Every Year 25000 People Are Maimed or Killed by Landmines...

Six Tourists and Guide Killed by Landmine in Sri Lanka

Top Businessman and award winning writer among the dead.

Our Friends at Polus and the US Department of State Brew Up a Great Idea

I am thrilled today to read that our friends at The Polus Center, in partnership with the US Department of State have made good on their plans to develop the Coffeelands Landmine Survivors' Trust.

From their website:

"The Coffeelands Landmine Survivors� Trust is a vehicle for coffee roasters to give something back. Coffee roasters can make grants to coffee growing cooperatives that are affected by landmines and they can take advantage of the expertise of international development organizations experienced in landmine survivor assistance and mine action (landmine removal, mine risk education, and survivor assistance) to assure that their donations make a maximum impact."

Great job, Polus and USDoS!

Afghanistan: Massive Demining Follows Years of Warfare

"Landmine Monitor's 2005 Afghanistan report --the 2006 report is scheduled to be released on Sep 13 --has stated that in the previous year, over 33 sq km of mined areas and nearly 70 sq. km of battle areas were cleared, destroying over 5,000 antipersonnel mines, 500 antivehicle mines and one million other explosives

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is the main source of casualty data, there may be as many as 100,000 landmine and UXO survivors. Disability rights are guaranteed by the 2004 Afghan Constitution.

But the social security benefit of 300 Afghanis a month (about 6 dollars), paid to about 300,000 recipients, including mine survivors and other people disabled by the war and the families of those killed in the war, is insufficient to maintain a basic standard of living."

Read the entire article here.

Harvard Film Series | AT HOME AND ABROAD: THE VIETNAM WAR ON FILM

THE HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE PRESENTS

AT HOME AND ABROAD: THE VIETNAM WAR ON FILM

JUNE 2 � JUNE 24, 2006


24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

(617) 495-4700

www.harvardfilmarchive.org

Admission is $8 General Public, $6 Students and Senior Citizens



The Harvard Film Archive is proud to present a series of films examining the Vietnam War on film. As we continue our extended examination of the implications of conflict, we present a collection of documentaries and essayistic works which reflect on U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. While Vietnam has provided material for many compelling dramatic works, this series focuses on the nonfiction works which documented the unpopular escalation of American intervention as well as the growing protest movement that radically altered popular culture.

