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The ones that get the military right now look like anything from dolls to bits of debris by the side of the road.

Ironically, they learned that lesson from previous wars when hidden and disguised mines were intended to rip of kids (and civilians in gerenal) arms and legs.

Have a look here at which countries banned the use of anti-personal explosive devices: http://www.icbl.org/en-gb/the-...

• Millenium Math Problems
• International Campaign to Ban Land Mines
• World Peace
• Where are my socks?
• Where's Waldo?

Yes there is. However after promoting it and helping to get other nations to sign it, President Clinton refused to sign it.

Has your country already signed this treaty??

* ban
* landmines
* in the US!

Those are the countries that *aren't* signatory states.
These are the signatory states:

http://www.icbl.org/treaty/members

More info: http://www.icbl.org/

oh great, we really need more innovation in using a weapon not designed to kill but designed to maime people, then again nothing America and its sick administration/populace suprises anyone thesedays

just ban landmines and ban the fskers who advocate their use

http://www.icbl.org/

The use of non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines is permissible until 2010 and then only in Korea. The use of non-self-destructing antivehicle mines globally will be allowed until 2010.

The United States last acknowledged using antipersonnel mines in 1991 in Kuwait and Iraq, scattering 117,634 self-destructing/self-deactivating landmines mostly from airplanes.

Note that the Ottawa Treaty of 1999 forbids the production of armed autonomous robots

um no it doesn't http://www.icbl.org/treaty/text

Mines are defined as 'concealed' devices All you need to do it paint the robots a nice bright neon color and you can programe it to kill exclusively humans without violating the ottowa treaty.

Further more Mixed Devices are perfectly legal, All you do is Arm the Robot with an RPG and program it to blow up tanks and humvees. then it can also be programmed to slaughter milions of innocent souls and not be in violation of the ottowa treaty even if it's got a digital invisibility cloak*

remember the first rule. Never trust wiki.

*= a fancy device designed to take pictures of the environment around it, and make a 'camoflauge' image around the person, machine etc. using various existing technology. it's actually quite priimative, and guille suits are prefered, as they work better at close range, and at night.. seriously, the millitary has tried (and failed) to make a useful digital invisibility cloak. ideally it would use some kind of image display that worked in day tiem or night time, could match both thermal as well as visual image, and ideally you wouldn't know they were there til you ran into the device. fortunately the devices they built only worked at >= 100 yards away and only in daylight. we just don't have that kind of thermal and visual display technology to match at that high a resolution. and luckily the romulans wouldn't give us there version of the technology that was based on highly modified force shield technology**, to bend the light around the object.

**= luckily our own force shield technology is entirely based on rubbing two very large pieces of plastic together to generate a solid wall of ionized air.. rather than than some artificially created wall of ionically charged particles thyat can be manipulated by a device.

So just because the UN allows a discussion of world leaders on enviornmental treaties, such as Kyoto perhaps, gun control and gay rights, you say they are against freedom? WTF!! Does freedom not give people the right to discuss ideas like this?

I certainly wouldn't like the UN to enforce any treaty which eviscerates traditional property rights but that doesn't mean I think they shouldn't discuss it. And even if there were such a treaty I know my national government wouldn't sign up to it, so its not something I'm going to lie awake at night worrying about. Remember, the UN is a treaty organisation. They can't enforce anything in your country that your government won't sign up to.

Gun control: Considering the US thinks it has the authority to remove Iraq's (imaginary) WMD's why shouldn't the UN have the authority to do so? Why not have treaties against weapon proliferation.. oh hold on, we do. The Landmine Ban Treaty signed by 153 countries, but not the US.

Gay rights: What's wrong with this? Only a fundamentalist Christian or fundamentalist Muslim would have issues with this, IMO.

When I follow your more of your links I find journalists opining against nuclear disarment and the cancellation of 3rd World Debt. Again, how do these impinge on people's freedom? Are you saying countries should be "free to be poor" or "free to live under nuclear threat" and that the UN is evil for suggesting that people don't want to be poor, and that rogue states shouldn't have the right to stockpile nuclear arms?

Finally, remember again, the UN is a treaty organisation. They can't enforce anything in your country that your national government doesn't sign up to.

I've been in Russia, and I've lived in Eastern Europe for a while. So yes, I have seen the effects of (that form of) communism first hand.

