The Australian mine ban

The new Liberal-National coalition government in Australia on Monday won applause from aid and human rights groups by it's announcement of a unilateral moratorium on the use of anti- personnel land mines by the Australian Defense Force.

Australia now joins a group of just six countries to have banned or suspended the use of land mines and will lobby for an international ban on their production, stockpiling, use and transfer despite reservations within the military that the unilateral action could deny the defense force of a valuable capability.

The immediate moratorium, announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer and Minister of Defense Ian McLachlan, however, stopped short of meeting a call by humanitarian lobbyist for the destruction of the army's stockpile of land mines.

Nevertheless, Australia's first move is a clear indication of Canberra's commitment to support a growing international movement to end the carnage from an estimated 100 million land mines worldwide, and this is laudable.

Thousands injured, over 800 killed. Every month, that is the toll taken by land mines worldwide. A human tragedy of such proportions would certainly not go unnoticed if a plane crashed, a ship sank, a single battle raged or a dam burst.

The full extent of the problem is hard to assess, but by all accounts it is daunting. According to United Nations estimates, the 100 million land mines are planted in at least 30 countries on five continents.

In the past 20 years hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or maimed those who survive often lose their livelihood or are left permanently crippled.

Australia now will get behind efforts to strengthen the Inhuman Weapons Convention, which restricts the use of anti- personnel land mines.

Though this convention has only a few provisions that regulate the use of mines, it nonetheless is an extremely important instrument and one which has a great potential for reducing human suffering.

The first priority in promoting compliance with the convention is to obtain its universal ratification. Let's hope more countries follow the example of Australia. Land mines are weapons left behind in the blind cruelty of war and their use should be outlawed.

-- The Nation, Bangkok