June 2 (Friday) 7 pm
June 6 (Tuesday) 7 pm
Winter Soldier
Directed by Winterfilm Collective
US 1972, video, b/w and color, 95 min.
In 1971, following the wake of the My Lai massacre, Vietnam Veterans Against the War invited dozens of vets�many of whom had begun to reconsider their actions overseas�to share their experiences at a gathering in Detroit. This simply filmed and collectively directed documentation of their harrowing stories provides a context for the psychological mindset that led to the brutal acts of rape, torture, and murder committed by American soldiers. Having been trained to regard their enemies as less than human, they soon became inhuman themselves, with horrifying results.
Winter Soldier: The Conversation
Directed by Michael Lesser
US 2005, video, color, 18 min.
Previously anonymous, the 12 participants in the making of Winter Soldier came together years later to discuss the circumstances and reception of the project, relating anecdotes ranging from their use of film stock donated by porn theaters to the film's festival exposure and subsequent rejection by major media outlets.
June 2 (Friday) 9 pm
Newsreel Shorts: Protest Films
Established in 1967, Newsreel was an activist collective which maintained a fierce commitment to social change. These four short films document the growth of the anti-war movement of the 1960s.
Boston Draft Resistance Group
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 18 min.
Profiling the work of a Boston-based grassroots organization which helped draftees explore their legal options for resisting military service, this documentary portrait offers a thoughtful critique of patriotic obligation.
Mill-In
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 12 min.
As Christmas Eve shoppers shuffled about Fifth Avenue, a group of demonstrators took to the streets to raise awareness of the war and make a direct assault on complacency and consumerism.
No Game
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 17 min.
In 1967, 100,000 protesters marched on Washington to demand an end to the Vietnam War. Several filmmakers documented these events, following the protest from its peaceful origins at the Lincoln Monument to a more aggressive confrontation at the Pentagon.
America
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1969, 16mm, b/w, 30 min.
Presenting a range of voices of dissent, America includes conversations with suburban teenagers, recently returned veterans and African-American militants, all committed to ending the war in Vietnam.
Only the Beginning
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1971, 16mm, b/w, 21 min.
In April 1971, thousands of veterans descended on Washington to raise their voices in protest to the atrocities of the war in Vietnam. This powerful document is one of the few which remains true to the perspective of those who served in battle.
June 4 (Sunday) 9 pm
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
Directed by Bill Couturi�S 1987, 35mm, color, 87 min.
One of the more widely acclaimed accounts of the Vietnam War, this made-for-HBO film, which received honors at the Emmy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival, is astounding in its simple presentation. Director Bill Couturi�ombines film materials from the NBC-TV archives, the Pentagon, and private Super-8 collections with audio performances of actual letters from serving soldiers. The readings�performed by Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Ellen Burstyn, among others�capture both the mundane aspects of life in between battles and the longing of soldiers to be true to their mission and come home safely.
June 4 (Sunday) 7 pm
June 6 (Tuesday) 9 pm
In the Year of the Pig
Directed by Emile de Antonio
US 1968, 35mm, b/w, 103 min.
During the throes of American intervention in Vietnam, de Antonio produced a visceral anti-war document. Contrary to dominant public opinion in the U.S., the filmmaker perceived Ho Chi Minh as a great patriot of the Vietnamese people, and crafted a work which condemned the efforts of imperial powers to overthrow the regime. Inspired by the experimentation of musician John Cage, de Antonio employs collage techniques, combining archival footage of the war (borrowed largely from unwitting television stations) and interviews conducted by the filmmaker with ironically heroic musical pieces. A groundbreaking political work, In the Year of the Pig was greeted with great hostility upon its release, including bomb threats and vandalism at theaters which booked the film.
June 7 (Wednesday) 7 pm
High School
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 75 min.
Although documentarian Frederick Wiseman was renowned for his interrogations of American institutions, his second directorial effort is equally revealing as a snapshot of a generation in transition. Filmed in a suburban Philadelphia high school, the film captures the quiet moments in the daily life of the students as well as the more dramatic confrontations between authority figures and those who resist. Especially stirring is the reading of a letter from a former student serving in Vietnam, a fate which may await many members of the graduating class.
June 7 (Wednesday) 8:45 pm
Basic Training
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
US 1971, 16mm, b/w, 89 min.
Shot in his trademark observational style during the summer of 1970 at Fort Knox in Kentucky, Wiseman investigates the transformation of ordinary civilians into highly trained killers, most of whom will inevitably go off to serve in Southeast Asia. Closely following the soldiers' day-to-day progress�from mandatory haircuts upon arrival to hours of bayonet training�Basic Training highlights the loss of individuality at the hands of a system that demands unquestioning obedience and total conformity; those who resist or cannot keep up face punishment and humiliation.
