'ICBL Concerned By Taliban Mine Use Allegations', International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), 19 June 2008

EXCERPT: "Major news media reports have repeated the allegation that the Taliban have recently laid mines in Arghandab District of Kandahar Province. The news reports do not specify if these are antipersonnel mines. 'The reports of antipersonnel mine use by the Taliban received over the past 18 months are very worrying as ? if confirmed ? they would signal a shift from the Taliban's publicly declared policy of endorsing the mine ban,' said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan of the ICBL's Landmine Monitor. 'The ICBL calls upon the Taliban to publicly reconfirm and honour the commitment it made in 1998 to non-use of antipersonnel mines,' he continued. The former Taliban-controlled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was prohibited by its unrecognized status from signing the Mine Ban Treaty, but indicated its willingness to do so. In 1998 the IEA made a public commitment to a total ban on the production, trade, stockpiling, and use of landmines, and further stated that 'the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would never make use of any type of landmines' and that 'those who use landmines in personal, political or any other differences in Afghanistan would be punished in accordance with the Islamic law.'"

To continue reading the press release, click here.

See also:
'Afghanistan: Landmines impede civilians' return to volatile Arghandab', ReliefWeb / UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 22 June 2008

Related posts:
'Afghanistan still copes with landmines', 4 April 2008
'Hundreds of Afghans killed or wounded by landmines in 2007, UN reports', 21 January 2008