Mine-free Americas.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: OAS - Brief Article

NICARAGUAN DEFENSE minister Jose Adan Guerra urged the international community to continue its support for clearing land mines in his country, saying that more than $15 million is needed in the next three years to remove the remaining mines and implement mine-related educational and social programs.

At a meeting last October with representatives of countries that donate to the OAS Mine Action Program, Guerra said that Nicaragua now belongs to "a select group of countries in the world that are free of stockpiled mines," having destroyed the last of these in August. He said some 75 percent of the country's mined territory has been cleared and reiterated Nicaragua's commitment to become free of antipersonnel land mines by 2005.

At the same meeting, Canada's Mine Action ambassador, Ross Heins, warned that "there is a real risk of donor fatigue setting in" and announced a $250,000 contribution to the Mine Action Program. He stressed the importance of the progress made on this issue in the Americas and said that in the next few months, "the world will witness the two first mine-affected countries to declare...