uncertainty alone had turned it into a no-man's-land. We Canadians do not know what it is to look down a familiar street in one's home town and fear the hidden killers that lie, in wait, until they kill or maim some unsuspecting person. My experience in Bosnia brought home to me the reality of living amongst mines. It showed me the urgent need to prevent their deployment, and to assist the unfortunate men, women and children who were not warned, as I was, of the terrible danger as they walked in their own field or village. Fortunately, the world is waking up. There is a new political will in the international community to take collective action to end the scourge of anti-personnel mines. Since this issue was first discussed at the United Nations [UN] in 1993, an enormous momentum has been generated to end their production and deployment, to deal with the mines already in the ground, and to assist their victims. Much of this momentum has come from concerned citizens, including many of you. Canadian industry has also responded by looking for new and better methods of demining and by designing new equipment. Governments, of course, also have a role. But it is clear to me from my own experiences at the meeting we convened in Ottawa last fall that the real momentum on this issue comes from outside government. There could be no clearer example of the democratization of foreign policy in recent years, of how ordinary people have greater power to affect international issues than ever before. Toward a Global Ban The goal of a ban on anti-personnel mines was considered utopian little more than two years ago. Today we are on the brink of making it a reality. Thanks in large part to the magnificent work of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], no other issue in recent times has catalyzed such a broad and diverse partnership of countries and organizations, both governmental and non-governmental. From Africa to Asia, from Europe to the Americas, a truly global partnership has emerged out of the grass-roots pleas of mine-affected countries, international agencies and NGOs determined to relegate landmines, like poison gas, to the dustbin of history. This conference demonstrates the synergy that comes from committed people working together, with knowledge and enthusiasm, to advance their common goals. The context for this synergy is the Action Plan that came out of the Ottawa Conference. Many of you attended the October conference in Ottawa, which brought together, for the very first time, 50 countries supportive of a ban on anti-personnel mines. There I challenged the global community to work with Canada on a "fast track," to develop a treaty banning mines and to sign that treaty in Canada in December 1997. Our goal is a treaty that will establish a new global norm against these weapons. Our task got new impetus in December 1996, when a United States-led resolution at the UN General Assembly, calling for such a treaty as soon as possible, passed with an astonishing 156 supporting votes. Since then, we have been working in partnership with NGOs and dozens of countries in every region of the world to make this happen. The process for developing such a treaty has emerged: a process that is credible, transparent and open to all countries supportive of a ban. Substantive, practical work begins in two weeks at a meeting in Vienna from February 12 to 14. This intensive program of work continues with an additional meeting in Vienna in May, a major international meeting in Belgium in June, and treaty discussions in Norway in the autumn leading to signature of a global ban treaty in Canada in December 1997. At the same time other meetings, including this one today, will move the agenda forward in the areas of demining and victim assistance. Conferences in Denmark and Germany on demining technology have already set the stage for two upcoming events: an NGO conference on the global ban campaign in Maputo in February; and the Tokyo conference in March on UN demining programs, demining technology and landmine victim assistance. One of the strengths of the process set in motion in Ottawa has been its ability to engage landmine-affected regions of the world in our efforts to ban mines. Africa, for example, continues to pay a terrible price associated with the continued use of landmines. I am pleased that the Organization of African Unity has decided to take the lead in organizing a conference to be held in Johannesburg this May. This conference will examine the landmine issue in an integrated way -- focussing upon the ban, landmine clearance, and victim assistance in equal measure. I hope that it will set the stage for continued action on this issue by the OAU. Canada has also put the landmines issue on the agenda for the G-7 [Group of Seven] Summit in Denver in June. And the Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA] is discussing with the International Committee of the Red Cross how Canada can further assist the ICRC in its ongoing publicity work on the campaign against landmines. As you can see, our meeting here today is part of an intense national and international campaign to find the means to deal with these hideous weapons once and for all. The Negotiation Process You have probably seen recent reports that some countries believe that it would be better to negotiate a convention in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Canada is ready to use whatever process or processes are required; for us the important thing is to reach our goal of a global ban as rapidly as possible. If complementary, parallel tracks within the Conference on Disarmament and what has come to be known as the "Ottawa Process" prove the best way to achieve this goal, we would have no difficulty with that approach. We must be careful, however, to ensure that steps toward our objective -- such as a ban on transfers -- not be confused with or substituted for the achievement of our real objective: a comprehensive treaty that will ban the use of anti-personnel landmines. It is use that kills and maims. It is my belief that the value of the Ottawa Process will speak for itself: a flexible, open and effective process that delivers concrete and speedy results. A process that holds out real hope for banning these weapons within months, not years or decades. A process that responds to the humanitarian imperative for action. I should also state clearly at this point my strong hope that no country is advocating negotiations within the Conference on Disarmament simply as a means of delaying progress. You, as citizens and as members of NGOs, need to make it clear to your governments that this is not the time for political games. You must continue the excellent work you have done so far to put a global ban treaty at the top of the international agenda, and to keep it there. But such a treaty will be only the beginning. A ban will start the process of capping the problem of mines, and give us a fighting chance to tackle the mines already in the ground and the