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NAIROBI, Dec 7(Reuters) - Somalia, one of Africa's most landmine infested countries, said on Friday it was considering signing a treaty aimed at banning the deadly devices, but asked the international community to be patient as it rebuilds its war-shattered economy.
The Horn of Africa nation has been wracked by 13 years of clan-based violence, but a new government has been appointed in recent weeks in the security of neighbouring Kenya and hopes to establish itself in the capital Mogadishu soon. Somalia's new Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Geedi told the Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World the new administration planned to join the 1997 Ottawa landmine treaty.
"My government will pursue the ratification of the treaty, but please bear in mind we have a country to re-establish, so it may not be immediate," he told delegates. Experts say most landmines in Somalia are littered along the country's 1,800 km (1,100 mile) border with Ethiopia, but antitank and antipersonnel mines are also scattered around military bases, airstrips, bridges, water sources and towns.
"We do not have adequate information on figures for the majority of the country, particularly the south of Somalia, but we have recorded over 500 casualties in the north of the country in the past five years, and this in the least densely populated region," Geedi said. Somalia no longer makes or exports landmines, he added, but some of the devices remain in the possession of individuals and regional authorities.
Summit-host Kenya and 122 other countries signed the Ottawa treaty in December 1997, signalling the start of a global effort to demine old battlefields from Angola to Cambodia. The convention bans the use of, stockpile, production and transfer of antipersonnel landmines -- but not the larger models that target vehicles. At the time of the treaty, 131 states possessed stockpiles estimated at more than 260 million antipersonnel landmines.
Source: AlertNetSomNet
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