I have not been in Tibet or China, ever.

I had read your sig, and found it a bit simplistic. You are blaming Amnesty International for a civil war, which seems a bit far-fetched. I don't know very much about the situation in Tibet, other than that it is under Chinese control - an occupation of an independent country. That's not good.

These rebels who regrouped and got new guns and heavy weapons and landmines - according to you because of Amnesty's pressure for a cease-fire - obviously got some other state's support. That other state is the real villain. As are the people who produce the antipersonnel landmines, and everyone who does not sign the treaty to ban them. Including our bloody own US right-wing government - http://www.icbl.org/lm/2004/usa

So, the non-sequitor in your reasoning is that you assume none of this would have happened without the cease-fire. I think it probably was not quite that simple.

And it's definitely far-fetched to blame a human rights watchdog for a civil war. I don't think the army was being overly nice in that offensive - otherwise Amnesty would not have intervened in the first place.

Regardless of what the GOP wants us to believe, there is _never_ a reason good enough to torture people. It's sickening. Amnesty and the like fight for oppressed people. Regardless of what side they are on.

That is a sure sign of being human and humane.

Funny how they'll sigh this thing, but won't agree to stop using landmines ...
Yeah, I know they're not related but somehow cybercrime just made me think of landmines ...
http://www.icbl.org/country/usa/

Argh... forgot to close the quote on the link.

Here is the link I was talking about.

It is my strong belief that mines, which may be exploded by the presence or proximity of a person, are morally unacceptable. I fully support the convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, transfer and production on anti-personnel mines and on their destruction. Through their signature, governments promise to officially adopt and ratify the Ottawa Treaty and to comply with all of its terms. These include support for global demining work and assistance for mine victims. Through my signature on the People's treaty, I commit to working to ensure that governments keep these promises.

article:

Mine Ban Treaty

The Mine Ban Treaty obligates its participants to completely and permanently discontinue the use, production, stockpile, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines; to destroy stockpiles within four years; to clear mines within their own territories within ten years, and to provide continuing assistance to mine survivors.

The Mine Ban Treaty, which went into effect on March 1, 1999, has been signed by nearly three quarters of the world's nations; it came into force faster than any other multi-lateral global agreement. Participants include all of the western hemisphere except the United States and Cuba, and all NATO countries except the United States and Turkey, though Turkey is in the process of acceding to the treaty. Most African nations and many Asian nations have joined the Mine Ban Treaty as well. For the full text of the Mine Ban Treaty, a list of countries that have signed, ratified, or not signed the treaty,

The landmines in the DMZ between North/South Korea was one reason that the USA declined to join the accords. However, I have heard that South Korea is under control of the landmines and is actively removing them.

The USA is still out of the banning treaty of course, and the Pentagon has srecommended that this remain the case.

You can find the USA's ICBL status for 2003 here.

Many countries' status can be viewed at ICBL.org.

The landmines in the DMZ between North/South Korea was one reason that the USA declined to join the accords. However, I have heard that South Korea is under control of the landmines and is actively removing them.

The USA is still out of the banning treaty of course, and the Pentagon has srecommended that this remain the case.

You can find the USA's ICBL status for 2003 here.

Many countries' status can be viewed at ICBL.org.

The landmines in the DMZ between North/South Korea was one reason that the USA declined to join the accords. However, I have heard that South Korea is under control of the landmines and is actively removing them.

The USA is still out of the banning treaty of course, and the Pentagon has srecommended that this remain the case.

You can find the USA's ICBL status for 2003 here.

Many countries' status can be viewed at ICBL.org.

The article states

The use of land mines was outlawed in the 1997 Ottawa Convention and more than 90 countries committed themselves last year to cleaning up the debris of war to reduce the number of civilian casualties from munitions left by armed conflicts.

However, the USA was not a signatory to this treaty as of 2002, according to this web page. Apparently there were plans to sign in 2006, but the landmine-lovers were working to change those. Has anything changed?

There aren't many other countries that were both democratic and non-signatories: Finland, India, Israel, Korea, Russia, Turkey (but the democracy of some of those might be questionable). The entire "Axis of Evil" made the list, though.

Just because a tool is available that enables something illegal doesn't mean that the tool, the designer, the manufacturer, or the distributor is to blame for the crime that is committed. It's the BA$TARD that commits the crime that is to blame and NOBODY ELSE.

