EFFORTS to secure a worldwide ban on anti-personnel mines (APMs) were boosted yesterday when France signalled it would back a multilateral treaty outlawing their production and use.
In Geneva, however, the United States failed to persuade the permanent UN disarmament conference to appoint a special co-ordinator for negotiations on banning APMs.
The change in France's position emerged on the opening day of a major international conference attended by delegations from 161 states. The conference was due to discuss a draft of the treaty first proposed by Canada last year.
France's new left-wing government had previously expressed support for a ban but said it should be negotiated through the UN Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The French move increases the pressure on the US, which was represented only by an observer in Brussels, to join the Ottawa process, which it has so far refused to do.
Three of the world's biggest producers of APMs, China, Russia and Pakistan, have also stayed out. Russia and Pakistan decided at the last minute to send observers to the Brussels conference, but China remained defiantly absent.
A total of 110 million APMs are estimated to be scattered round the globe in more than 60 countries. An equivalent number is stocked in arsenals. Africa is worst affected with 50 million mines in 18 countries. Egypt alone has about 23 million.
The Red Cross has estimated that APMs kill or maim someone every 20 minutes, with 2,000 victims every month. The number of people left disabled by mine explosions has reached 250,000, mainly in developing countries.
The Brussels conference will seek to come up with a political declaration which for its signatories will serve as an "entry ticket" for the final conference in Ottawa in December.