TEXT: ALBRIGHT ON U.S. DEMINING EFFORTS

 
(U.S. hopes to clear all possible mines by 2010)  
  

Peshawar -- Secretary of State Albright, after witnessing a  
demonstration of demining techniques here November 18, spoke of her  
personal passion for clearing mines.  
  

"President Clinton also is passionate about demining and has initiated  
a demining program, where we are going to try to have it so that, by  
the year 2010, we have cleared the mines in all the countries that we  
can,' she said.  
  

Following are Albright's remarks:  
  

(Begin text)  
  

Thank you very much and thank you very much for your explanations. Let  
me say that the whole issue of demining has become one of my passions.  
I have been to a number of areas in the world where mines have been  
laid and where I can see that people are losing limbs, such as the  
ones in the pictures you have shown. And I have witnessed how in  
various -- I was in Angola, for instance, where mothers tether their  
children to their homes so that they don't wander out into the fields.  
  

I know from having seen other places, but also here, the incredibly  
labor-intensive work that this is. And as you pointed out, we haven't  
come very far in terms of the amount of time and detailed work and  
care that it takes to demine.  
  

President Clinton also is passionate about demining and has initiated  
a demining program, where we are going to try to have it so that, by  
the year 2010, we have cleared the mines in all the countries that we  
can. The United States has already contributed three million dollars.  
We would like to have funds of a billion dollars contributed  
internationally in order to be able to assist with this kind of work.  
  

We also have worked very hard in mine awareness. I am very pleased  
about the fact that my very close personal friend and colleague,  
Assistant Secretary Rick Inderfurth, who is Assistant Secretary for  
South Asia, has also taken on the additional task of being the  
coordinator for the demining effort. He has been truly the passionate  
person behind our efforts. And we worked very hard together when we  
were in New York to get a solid vote for banning landmines. I'm very  
pleased to have worked with him on a project -- which we should do  
here, Rick -- which is, we did an investigation of who the most  
internationally popular cartoon character is, who could help in having  
children of all countries understand the danger of landmines. And  
Superman was voted to be the most popular. We have, in fact, created,  
with the help of Time- Warner, a comic book in different languages and  
perhaps we can somehow get it here also.  
  

I applaud what you're doing. We want to be supportive of it in every  
possible way. Landmines really are what we call the Saturday night  
specials of modern warfare. And they go on killing long after war  
itself is over. The United States is leading in the demining campaign  
and we were out there first to call for an international ban on  
landmines. So, we want to work -- we applaud what you're doing. You  
are really doing the Lord's work. Thank you very much.  
  


(end text)



(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)