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Disarmament DiplomacyIssue No. 29, August - September 1998UK Ratification of Ottawa Convention'Britain Ratifies Landmines Treaty,' UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Daily Bulletin, 31 July 1998"Britain today ratified the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, and announced a complete ban on their use by British forces. Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, said: 'We have kept our promise to be among the first 40 countries to ratify the Ottawa Convention and bring it into force. Britain will remain at the forefront of the campaign to rid the world of anti-personnel landmines. Our work continues. We must now persuade those countries have not signed and ratified to do so. We must also dedicate ourselves to removing the humanitarian threat posed by millions of mines already in the ground. Our goal is a world free of anti-personnel landmines.' George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, said: 'In keeping with our commitment to ban anti-personnel landmines, I am today announcing that, even in extreme circumstances, any further operational use of such mines by British forces will no longer be allowed. The moratorium we announced on 21 May last year is now a complete ban on any operational use. We are already well ahead of the Ottawa Convention timetable for destruction of our stocks of these weapons. We are also implementing our complete ban on operational use well ahead of the entry into force of the Convention. Britain is leading by example.' …" © 1998 The Acronym Institute. |