I don't think it's that easy. For example, I agree with the international campaign to ban antipersonnel landmines. You could say that a land mine is just a weapon like any else. You could argue in the same way as you do in your post that land mines do not kill by themselves, only the bastards who plant them are to blame etc. But on the other hand - an antipersonnel land mine hardly has any legitimate use. It is the sort of weapon that kills and wounds innocent civilians, not soldiers. So there are SOME tools and SOME devices that has no legitimate use whatsoever. SOME tools and SOME devices are useful only to BA$TARDS, as you nicely put it. Now the question is: do you see any legitimate use for the iTunes file sharing?

Oh, I forgot, the US doesn't sign international treaties that actually help to make the world a safer place!

This is troll bait, but whatever. From this:

The countries profiled in this chapter are the 10 with the highest number of landmine casualties. (Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Eritrea, Iraq [Kurdistan], Mozambique, Somalia, and Sudan(footnote 3) as well as two others (Namibia and Nicaragua), which illustrate the global nature of the landmine contagion

The US is neither a huge producer of landmines nor is it a big user of landmines. Its controversy has stemmed from (as mentioned in the article) refusal to sign international landmine bans.

-Sean

No- the US has not ratified the treaty banning mines, saying we need them in Korea and Cuba.

I'm sure specialists will go there to get some ideas on how to make mines harder to detect!

I just think of these engineers who design landmines... Do they have any way of "pretending" they're not killing civilians?

Support the campaign to ban landmines.

ps: I've just seen that another comment asking for the support of this campaign, was marked as off-topic!? I can't help thinking some people'd better stick to toys, and OS wars...

Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances:

To use anti-personnel mines;

To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines;

To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

Each State Party undertakes to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in accordance with the provisions of this Convention. There are 50 countries in the World who have not signed this treaty, they include:

Afghanistan

China

Cuba

Iran

Iraq

North Korea

Libya

Myanmar (Burma)

Vietnam

Yugoslavia

The United states of America

The USA is also one of the World's biggest producers and exporters of Landmines.

So if you really want to do something to get rid of these terrible weapons, which mostly kill and maim innocent people, then write to your Congressman!

Landmines kill far more civilians than military personnel. Landmines are not a targeted weapon - they kill indiscriminitely.

For more information, see:

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

United States Campaign to Ban Landmines

The full spec sheet on Afghanistan can be found here: Afghanistan

Afghanistan. In the year 2000, an average of about 88 mine and UXO casualties per month were recorded, a sharp decline from recorded casualties in 1999.

In 2000, mine action organizations marked and mapped about 126 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land, and cleared about 104 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land.

A total of 13,542 antipersonnel mines, 636 antitank mines and 298,828 UXO were destroyed during these clearance operations.

Mine awareness organizations provided formal mine awareness training to more than one million people. MAPA experienced a severe shortage of funds in 2000 and as a result could not achieve its operational targets for the year and had to lay off five manual mine clearance teams, two technical survey teams and two international experts.

Mine action operations were suspended in Badghais and Faryab provinces after seven mine awareness workers were killed in August 2000.

The Taliban and their opposition, the Northern Alliance, have accused each other of laying new landmines. The Northern Alliance denied use to Landmine Monitor, but admitted to an EU mission that they continued to use antipersonnel mines.

The full spec sheet on Afghanistan can be found here: Afghanistan

Afghanistan. In the year 2000, an average of about 88 mine and UXO casualties per month were recorded, a sharp decline from recorded casualties in 1999.

In 2000, mine action organizations marked and mapped about 126 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land, and cleared about 104 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land.

A total of 13,542 antipersonnel mines, 636 antitank mines and 298,828 UXO were destroyed during these clearance operations.

Mine awareness organizations provided formal mine awareness training to more than one million people. MAPA experienced a severe shortage of funds in 2000 and as a result could not achieve its operational targets for the year and had to lay off five manual mine clearance teams, two technical survey teams and two international experts.

Mine action operations were suspended in Badghais and Faryab provinces after seven mine awareness workers were killed in August 2000.

The Taliban and their opposition, the Northern Alliance, have accused each other of laying new landmines. The Northern Alliance denied use to Landmine Monitor, but admitted to an EU mission that they continued to use antipersonnel mines.