The British Government has announced the complete ban on anti-personnel landmines. Landmines are estimated to kill or maim 20,000 people a year, mainly in the poorest areas of the world. British stockpiles of landmines will be destroyed by 2005, or sooner if an international ban is agreed.

Until 2005 there will be a moratorium on the use of landmines by the British Armed Forces. Some mines will be used "in exceptional circumstances", and only with Parliamentary approval. The British ban includes the manufacture, transfer, import, and export of anti-personnel landmines.

Tony Blair, the new Prime Minister of Britain, told Members of Parliament that the mines caused "enormous carnage", often to innocent civilians and children, and the sooner Britain took the lead in getting rid of them the better.

The ban follows a highly publicised campaign led by the Red Cross which reached its height when Diana, Princess of Wales, visited Angola for the Red Cross in January and talked with the victims of landmines.

Article from: The Independent