For a world free of landmines

In 1997 many in the world heard about landmines and their devastating effect because Princess Diana, after a visit to Angola to see some of the victims of these landmines, called for an international ban on them. That same year the Princess died and it seems that much of the world preoccupied with other disasters and terrorism forgot about it. And yet, in many countries where war has been fought landmines were extensively used and the results were many dead and injured people, many times children. Thankfully, some governments continued to fight for the eradication of these weapons and ten years ago the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty was ratified by 156 states according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ICBL. Unfortunately some countries have yet to sign, among them the United States. Even though it has not actively used land mines since the first Gulf War in 1991, the US still possess some 10-15 million of them, thus being the third largest stockpiler in the world, behind China and Russia.
From November 29 to December 4 the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World took place in Colombia. Just a few days before the start of the summit, on November 24 the United States had announced that President Obama would follow in President George W. Bush footsteps and would not sign the International Treaty. This created a civil outcry from the civil society, non-governmental organizations and the international community including the ICBL. Thus, one week later the head of the U.S. delegation let it be known that the Obama administration had begun a comprehensive landmine policy review by saying, “The Administration’s decision to attend this Review Conference is the result of an on-going comprehensive review of U.S. landmine policy initiated at the direction of President Obama.” Although the reversal was welcome, Sylvie Brigot, ICBL Executive Director said: “We also need the U.S. to recognize - and accept - that landmines are an outdated, increasingly obsolete weapon and that searching for an alternative for security purposes is no longer a relevant argument for not joining the treaty.”
It is very possible that when President Obama after three months of thinking all the ways to confront the situation in Afghanistan decided to sent 30,000 extra troops someone must have mentioned that in Afghanistan vast undetected areas remain covered in mines.