"For a mine free Earth"

A Call by scientists for the application
and the respect of the Treaty to ban landmines

Handicap International, member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines*, Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate for 1997, estimates that each year 15 to 30, 000 people are mutilated by an antipersonnel landmine explosion. No one can say how many are killed outright. For several decades after the end of each conflict, local men, women and children will activate the explosion that marks the beginning of a physical, psychological, domestic, social and economic ordeal.

Even though a large majority of the world's nations signed the Convention to ban landmines at Ottawa in December 1997, millions of antipersonnel mines scattered indiscriminately in every zone of conflict, past and present, still threaten civilian populations. More than 60 countries, principally the poorest ones, are infested to varying degrees by this scourge, where the possibilities of obtaining care are least developped. The rights of the victims have been violated and widely ignored, and demining efforts are relatively insignificant when faced with the magnitude of the challenge.

In addition to human suffering and individual degradation, landmines encourage the displacement of populations from the countryside and contribute to the vulnerability and poverty of those who remain. The presence of landmines prevents people from returning to their homes, prohibits access to natural resources and interferes with economic exchange.

As far as we are concerned, science should be used exclusively for the advancement of progress and life. Technology in this case has been misused to create a terrible waste. Nevertheless, certain countries still consider this weapon quite legitimate; others want to supplement standard landmines with even more sophisticated so-called "smart" mines.

No cause justifies that the rights of civilian populations be trampled over in this manner. The illegality of antipersonnel landmines has been today finally established by the Treaty of Ottawa. It is the duty of each nation to sign it, ratify it without delay, guarantee its implementation by appropriate penalties, and respect the commitments that it requires.

We, as scientists, working across the frontiers, are striving daily for the acquisition of knowledge and the advancement of understanding from which progress, the well-being of humankind, and the protection of the environment will ensue. We offer our support to the NGOs of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

In order to recreate a world where everyone can walk without the threat and the fear of mutilation, we ask that the ban of antipersonnel landmines be respected by all countries, that the rights of the victims of landmines be recognized and honored, and that the land polluted be cleared with the required efficiency.

The 64 first signatories are : Werner Arber, Ennio Arimondo, Peter Armbruster, Fabrizio Barocchi, Louis Bazin, André Berger, Boris Bolotovskii, Kàlmàn Burger, Ian Butterwoth, Henri Cartan, Georges Charpack, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Paul. J. Crutzen, Hubert Curien, James C.I. Dooge, Henri Duranton, Sir Sam Edwards, Jüri Engelbrecht, Ayse Erzan, Michael E. Fisher, Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Maurice Goldman, Friedrich Hensel, Dudley Herschbach, Roald Hoffmann, Massimo Inguscio, François Jacob, Maurice Jacob, Benediktas Juodka, Nora Kearney, Paul Kessler, Peter Knight, Walter Kohn, Endre Körös, Joel. L. Lebowitz, Jean Marie Lehn, George Marx, Rita Levi-Montalcini, M.G.K. Menon, Jûrgen Mlynek, Yoshio Nakamura, Erling Norrby, Yavuz Nutku, Ernst Wilhem Otten, Guy Ourisson, Jean Claude Pecker, Christine Petit, John C. Polanyi, Pierre Potier, Yves Quéré, C. N. R. Rao, Luciano Reatto, Jean Rouxel, Laurent Schwartz, Michael Sela, Peter Sigmund, Michael Smith, Boris P. Stoicheff, Gursaran. P. Talwar, Guy de Thé, Gérard Toulouse, Manuel G. Velarde, Attila Vértes, Benjamin Widom, Torsten Wiesel, Barbara Wright.

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*The International Campaign to Ban Landmines was founded in 1992 by six NGOs: Handicap International (France and Belgium), Human Rights Watch/Arms Project (USA), Medico International (Germany), Mines Advisory Group (Great Britain), Physicians for Human Rights (USA) and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (USA). Today, it gathers more than 1 300 organisations in 70 countries.