June 10 (Saturday) 7 pm
March on the Pentagon
Directed by David Ringo
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 20 min.
Ringo constructs a poetic reflection on the 1967 March on the Pentagon organized by the Youth International Party, aka the Yippies.
Sir! No Sir!
Directed by David Ziegler
US 2005, 35mm, color, 85 min.
Sir! No Sir! documents G.I. resistance against the Vietnam War, an important part of the anti-war movement that is often minimized in historical accounts. Using archival footage from the 1960s and 1970s along with present-day interviews with many resisters, the film describes the anti-war counter-culture that developed on bases, on battlefields, and inside military colleges. The film also includes rare footage from Jane Fonda�s �anti-USO� tour, as well as a current-day interview with Fonda in which she defends her controversial actions.
June 10 (Saturday) 9 pm
The Draft Card Burner
Directed by Hilary Harris
US 1966, 16mm, b/w, silent, 7 min.
The film documents a series of demonstrations opposing the draft which were held in New York City in 1965.
Peace Pickets Arrested for Disturbing the Peace
Directed by Leonard Henny
US 1968, 16mm, color, 7 min.
This documentary depicts the preparations for and the development of the October 1967 non-violent, anti-draft demonstration at the Oakland Induction Center that led to the arrest of folk singer Joan Baez and twenty pacifists.
Viet Flakes
Directed by Carolee Schneeman
US 1966, 16mm, b/w, 11 min.
Over the course of five years, experimental filmmaker Carolee Schneeman compiled this collection of images of atrocity in Vietnam using international magazines and newspapers as her source. Schneeman�s striking imagery is made all the more powerful by James Tenney�s inventive soundscape, which combines religious chants, Bach, and 1960s pop hits.
First Kill
Directed by Coco Schrijber
Netherlands 2001, video, color, 52 min.
First Kill explores the complexities of war in an astonishing and disconcerting way. Through interviews with Vietnam veterans, director Coco Schrijber reveals the horrors of war as well as its vicious thrills, or what one former war correspondent refers to as �the upside of war.� Though most of the veterans acknowledge regret and remorse over their actions, this documentary recognizes the ever-present capacity for human beings to commit disturbing acts of violence.
June 12 (Monday) 7 pm
New Left Note
Directed by Saul Levine
US 1968/1982, 16mm, color, silent, 28 min.
As editor of New Left Notes, the newspaper of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), filmmaker Saul Levine was at the center of multiple radical political movements. For this film, he employs a rapid fire editing style to create a frenetic, kaleidoscopic portrait of the antiwar movement, women�s liberation and the Black Panthers.
Starting Place (Point du Depart)
Directed by Robert Kramer
France 1993, 35mm, color, 83 min.
English, French, and Vietnamese with English subtitles
Produced late in his career, Robert Kramer returns to Hanoi after nearly 25 years to re-envision the city�s struggle through an uncertain and daunting past, present, and future. The Vietnamese characters in the film are diverse: Kramer�s former guide from an earlier visit in 1969; a tight-rope walker in the national circus; a man who took photos of B-52s, and another who lost his fingers shooting them down.
June 12 (Monday) 9 pm
Newsreel Shorts: Robert Kramer and John Douglas
Activist filmmakers Robert Kramer and John Douglas were at the forefront of the Newsreel Collective. This program presents two of the many notable films they produced with this influential group.
Summer �68
Directed by Norman Fruchter and John Douglas
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 60 min.
Fruchter and Douglas craft a compelling document of the events leading up to the volatile 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Focusing specifically on the growth of the radical movement in the U.S., the film presents their struggles to find a proper medium for their activist message.
People�s War
Directed by Robert Kramer and John Douglas
North Vietnam 1969, 16mm, b/w, 40 min.
In 1969, the Newsreel Collective was invited to film a statement by Ho Chi Minh to the American people. Due to Ho�s failing health, filmmakers Robert Kramer and John Douglas were unable to record this testimony and instead focused on documenting the daily life of the North Vietnamese people who struggled to maintain normalcy after years of colonial rule. Although seized by Army intelligence, the film became one of the most renowned documents of the war.
June 14 (Wednesday) 7 pm
The War at Home
Directed by Barry Brown and Glenn Silber
US 1979, 35mm, color, 100 min.
Tracing the emergence of the 60s and 70s antiwar movement, this Oscar-nominated documentary recalls a time when a significant number of US citizens forcefully opposed their government. The events that took place at the University of Madison at Wisconsin�including the bombing of the Army Math Research Center by four angry students�serve as a microcosm of the growing nationwide protest, and numerous interviews with activists help separate the stereotypes about protestors from the real people behind the movement.
June 14 (Wednesday) 9 pm
Return with Honor
Directed by Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders
US 1998, 35mm, color, 102 min.
