ADDRESS BY MR A B NZO, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE SIGNING CEREMONY ON A CONVENTION PROHIBITING THE USE, PRODUCTION, TRANSFER AND STOCKPILING OF ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES AND ON THEIR DESTRUCTION, OTTAWA, 3 DECEMBER 1997

Mr Chairman

Mr Prime Minister

The Secretary-General of the United Nations

Fellow Ministers

Ladies and Gentlemen

It was little more than a year ago that participants from 50 countries gathered here to discuss a global strategy to rid the world of anti-personnel mines. At the end of the meeting my colleague Minister Axworthy boldly invited us all to meet in Ottawa in December 1997 to sign a ban treaty. While we certainly welcomed the invitation and the challenging task it set us, many privately conceded that it would be a miracle.

The fact that we meet here today having attained our objective is a tribute to the lobbying, campaigning, negotiating and commitment of our leaders, civil society, diplomats, the military, landmine survivors and so many others who made this Convention a reality.

I wish in this regard, to honour and to pay a special tribute to the late Princess Diana for her work in focussing attention on the disastrous effect of landmines.

We in Africa , recognising the human destruction which these weapons are causing on our continent, moved quickly to the forefront of the support for the goal of a total ban and took active measures to address this scourge. The countries represented here have accomplished, what was regarded as impossible, in a year. We chose the fast track process with only one aim - to ban anti-personnel mines so as to stop the killing and maiming by these indiscriminate weapons and to do so as quickly as possible. Today as we stand here we should also honour and remember the tens of thousands of mine victims and affirm that their needs will not be forgotten.

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Production, Transfer and Stockpiling of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction is a good treaty. It represents some of the best news in the field of disarmament as it abolishes an entire range of conventional weapons. Early Entry Into Force of the Convention must be a top priority to make our new international norm against anti-personnel mines legally binding.

Universalisation of the Convention must also be a priority, and we should redouble our efforts to ensure that those who are unable to join us today do not continue to use these weapons with the same terrible effects. We should, however, take care not to weaken the international norm for which we have all worked so hard. States should also not lose sight of the need to let the work for the universalisation of our Treaty dovetail with encouragement for the universal adherence to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Many States that will be signing the Convention from today onwards have leapfrogged the CCW to support this strong clear and total ban on anti-personnel mines. The serious commitment reflected in such action should render it possible for them to also consider adherence to the CCW and its Protocols.

Treaties and conventions are only as good as the implementation by State Parties and we must be vigilant to ensure that our ban Convention will live up to its objectives.

Thanks to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, its affiliate partners and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the world is well aware of the anti-personnel mine problem and the challenges we face. The time where we focussed on making political statements on the dimensions of the problem has gone.

The Convention we concluded in Oslo provides us with the tool to now move swiftly to action to meet the challenges. Future conferences should focus on the technical and functional aspects of implementation. In this regard I am pleased to inform this ceremony that South Africa has completed the destruction of its stockpile of anti-personnel mines as is required by the Treaty. Only a limited number are being retained for the development of demining techniques and for demining training.

The major issue that needs urgent attention is the task of co-ordination and removal of the millions of emplaced landmines which are causing thousands of casualties each year and the priority of mine victims who must receive adequate medical attention and rehabilitation, as well as social and economic reintegration. These elements are interdependent and need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner.

Furthermore, we understand that current mine clearance efforts are hampered by the lack of new demining technologies, equipment and techniques. Most demining efforts centre around the use of metal detection, prodding and to a lesser extent free running dogs. The result is that current demining activities are slow and not cost effective. This subject needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

South Africa is willing to assist where we can. We have appropriate and relatively cost-effective demining technology and some medical capacity and experience to deal with mine victims. We stand ready to join forces and work together to tackle the challenges before us.

Present mine clearance operations in certain regions are now entering a new phase, where the emphasis is shifting from emergency priorities, to assisting rehabilitation and reconstruction which forms the basis of human and infra-structural development in affected countries. Furthermore, affected countries need to consolidate and expand a national indigenous demining capacity in order to effectively address the threat of landmines in the following areas: agriculture, free movement of people and goods, economic recovery and the national infrastructure.

A number of intermediate objectives however must be clearly prioritized in order to maximize the humanitarian impact of mine clearance and should include the following:

Mine clearance in support of the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Mine clearance in contaminated areas where there is a high casualty rate.
Mine clearance in support of the resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons.
Mine clearance in support of subsistence agriculture.
Mine clearance in support of community based development projects.
Mine clearance in support of reconstruction and development.

Let us remember that we cannot demine today simply for some to remine tomorrow and it is therefore imperative for us to actively campaign for the early Entry Into Force of this Convention and for its universalisation.

I thank you.