{"id":424757,"date":"2024-11-30T04:41:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T04:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=424757"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"US-landmine-offer-to-Ukraine-throws-treaty-into-crisis-campaign-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/US-landmine-offer-to-Ukraine-throws-treaty-into-crisis-campaign-group\/","title":{"rendered":"US landmine offer to Ukraine throws treaty into ‘crisis’: campaign group"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help battle Russia’s invasion has thrown a landmark global anti-landmine treaty into “crisis”, campaigners said Friday, urging Kyiv to snub the proposal. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukraine is one of 164 signatories to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of landmines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The United States, which is not, said last week it would transfer landmines to Ukraine, prompting condemnation from rights groups.<\/p>\n

The offer has thrown the treaty into “crisis”, Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), told a meeting of signatories in Cambodia’s Siem Reap.<\/p>\n

“We therefore hope very much that the mines offered by the US will be firmly rejected by Ukraine,” she said.<\/p>\n

The ICBL later said the conference had been “overshadowed” by the US annoncement of the landmines offer.<\/p>\n

“We have heard some concerns raised by the community,” Ukraine defence official Yevhenii Kivshyk told the conference on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They will be conveyed to the government\u00a0of\u00a0Ukraine.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s delegation in Siem Reap has refused multiple requests by AFP journalists for comment on the landmine offer.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, an official from Finland’s defence ministry\u00a0said it was contemplating if anti-personnel landmines should be brought back into its arsenal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finland abandoned the weapon in 2012 when it joined the anti-mine treaty but advocates for their use argue the country’s security environment has changed due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and became a NATO member last year.<\/p>\n

That move angered its eastern neighbour Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border — the longest in the US-led defence alliance.<\/p>\n

The Siem Reap conference is a five-yearly meeting held by signatories to the anti-landmine treaty to assess progress in its objective towards a world without antipersonnel mines.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, landmine victims from across the world gathered at the meeting to protest Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with landmines.<\/p>\n

More than 100 demonstrators lined the walkway to the conference venue.<\/p>\n

suy-sjc-rma\/ecl<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ukrainian defence official Yevhenii Kivshyk told attendees at an anti-landmine conference he will convey their concerns to Kyiv<\/p>\n

-TANG CHHIN Sothy
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A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help battle Russia’s invasion has thrown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}