As the world marks the 10th anniversary of an anti-landmine treaty, the Conservative government announced $80 million for de-mining efforts in Afghanistan.
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said Monday in Ottawa that the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan will receive the funds.
"Canada will continue its strong support of mine action activities in Afghanistan and the United Nations mine action service with a contribution of $80 million over the next four years," Oda told a press conference at the Canadian War Museum.
The Tories already budgeted $8.8 million for Afghan de-mining last February.
An estimated 100 Afghans are killed or maimed per month as a result of landmines, which are explosive charges buried under the soil.
After nearly 30 years of armed conflict, Afghanistan is among the most mined countries on Earth. Other heavily mined countries include Croatia, Cambodia and Angola.
The $80 million will go towards a program that "includes land surveying, mine deactivation, education of the people and assistance to victims of landmines," Oda told Â鶹´«Ã½net.
The late Princess Diana helped raise awareness of the landmine problem with a visit to a de-mining effort in Angola back in January 1997.
But well before that, various non-government organizations were campaigning for an anti-landmine treaty, and diplomats were negotiating the language of such a document.
On Dec. 3, 1997, the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, was signed.
Activist Jody Williams and her group, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for the achievement.
Lloyd Axworthy, foreign affairs minister in the federal government of the day, also received wide praise for his work on the treaty.
On Monday, Williams said Canada should focus efforts on other countries plagued by landmines.
"All (80) million is going to Afghanistan," she told The Canadians Press. "Not that Afghanistan doesn't need it -- of course it does. But, being a tad cynical, it does cross my mind: is all that money going to Afghanistan because there is controversy around Canadian troops in combat missions in Afghanistan?
"Is it trying to make up for the fact that some Canadians are not really thrilled about war-making as opposed to (Canada's) historic leadership in peacekeeping?"
But Oda said those concerns were unwarranted, noting that Canada is continuing its commitment to de-mining efforts in about 20 other countries.
Grassroots-inspired action
The campaign "was born out of humanitarian concerns. The global campaign against landmines was born in the minefields -- by villagers in Afghanistan, in Cambodia -- who started marching against landmines," Sylvie Brigot, executive director of ICBL, told Â鶹´«Ã½net on Monday.
"They wanted the world to do more than fitting them with prostheses and letting them sit in refugee camps with their wheelchairs."
Brigot called landmines "an indiscriminate weapon that cannot differentiate between a soldier and a civilian."
Since 1997, 156 countries have signed the treaty. An estimated 40 million landmines have been destroyed.
"We still have 40 countries not signed on," Brigot said, including major nations like the United States.
However, they are complying with the treaty's terms, she said.
The world needs to do more to help survivors of landmines and their communities, she said.
Cluster bombs
Brigot also called on Canada to provide strong political leadership on the campaign to ban cluster bombs, "which are landmine-like weapons in the field."
Cluster bombs disperse soft-drink-can-sized bomblets over an area. The bomblets can fire armour-piercing shrapnel more than 70 metres.
The bomblets sometimes don't detonate on landing and can remain hazardous for years.
