HRW: Libya: Good Start on Landmine Destruction
(Tripoli) – Libya’s first steps to destroy its vast stockpile of landmines are a positive development, and the demolitions should continue, Human Rights Watch said today.
On March 21, 2012, Human Rights Watch witnessed the destruction of nearly 100 Chinese-made Type-72SP antivehicle landmines near al-Abiar in eastern Libya. Since mid-February, nearly 20,000 mines weighing two tons have been destroyed, representing a small fraction of all mines inherited from the Gaddafi government. During last year’s conflict, Libya’s then-opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) formally pledged not to use antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines, and to destroy all mines in its forces’ possession.
“The Libyans have begun respecting their 2011 pledge to destroy the hundreds of thousands of landmines in their possession,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Now the work needs to continue to ensure that these indiscriminate weapons cannot be used in Libya or anywhere else.”
Human Rights Watch urged the Libyan government to accelerate the landmine destruction process and to join the international Mine Ban Treaty. In the NTC’s pledge, signed on April 27, 2011, it said that “any future Libyan government should relinquish landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/25/libya-good-start-landmine-destruction