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The United States is a world
leader in humanitarian mine action, having provided more than 1.5 billion
dollars since 1993 to mitigate the threat from landmines and explosive remnants
of war in nearly fifty countries. As such, the U.S. has sent an interagency
delegation of humanitarian mine action experts to observe the Second Review
Conference of the 1997 "Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their
Destruction."
Although not a State Party to this convention, the U.S. shares common cause
with all who seek to protect innocent civilians from indiscriminately-used
landmines and considers participation in this conference an opportunity to
engage on the future of mine action.
The U.S. continues to provide mine action assistance to many countries,
including Afghanistan, where landmines affect almost every province. On
average, nearly forty people a month are injured or killed by landmines and
unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan. Since 1993, the U.S. has provided more than
one-hundred eighty million dollars for humanitarian mine action in Afghanistan.
Over the last twenty years, more than one-thousand five-hundred square
kilometers of land have been cleared.
In Angola, forty years of conflict have left behind a deadly legacy of
abandoned landmines and unexploded munitions. In 2009, 5.8 million dollars in
U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action aid helped Angola clear over 1 million square
meters of land of landmines and unexploded munitions. Since 1995, the U.S. has
contributed nearly seventy million dollars to help in the removal of landmines
and destruction of excess munitions and unexploded ordnance in Angola.
Three decades of war have left Cambodia severely affected by landmines and
explosive-renmants of war. Assistance from the U.S. and other donors has
significantly reduced the annual casualty rate. In 2009, the U.S. State
Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement allotted more than 5.7
million dollars for humanitarian mine and unexploded ordnance action in
Cambodia.
The United States is committed to mitigating the threat from landmines and
explosive remnants of war wherever they occur.
