Washington -- "The international community is mobilized" now to address the threat to civilians around the world posed by anti-personnel landmines, a U.S. State Department official says.

Karl Inderfurth, the U.S. Special Representative for Global Humanitarian Demining, says the United States, along with the international community, has adopted the goal of eliminating the landmine threat to civilians "in years, not decades." The world community seeks to pull this kind of landmines out of the ground "as soon as we can," he said, striving to meet that common objective by the year 2010.

The past few months has brought "enormous international awareness" about the humanitarian demining issue, Inderfurth said. Readiness to tackle the removal of landmines can be attributed, in part, he said, to U.S. leadership demonstrated by its 2010 Demining Initiative (unveiled in October 1997) as well as the evolving Ottawa Process led by Canada and other nations which promoted the December 1997 signing of the Ottawa Convention banning the production, use and stockpiling of anti-personnel landmines.

"The Ottawa Convention with its landmine removal provisions and our 2010 Initiative are working very much in the same direction," Inderfurth noted during a June 23 U.S. Information Service Digital Video Conference (DVC) with Canadian reporters, government officials and representatives from academia, business and the NGO community in Ottawa and Toronto.

There has been an effort to shift the landmine focus, he said, "to the more practical...immediate and important evaluations, including...land use...and the effect that it (mined land) has on civilian populations." Inderfurth also said it is "terribly important to increase significantly" the level of resources that the international community devotes to humanitarian demining in the wake of the U.S.-sponsored Washington Conference on Global Humanitarian Demining in May. The U.S. 2010 Initiative suggests that $1,000 million be spent annually "until we do see those landmines removed that are threatening civilian populations around the world," he said.

Achieving that level of financial support will require the concerted effort of public-private partnerships, Inderfurth told DVC participants. But it goes beyond money, he said, to supporting education efforts like mine awareness programs and tools to communicate the dangers of landmines to unsuspecting children.

Inderfurth noted that Warner Brothers and DC Comics unveiled the second in a series of comic books warning children about the dangers of landmines in New York in June for distribution in Central and Latin America in Spanish. The first set of comics was handed out in Bosnia. Soon, he said, another will be prepared in Portuguese for Mozambique and Angola.

Inderfurth pointed to the importance of reaching out to the private sector on the demining issue through other mine awareness programs. Adopt a Minefield, sponsored by the United Nations Association, aims at generating grassroot support, he explained, so private American citizens have "a sense of ownership" in trying to deal with "a landmine problem in a particular country in a particular place."

Such partnerships also have a role in promoting much needed research and development (R&D) efforts to address safe detection and removal of landmines. "We think some progress is being made in terms of international coordination" for R&D programs, Inderfurth said, noting that a July conference in Karlsruhe, Germany will focus on technology development.

One of the Canadian interlocutors pointed to the utility of holding military-to-military dialogues on humanitarian demining, as was done at the Washington Conference. Inderfurth agreed that there is "value-added" to such consultations. The U.S. Defense Department already supports programs in 19 countries to train deminers and to provide demining equipment.

The next phase of the U.S. 2010 Initiative, Inderfurth explained, will be to reach out to those nations which did not participate in the Washington Conference.

Asked why the U.S. selected the date 2010, Inderfurth said "it sends a signal to the international community that we don't have to wait generations or decades to get rid of the mines that are affecting civilians around the world." In addition, he said the goal is considered "achievable" by that date as well as consistent with the provisions of the 1997 Ottawa Convention which calls for landmines to be removed 10 years after treaty ratification.

While the United States was not one of the signatories of the Ottawa landmine ban, it is committed publicly to signing the Ottawa Convention (by 2006 or sooner) if suitable alternatives to anti-personnel landmines and anti-tank mixed munitions can be found. This is something the Defense Department is pursuing aggressively, Inderfurth said. Meanwhwile, other nations continue to ratify the landmine ban; Zimbabwe just became the 20th nation to do so. Inderfurth offered Canada congratulations on this achievement, noting that Canada is seeking the ratification of 40 nations by December 1998.

Inderfurth, who also serves as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, pointed out that U.S. officials believe "very strongly and firmly that anti-tank mines are not covered by the Ottawa Convention." Inderfurth defined mixed munitions as including both anti-tank and anti-personnel mines "when they are dispersed together."

The ambassador was also queried about the dates which are frequently cited in U.S. landmine policy discussions: 2003 and 2006. The United States has already announced that it will no longer use landmines anywhere except in South Korea beginning in 2003, Inderfurth explained, and by 2006 the Defense Department is supposed to have identified suitable alternatives to U.S. mines in Korea and for anti-tank mixed systems (munitions).

Inderfurth expressed confidence that the United States will be able to find the appropriate mine and munition alternatives, even though "unfortunately we are not there yet."

Asked about the status of the impending updated State Department booklet, "Hidden Killers," Inderfurth said he expects it to be issued in advance of the September UN General Assembly session in New York as a means of sparking further interest and discussion. A draft of 12 key country profiles circulated for comment in May at the Washington Conference and resulting feedback has prompted revisions to the document. "We believe that this is an important update," the official said, and part of the effort to obtain a realistic picture of the extent of the landmine problem.

Inderfurth noted that early estimates which pegged the number of embedded landmines at more than 100 million "are probably higher than experience has now shown." He said U.S. experts now believe there are "significantly fewer landmines" in the ground around the world.

Inderfurth was quick to point out that one of the lessons learned at the Washington Conference is that "the number of landmines is really not as important as the amount of land affected (contaminated) and, of course, the number of casualties (occurring) on a yearly basis." The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates 25,000 to 26,000 people are killed or maimed annually by hidden mines.