Downed American pilots taken captive by North Vietnamese troops faced excruciating physical and psychological conditions: elaborate torture techniques, squalid cells, disease, madness, and the thought of never returning home again. Their tales of survival are recounted here in interviews and supplemented with footage shot both before their imprisonment, and after, as Viet Cong propaganda. Remarkable feats born out of desperation abound�prisoners communicated with each other by tapping out codes, and one pilot, also an artist, drew pictures on the walls with his own blood.
Director Peter Davis In Person � June 16
June 16 (Friday) 7 pm
June 18 (Sunday) 7 pm
Hearts and Minds
Directed by Peter Davis
US 1974, 35mm, color, 112 min.
A landmark documentary, this comprehensive examination of the Vietnam conflict on both sides of the Pacific remains definitive and meaningful. Assembled from an impressive array of interviews, combat footage, and more, Davis carefully weaves a tale of events and personalities both large and small into a powerful tapestry that ranges from the grief of Vietnamese civilians burying loved ones to the staggering ignorance of American officials. Hearts and Minds is an iconic statement of the anti-war zeitgeist of the early 70s, and won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
June 16 (Friday) 9:30 pm
Which Way is East
Directed by Lynne Sachs
US 1994, 16mm, color, 33 min.
In this diaristic work filmmaker Lynn Sachs travels from Saigon to Hanoi with her sister, Dana, a reporter living in Vietnam. Along the way, the two sisters offer their own reflections on the war�which they experienced largely through the lens of American television�as they encounter a completely changed country from the one they learned to fear as children.
Investigation of a Flame
Directed by Lynne Sachs
US 2001, 16mm, b/w and color, 45 min.
Lynne Sachs�s Investigation of a Flame is an intimate and experimental documentary portrait of nine suburban protesters who walked into a Cantonsville, Maryland draft board office on May 17, 1968, grabbed hundreds of selective service records, and burned them with homemade napalm. Over the last two years, Sachs tracked down six of the seven living members of the Cantonsville Nine (including Daniel and Philip Berrigan)�now in their late sixties�and interviewed them about their politically and religiously motivated action. Sachs�s poetic essay about the resistance of citizens at the height of the Vietnam War explores not only their act of civil disobedience but the profoundly personal ways in which the revelations and disappointments of aging have contributed to their retrospective ambivalence about the experience.
June 18 (Sunday) 9 pm
Newsreel Shorts: Santiago Alvarez
In the tradition of great propagandists such as Dziga Vertov and Frank Capra, Santiago Alvarez was driven by political ideology�specifically the ideals of Castro�s revolution. In these films, Alvarez offers his unique and controversial perspective on the Vietnam era.
L.B.J.
Directed by Santiago Alvarez
Cuba 1967, 16mm, b/w, 20 min.
Alvarez shows no mercy in skewering Lyndon B. Johnson using old movie clips and cartoons to parody his cowboy image. He also employs an inventive, audacious formal structure in which he implicates the former president in the murders of Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers.
79 Springs (79 primaveras)
Directed by Santiago Alvarez
Cuba 1969, 16mm, b/w, 25 min.
Interweaving still photos and newsreel footage and making expressive use of split-screen and freeze frame techniques, Alvarez crafts a lyrical tribute to Ho Chi Minh, the leader of VietnamR17;s independence movement. The film�s title refers to Ho�s age at the time of his death.
Hanoi, Tuesday The 13th
Directed by Santiago Alvarez
Cuba 1967, 16mm, b/w, 40 min.
On December 13, 1966 the city of Hanoi was enduring the height of U.S. bombing. Alvarez documents the lives of the North Vietnamese as they continue living and working amidst the ongoing assault.
June 20 (Tuesday) 7 pm
Breathe In/Breathe Out
Directed by Beth B
US/Vietnam 2000, video, color, 70 min.
The generation gap is difficult enough to bridge on its own�add a father's service in Vietnam and the gap gets even wider. Following three veterans and their grown children back to the land where they witnessed incredible carnage as soldiers, director Beth B investigates "what we pass on from one generation to the next" in the hope that the experience will help both fathers and children come to grips with the war and each other. In doing so, she provides proof that the trauma of war does not end when peace begins.
June 20 (Tuesday) 8:30 pm
Surname Viet Given Name Nam
Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha
US 1989, 16mm, color, 108 min.
Born in Hanoi and raised in South Vietnam, Trinh T. Minh-ha�s intensely personal Surname Viet Given Name Nam weaves dance, poetry, and politics with interviews with Vietnamese women from North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States. By giving voice to their experiences as well as her own, Trinh highlights the struggles of women in both traditional and contemporary societies and raises questions about identity and culture.
Director Bestor Cram In Person
June 21 (Wednesday) 7 pm
Unfinished Symphony: Democracy & Dissent
Directed by Bestor Cram and Michael Majoros
US 2001, video, color, 60 min.
Unfinished Symphony: Democracy & Dissent is a remarkable document of civil disobedience in action. In May of 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War planned a protest march retracing the route, in reverse, of Paul Revere�s ride from Boston to Concord. Beginning in Concord, the demonstrators marched to Lexington and tried to camp overnight on Lexington Green. Local politicians, however, voted against accommodating the protestors, and over 400 people�including supporters from the town�were arrested. Featuring footage of the protest and the war, the film is intercut with interviews with subjects such as historian Howard Zinn, and is set to the music of Henry Goreki�s �Unfinished Symphony.�
How Far Home: Veterans After Vietnam
Directed by Bestor Cram
US 1982, video, color, 33 min.
Boston-based filmmaker Bestor Cram documents the lives of veterans as they make the uneasy adjustment to civilian life after the war. The film and the soldiers reach an emotional crescendo at the long awaited dedication of the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.
June 21 (Wednesday) 9 pm
June 24 (Saturday) 7 pm
The Fog of War
Directed by Errol Morris
US 2003, 35mm, color, 95 min.
Reworking extensive interview and archival footage, Morris constructs a distinctly wry portrait of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. An integral figure in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy in the 1960s (including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, and the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam), in recent years McNamara has expressed his personal and professional regrets about these historic events. Among the film's highlights are segments of rare taped telephone conversations between McNamara and his respective commanders in chief Kennedy and Johnson. Structured as eleven lessons from McNamara's life, Morris's uniquely probing technique vividly explores the moral complexity of the actions and beliefs of one of the major political figures of the Cold War era.
Director Karen Turner In Person
June 22 (Thursday) 7 pm
Hidden Warriors: The Women of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Directed by Karen Turner and Phan Thanh Hao
US/Vietnam 2003, video, color, 46 min.
Hidden Warriors: Women of the Ho Chi Minh Trail is an important exploration of an often forgotten piece of the history of the Vietnam War � the women who fought. Through archival footage and current interviews, this film explores the experiences of the women during the war and examines how the war continues to affect their lives today.
June 22 (Thursday) 8:30 pm
Newsreel Shorts: Surviving the War
These short films from the Newsreel Collective focus on the lives of the Vietnamese as they struggled to survive the war and make a future for themselves.
Resist with Noam Chomsky
Directed by Newsreel Collective
US 1968, 16mm, b/w, 12 min.
In this recently rediscovered film, Noam Chomsky offers a candid critique of the Vietnam War which eerily resonates with current international policy in the U.S.
Young Puppeteers of Vietnam
South Vietnam 1969, 16mm, b/w, 25 min.
In liberated areas of South Vietnam, teenagers created beautiful puppets from the remains of downed U.S. warplanes. These young people traveled the countryside performing their unique brand of entertainment amidst the horrors of battle.
Bittersweet Survival
Directed by JT Takagi and Christine Choy
US 1982, 16mm, color, 30 min.
The process of assimilation is never easy for immigrant communities but the challenges were especially great for Vietnamese refugees living in the U.S. following a long and unpopular war. Takagi and Choy document struggles throughout the country that include a fishing community in Monterey, California whose new cheap labor force must face the rancor of the older residents, and low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia in which Vietnamese immigrants are pitted against disenfranchised African Americans.
June 24 (Saturday) 9pm
Speaking Directly: Some American Notes
Directed by Jon Jost
US 1973, video, color, 110 min.
Jon Jost�s debut feature is a powerful meditation on American international policy and his life as an anti-war activist (filmed after the director served two years in prison for draft evasion). Drawing connections between his life in rural Oregon and U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Jost is unsparing in his critique of those closest to him, including his father�who he describes as a �war criminal��and the public figures responsible for American foreign policy. Using a wide range of framing devices such as long camera takes and animated sequences, Jost crafts a vision that is radical in both its politics and its form.
June 25 (Sunday) 9pm
Experimental Protest Films
This collection of films drawn from the holdings of the Filmmmakers� Cooperative looks at experimental approaches to protest in which the antiwar movement finds a power poetic voice.
For Life, Against the War
Directed by The Week of the Angry Arts
US 1967, 16mm, b/w and color, 38 min.
In 1967, a group of artists including Shirley Clarke and Ken Jacobs put out a call for �a personal declaration by American filmmakers for life and against the War.� The films were compiled and screened as part of The Week of the Angry Arts, a music and arts festival which mobilized the protest movement. The result is a fascinating collection of short experimental pieces including work by Hilary Harris, Robert Breer and Lee Savage who provides a morbidly humorous appropriation of Mickey Mouse.
Peacemeal
Directed by Albert Alotta
US 1967, 16mm, color, 7 min.
Alotta�s lyrical film on protest uses striking color and montage to capture the events of the 1967 march on the United Nations.
Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
Directed by Jonas Mekas
US 1968, 16mm, color, 4 min.
A mock interview with the minister of Lapland (portrayed by Adolfas Mekas) is the basis for this short piece by Jonas Mekas.
Piece Mandala/End War
Directed by Paul Sharits
US 1966, b/w and color, silent, 5 min.
Structuralist filmmaker Paul Sharits uses the flicker effect to make an angry, passionate statement against the war.