people already injured. Our ongoing challenge will be to ensure that every country buys into this ban, while at the same time maximizing our efforts in demining and assistance to victims. This requires not just locating and clearing existing mines but finding ever better, faster and safer ways of doing so. Canadian Demining Efforts Since 1993 Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency has contributed close to $10 million to support UN and other demining programs in five of the world's most mine-polluted countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Laos and Angola. In each case, the UN approach is predicated on developing local demining capacity. I am pleased to announce today that CIDA has just approved two major new projects to support demining in Angola and Cambodia. In Angola, CIDA will provide $605 000 to Mission Aviation Fellowship of Canada, for medical evacuation of injured deminers and to support other demining activities. In Cambodia, CIDA will provide $650 000 to a United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] project to raise awareness of landmines among women and children and among farmers, in order to reduce the number of landmine victims. These projects are excellent examples of the integrated approach that the Government is taking on the landmines issues, an approach that addresses demining and victim assistance in tandem with our work on a global ban. CIDA is currently considering supporting landmine removal in Mozambique. In addition, the Agency plans to provide funding shortly to the Organization of American States [OAS] for its demining programs in Central America. No doubt you will hear from the CIDA representative at this meeting about how landmine removal and victim assistance fit within the Agency's mandate to promote sustainable development. Members of the Canadian Forces are playing a key role in helping the UN set up Mine Action Centres in Cambodia, Angola and Bosnia, in undertaking mine surveys and in training local people in mine clearance. We have recently sent two defence scientists to the Mine Action Centres in Cambodia and Bosnia to test metal detectors in local conditions. Another six military personnel will spend six months with the Bosnian Mine Action Centre, training Bosnian deminers. We have National Defence staff seconded to the Mine Action Centre in Cambodia. And we are working on sending a mine mapping database expert to Angola. The Department of National Defence has also provided technical assistance to the Justice Institute of British Columbia. With a group of Canadian and American NGOs, this organization has, established an integrated project in Viet Nam that includes demining and reforestation, and aims to include mine awareness programs and assistance to landmine victims in future. Today you will hear from current and former members of the armed forces about their needs in terms of equipment and know-how. Scientists from the Defence Research Establishment at Suffield, Alberta, will bring you up to date on their research, particularly in the area of landmine detection. They will outline their joint research with Canadian companies, including many of those represented here, and where they see opportunities for further joint efforts. Victim Rehabilitation Perhaps the most painful legacy of landmines is their disabled victims, or perhaps I should say "survivors." Many, injured as children, still have the greater part of their lives ahead of them. And many have the potential to be, or become again, productive members of their societies. There is much that can be done, not necessarily requiring vast resources, to make a huge difference in the quality of their lives. This aspect of the landmine problem is only beginning to receive the attention it deserves from the international community. We are today breaking new ground with this, the first national conference in Canada to look at the issue. Representatives of NGOs and universities here today have for some time been doing valuable work in this area, alone and in co-operation with government agencies. Queen's University's International Centre for the Advancement of Community-Based Rehabilitation has programs for landmine victims in Bosnia as well as in other countries; the Centre is supported by CIDA as a Canadian Centre of Excellence. I recall visiting a factory for prostheses in Nicaragua in the 1980s, where landmine victims were themselves engaged in producing protheses. Since that time, CIDA has also become involved with landmine victims in Central America. It has provided funding for a vocational rehabilitation project in El Salvador to reintegrate over 100 disabled people, most of them victims of war, into the labour market. And it is looking at ways to support more effectively rehabilitation in Central America and elsewhere, including in co-operation with Canadian NGOs and universities. Canadian NGOs have started their own rehabilitation programs. The Calgary-based Cambodian War Amputees Rehabilitation Society, for example, is operating a vocational school in Cambodia to help landmine and other war amputees become gainfully employed. For landmine survivors, recovering from the trauma and injury and learning to use a prosthesis is only the beginning. Their lives will be difficult indeed if the attitudes in their societies and governments are not supportive and do not recognize their full right to be productive citizens. Advocacy is therefore crucial. In this area, NGOs such as the Council for Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Centre for Disability Studies (both based here in Winnipeg) and Disabled Peoples' International (founded in Winnipeg) are doing important work. They are linking up with disabled peoples' organizations in other countries to help them acquire advocacy skills. With these skills, these groups can press their governments and their communities for the support they need as citizens to lead full and productive lives. Conclusion I am proud that Canadians are at the forefront of efforts to help landmine victims and innocent populations in mined areas. I am equally proud that the Canadian government is at the forefront of the international campaign to ban landmines altogether. And I am glad that the numbers of those working toward the same ends in other parts of the world are growing daily. We must work together, each contributing in our own area of strength. We as a national government can work in international forums. You as companies and non-governmental organizations can develop and provide the products and services; you can make the grass-roots contacts and start the community projects. The need is great; we must be bold and tackle the issues with energy and enthusiasm. We can make a difference. We are making a difference. We must continue to work together, taking full advantage of the momentum we have generated in Canada to help the world rid itself of these intolerable weapons. Thank you. </body> </html>

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