THE DEATHS of three British soldiers in Bosnia on Sunday might, campaigners say, increased awareness in the First World of the need to ban landmines. So far these demands have been heard mainly in poorer countries, where most of the victims of these devices die or are maimed.
Talks this month under the auspices of the UN in Geneva have reported progress in strengthening terms of the Second Protocol of the 1980 UN Inhumane Weapons Convention, which regulates the use of landmines.
Nevertheless, the Third World is still the principal scene of death caused by landmines. Last month, for example, in a village in the province of Maputo in Mozambique, children were collecting scrap metal from old war relics to resell at the local market. Among the bits of metal they found was an OZM3 mine. When they later placed it on a scale in the middle of the market, it exploded, killing eight children between six and 14 years old.
Accidents such as this, which on average claim the lives of 70 people a day, are informing international public opinion about the global problem posed by the estimated 100 million mines which are still in the ground.
The UN says the mines tear at the fabric of rural society in the poorest countries where people find it particularly difficult to get medical aid. In Afghanistan and Cambodia, it is estimated that 35 per cent more land could be put to use if the threat of mines was lifted.
. The former commander of the UN forces in Bosnia, Gen Sir Michael Rose, obstructed Nato air strikes against the Serbs, a report in today's Guardian claims. According to the report the CIA eavesdropped on Gen Rose ordering SAS scouts in Serbheld territory not to identify targets for Nato bombers.
The Guardian claims the Americans became exasperated by what they saw as the obstruction of a robust stand against the Serbs. Last night the claims drew a strong denial from the British Ministry of Defence.
Ireland is among a small group of countries, including Austria, Belgium, Japan and Norway, to have announced that they do not export anti personnel landmines and do not intend to do so. The US, Britain, China and Russia are notable, say campaigners, among those powers whose governments are seen to be half hearted in attitudes to abolition.