We Shall March Again
Directed by Lenny Lipton
US 1965, 16mm, b&w, 8 min.
Lenny Lipton provides a vivid depiction of the 1965 Vietnam Day Peace March in Berkley, a demonstration best remembered for the confrontation between protesters and the Hell�s Angels.

A Song From Vietnam: Video on YouTube

A couple years ago a gourp of friends and I were travelling to a meeting in Vietnam after a long day of visiting with Clear Path beneficiaries. One of the women in the van started singing a beautiful song I had never heard before.... we pulled the van over and put a microphone on her and she sang it for our camera...

We put a slideshow to it and the reults are below:

Ten Years Later, The U.S. Is No Closer to Mine Ban

Source: US Campaign to Ban Landmines

May 16, 2006

On May 16, 1996, President Clinton committed the United States to "aggressively pursue an international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines." Many people concerned with the humanitarian effects of antipersonnel mines thought after the May 1996 announcement that the U.S. was on the road to banning anti-personnel landmines. Unfortunately, President Clinton back stepped and refused to join with the majority of the world�s nations in signing the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. Ten years later, the Pentagon still holds a stockpile of over 10 million antipersonnel mines, reserves the right to use these weapons anywhere in the world, and may be soon moving toward producing new antipersonnel landmines.

President Bush�s landmine policy represents a further step away from banning the pernicious and hidden weapons that kill tens of thousands each year. In 2004, the Bush administration announced that it would not join the Ottawa Treaty because "its terms would have required us to give up a needed military capability." The U.S. thus became the first country to state that it will never join the Mine Ban Treaty.

In addition to the call for an international agreement, President Clinton�s 1996 policy directed the Secretary of Defense to undertake a research program aimed at finding alternatives to antipersonnel mines in order to end reliance on these weapons as soon as possible. Proposals for alternative weapons were supposed to be completed by 2006. While the Bush administration abandoned this earlier commitment to eventually eliminate use of antipersonnel mines, it continued the research and development program searching for alternatives to "conventional" antipersonnel landmines. The Pentagon has spent more than $320 million on the research program since 1997.

Growing out of this decade-long research program, the Pentagon is beginning to propose the development of new types of mines. According to budget documents submitted to Congress in 2005, it is preparing to begin production of a new landmine called "Spider." While Congress delayed a final decision on whether to move forward with development of Spider due to concerns over the weapon�s indiscriminate effects, there is no indication that the Bush administration will stop its drive to produce Spider.

To learn more about Spider and Congress� decision to delay production go to : http://www.banminesusa.org/news/883_spyder.htm.

Civil society has played a critical role in securing the international ban on antipersonnel mines and it is essential that people in the United States stand up and act to retain the movement�s successes. We must not let the U.S. move further away from President Clinton�s commitment 10 years ago.

TAKE ACTION TODAY: Congress can take the next step and require that new victim-activated mines, which injure soldiers and children with impunity, not be produced. Mark this day by telling your senators you are disappointed that the U.S. is contemplating new production of landmines. Send your message to your senators by clicking here: http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=8012591 . Tell them that the vision of a world free of the scourge of landmines will remain out of reach as long as the U.S. continues to reserve the right to produce these indiscriminate weapons.

For more information on the U.S. Campaign Landmines, go to http://www.banminesusa.org.

US Campaign to Ban Landmines
c/o Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 2nd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: (202) 547-6000
Fax: (202) 547-6019
Email: landmines@fcnl.org

To make a online donation to the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, go to http://www.banminesusa.org/support/body.html.

Mines Take the Lives of Indigenous Father and Daughter in Colombia

I ran across this today... it gives context to the importance of my previous post on the US Gov. work in Colombia .

Source: http://www.sharedresponsibility.gov.co/index.php?idcategoria=532

Mines Take the Lives of Indigenous Father and Daughter in Colombia

Two Colombian Kogi indians, a father and daughter, were killed by a landmine while walking in their reservation in Colombia�s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Thousands of hectares of illicit crops extend along the many hills and fields of the Sierra Nevada National Park, which borders Colombia's Carribean coast. These crops not only destroy the Sierra's unique ecosystem but also put the lives of the Kogi, Arhuaco and Wiwa indigenous tribes at risk.

The three tribes, who have made these mountains their home for centuries, must now face a future plagued by landmines. These illegal devices are part of the security strategy used by drug traffickers to protect the illicit crops cultivated in the Sierra Nevada National Park.

The Kogi are known as one of the most peaceful indigenous tribes living in Colombia, who value the land and their relationship with it. Pictured here is a young Kogi girl, one who will have to watch her step in her homeland from now on.

Burmese Army Uses Landmines to Prevent Karen Civilians from Fleeing Conflict

The article below from the Human Rights Watch is not news to us... we have seen the impact of landmines being used by the Burmese government which is why we fund work with landmine suvivors in several clinics along the Thai-Burma border.

See our phtos from Burma here.


Burmese Army Uses Landmines to Prevent Karen Civilians from Fleeing Conflict

HRW via BBSNews - New York, May 3, 2006 -� The U.N. Security Council must urgently respond to Burmese army attacks on ethnic Karen civilians that have displaced more than 10,000 villagers since November, Human Rights Watch said today. Civilians seeking refuge in Thailand have been placed at grave risk by landmines planted by the Burmese army along the border.

Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to place Burma on its agenda in accordance with its April 28, 2006 resolution, �On Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict,� which affirms a collective responsibility of all U.N. members to protect civilian populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity when their governments do not provide that protection.

