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Kathmandu Friday February 08, 2002 Magh 26, 2058.
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Procedure at final stage to
sign landmine treaty
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Feb 7: State Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Arjun Jung Bahadur Singh, said here today that the process to sign the Mine Ban
Treaty 1997 is at the final stage.
"The process to sign the Landmine Ban
Treaty 1997 is at the final stage," State Minister Singh said while addressing a
seminar in the capital. "I hope the government will sign the treaty very soon."
Speaking at the seminar on Emergency and
Landmines organised by the Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal (NCBL), State Minister Singh said
the government now is assessing the potential impacts after signing it. "We are
accumulating inputs from the experts," he said.
He also said he was personally very positive
about signing it and said he would do his best in convincing the government to sign it.
Till now, the 1997 treaty banning the use,
production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines has been ratified by 122
countries and signed by 142. Only Bangladesh and the Maldives from the South Asian Region
have signed the Landmine Ban Treaty 1997. Still some 50 countries including United States
of America and China have not signed the Landmine Ban Treaty.
Speaking on the occasion, chairman of the
Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives, Som Prasad
Pandey, urged the Maoists to stop planting the landmines targeting the individuals.
"That group (Maoists) should think and become serious about this," he said.
Pandey also asked the government to sign the
Landmine Ban Treaty as soon as possible.
Deputy Inspector General of the Armed Police
Force, Rabi Jung Thapa, addressing the function said the Maoists have not only claimed
personal lives but have also created a psychological terror by planting the landmines. DIG
Thapa also said the police have not been using the landmines and booby traps.
Addressing the seminar, lawmaker Chitra Bahadur
KC, leader of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Jog Mehar Shrestha, former speaker Daman Nath
Dhungana and president of NCBL Purna Shova Chitrakar urged the government to sign the
treaty and the Maoists stop using the landmines.
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