Security Council urges support for projects to clear landmines
The Security Council today urged United Nations Member States to support projects to clear landmines and other
unexploded ordnance from countries emerging from armed conflicts and to help rehabilitate landmine victims.
In a statement read by the Council President for November, Ambassador Ismael Abraão Gasper Martins of Angola, the
Council urged countries to provide "adequate and sustained" financial assistance to support mine clearing and to
alleviate the suffering of populations affected by mines and unexploded ordnance.
Where possible, countries should donate further to the Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action, the statement
said.
"The Security Council encourages governments whose countries are affected by the presence of landmines and unexploded
ordnance to include a mine action impact assessment in all development planning," the statement said.
The Council also drew attention to the need to ensure the socio-economic, physical and psychosocial reintegration of
landmine survivors.
Refugees and internally displaced people needed to be repatriated in orderly fashion, mined land had to be restored to
productive use and people and goods should be able to move about without such risks, the statement said.
The Council called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to provide information on the scope and humanitarian impact of the
mine and unexploded ordnance problem by submitting country-specific reports.