�The U.N. has just committed itself again to protecting civilians at risk, and thousands of Burmese are in urgent need of such help,� said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. �The atrocious situation in Burma is exactly the kind of crisis the resolution was designed to address. Without swift and decisive Security Council action, the killings and abuses there will not stop.�


Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to place Burma on its agenda in accordance with its April 28, 2006 resolution, �On Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict,� which affirms a collective responsibility of all U.N. members to protect civilian populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity when their governments do not provide that protection.
�The U.N. has just committed itself again to protecting civilians at risk, and thousands of Burmese are in urgent need of such help,� said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. �The atrocious situation in Burma is exactly the kind of crisis the resolution was designed to address. Without swift and decisive Security Council action, the killings and abuses there will not stop.�
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly urged the U.N. Security Council to put Burma on its formal agenda.
�China and Russia need to stop blocking action on Burma by the Security Council, as that gives a green light to the military government�s scorched earth policy,� said Adams.
Human Rights Watch reiterated its call for the United Nations to appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since the Burmese military government took power in 1988.
In November the Burmese army, or Tatmadaw, began its largest offensive in the western and northern parts of Karen state since 1997. Burmese troops have looted and burned homes and planted anti-personnel landmines in civilian areas to terrorize the local population. In some cases, villagers have reportedly been ordered by battalion commanders to leave their homes or face summary execution. Fleeing villagers have reported witnessing soldiers commit extrajudicial killings and torture. They have also reported that men, women and children have been forcibly conscripted to work either as army porters or as unpaid laborers.
Government troops are continuing sweeping operations in Mon township, Nyaunglebin district. Army infantry battalions 241 and 242 are reportedly leading efforts to chase some 2,000 displaced Karen villagers. Those displaced are at particular risk due to the heavy rains caused by Cyclone Mala, which has made living conditions difficult. Many villagers are reportedly sick with malaria and dysentery. Karen villagers in Toungoo district � who were earlier forced to go to relocation sites, or faced execution � reported that they now have no shelter there and are living under trees in the rain.
According to humanitarian agencies, 4,000 people have been displaced in Mon township; 2,000 in Shwey Gyin and Kyauk Kyi townships combined; and more than 2,000 in Toungoo district. While more than 1,000 people have fled to the Salween River to seek refuge in Thailand, the Burmese army has reportedly laid more than 2,000 anti-personnel mines in a north-south line to stop further civilian movement from the mountains to the plains. This was allegedly done in order to block escape routes and deny the civilian population access to food supplies, commodities, and other humanitarian assistance.
Human Rights Watch also called on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to publicly call on Burma to end its attacks on ethnic minority populations. Embarrassed by the continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the failure of the constitutional convention, and the lack of democratic reform, ASEAN members have made increasingly critical statements about Burma�s military government. Last year, ASEAN asked Burma to give up its turn as chair of the organization. ASEAN�s special envoy to Rangoon expressed frustration at the slow pace of reform and at being prevented from meeting with a variety of political figures on a recent visit. But ASEAN has never directly addressed Burma�s human rights record or taken up attacks on Burma�s many ethnic populations.
�It is time for ASEAN to speak up about these horrific abuses,� said Adams. �Burma has snubbed polite entreaties from ASEAN members and has become an enormous embarrassment. It�s time for straight talk from Burma�s �friends.��
Background
In June, Human Rights Watched published a 70-page report, �They Came and Destroyed Our Village Again: The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Karen State,� which documented numerous incidents of forced displacement, including: a mother forced to flee her village after watching Burmese soldiers shoot and kill her daughter; a young family fleeing for their lives after soldiers went on a rampage in their Karen village; and a Karen man watching as troops looted his village after forcing him and other residents to flee. Such brutal acts are war crimes, and when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, may amount to crimes against humanity.
The Burmese government continues to commit systematic, widespread and well-documented abuses in ongoing conflicts with ethnic minority rebel groups, including extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, forced relocation of entire villages and forced labor. Independent estimates suggest that, as of late 2004, as many as 650,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Burma alone. According to a recent survey, 157,000 civilians have been displaced in eastern Burma since the end of 2002, and at least 240 villages have been destroyed, relocated or abandoned. Many internally displaced persons live in hiding in war zones.
The Burmese army is responsible for horrific abuses not only against the Karen, but also against other ethnic minority groups. Last May, Human Rights Watch reported that entire villages in Shan state were burned down when Burmese government troops, backed by forces of the United Wa State Army, implemented a counter-insurgency strategy against the Shan State Army, an anti-government armed group. Government forces and the United Wa State Army have regularly targeted civilians by forcing whole villages to relocate. There are reports that they have also singled out young Shan men for execution and torture, and have raped Shan women and girls.

LA Chronicle: Landmines Remain a Threat

by Kamala Sarup
Los Angeles Chronicle
May 5, 2006

The landmine crisis is one of the most urgent and critical crises facing South Asia today. Landmines continue to jeopardise the security of the people in the region because it has paralyzed the countries. And the most disturbing fact is that majority of landmine victims are civilians and women.

For individual and community alike many of whom are already living in poverty and insecurity, the impact of landmines is not simply physical, it is also psychological, social and economic. Every districts in Afaganistan, Pakistan, Shre Lanka, Bangaladesh, India, Kashmir or in Nepal, have had people killed or injured by landmines

Read the rest of the article here.

United States Helping To Coordinate Mine-Clearing in Colombia

I just received this release from our friend John Stevens at the US Department of State.

United States Helping To Coordinate Mine-Clearing in Colombia

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Officials from the U.S. government, including the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense and the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command visited Colombia May 2 and 3 to coordinate with the Organization of American States (OAS) on a mine-clearing operation in the Andean nation.

An official with the OAS said in an interview that the operation began April 24 in the Cerro de la Pita region of Colombia's province of Bolivar. This is the second such operation carried out in Colombia under an agreement the Colombian government and the OAS signed in March 2003.

Two officials from the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA) went to Colombia to help coordinate the mine-clearing operation.

In 2004, the United States granted the OAS General Secretariat $75,000 for mine removal operations in Colombia. In October 2004, the United States welcomed Colombia's destruction of nearly 7,000 "persistent" land mines from its stockpile of such explosive devices. The WRA said it applauded Colombia's "destruction of a batch of its stockpiled land mines that were not needed for its defense."



The State Department defines persistent land mines as munitions that remain lethal indefinitely, affecting civilians long after the cessation of military conflict. (See related article.)
Anti-personnel mines are said to be having a severe effect on the civilian population in Colombia, where the use of those mines is reported to be on the increase and the country's ongoing armed conflicts make it difficult to clear the weapons. The average land mine is said to cost $1 to make, but an average of $1,000 to remove. News reports said that with a rough estimate of 100,000 mines across Colombia, the total removal cost is $100 million.
Some 170 land mines remain in Colombia's Cerro de la Pita region, the OAS official said. In all, Colombia has 33 mine fields, the official said.
According to the OAS, land mines affect 31 of Colombia's 32 departments (provinces) and one of every two municipalities. As of July 2005, some 944 people have been killed in Colombia by land mines, with 2,961 wounded. Since 2002, an average of two people per day have fallen victim to land mines in Colombia. A Geneva-based nongovernmental group, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, reports that globally, Colombia had the third-highest number of land mine victims in 2004 after Cambodia and Afghanistan.
A previous operation to clear land mines and destroy unexploded ordnance was completed in December 2005 at a site called Mamonal (near the city of Cartagena), also in Colombia's Bolivar province, the OAS said.
The physical work of removing the land mines in Cerro de la Pita is being carried out by a 28-member Colombian military contingent. In addition, three representatives from Brazil and two from Honduras are monitoring the work. The OAS said the Cerro de La Pita operation is expected to last two months. The OAS-backed efforts against land mines in Colombia are coordinated by Colombia's National Anti-personnel Landmines Observatory, the country's highest national authority on mine action.
The OAS covers training and life insurance for the personnel as well as logistical support and international oversight of the operations. The organization also is assisting with psychological and physical rehabilitation for 20 land mine victims in Colombia, who were chosen by the Landmines Observatory in consultation with the Bogot�ased Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center of Colombia, which provides rehabilitation services to amputees and other people with disabilities.
The OAS coordinates humanitarian mine-clearing activities in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America through its Comprehensive Mine Action Program, with technical assistance provided by an OAS agency called the Inter-American Defense Board. That board advises the OAS on military and defense-related issues.
To raise money for children victimized by anti-personnel mines, a concert called "Colombia Without Mines" will be held May 24 in Los Angeles, featuring music by Latin artists. The concert is supported by the United Nations Children's Fund, among other groups.
In addition to Colombia, the OAS program for mine removal has operated in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Suriname.
For more information on U.S. efforts to address the world's land mine problem, see the State Department electronic journal, Protecting Lives, Restoring Livelihoods: The U.S. Program To Remove Landmines.
Additional information about the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, which provides assistance to countries suffering from the presence of persistent land mines, is available on the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)