United Nations -- A new international report reviewing global efforts to eliminate anti-personnel landmines (APL) finds that millions of stockpiled APLs have been destroyed, production is declining and worldwide exports have ended.

"We are making very substantial progress in eradicating anti-personnel landmines. We are, in a very real sense, winning the war against the anti-personnel landmine," Stephen Goose, director of Human Rights Watch, said at a press conference releasing the report entitled "Landmine Monitor Report 1999 -- Toward a Mine-Free World."

The report "clearly gives us a picture of a world that is moving rapidly in the right direction in terms of getting rid of this weapon. It clearly gives us a picture of a new international standard of behavior emerging rapidly against any possession of this weapon," Goose said.

"We see that global use is decreasing significantly, global production is decreasing significantly, global export of the weapon has essentially halted," Goose said.

"We see millions of mines destroyed from stockpiles. We see decreases in the number of landmine victims in key areas and we see a great deal of new funds being pledged and spent on mine clearance and mine awareness programs," he said.

The 1,100-page report is an effort by private groups working as the "International Campaign to Ban Landmines," the first collaborative effort by non-governmental agencies to monitor the implementation of an international humanitarian/disarmament treaty. The Campaign also monitors signatories' compliance with the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

The Anti-Personnel Landmine Convention was signed by 122 countries in Ottawa, Canada in December 1997. It came into force in March 1999, six months after the 40th nation deposited its instrument of ratification. As of March 31, 1999 a total of 135 countries have signed or acceded to the treaty. Some 50 countries, including three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, Russia, and the United States, have not yet signed. Nevertheless, even those non-signatories have endorsed the notion of a comprehensive ban on landmines at some point in time. In May, 1998 the United States announced that it would sign the treaty in 2006 if it successfully develops alternatives to the anti-personnel landmine.

At the same time, three African countries that have signed the treaty have used landmines in the past year, according to Nobel laureate Jody Williams. "Quite obviously the use of the weapon by a signatory nation undercuts the norms," she said.

Williams cited Angola as one country that falls into this category. "The other two, which used anti-personnel landmines in 1998 during the fighting in Guinea Bissau, were Senegal and Guinea Bissau."

Williams also said that "there have been numerous credible reports of extensive mine laying by Yugoslav security forces in Kosovo" in the past month since the Landmine Monitor report went to the printer. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been one of the world's largest producers and exporters of anti-personnel mines, according to the report.

The Landmine Monitor Core Group that published the report says it is the most comprehensive book on the global landmine situation ever produced and it draws on the work of more than 80 researchers in 100 countries and a network of 1,300 non-governmental organizations. The report was unveiled recently at the first meeting of the states parties to the Landmine Convention in Maputo, Mozambique, in May. It will be updated and made public each year at the states parties meetings. The executive summary is available on the Web at http:/www.icbl.org/lm/1999/exec.html (in English).

The idea for Landmine Monitor "rose from a desire to hold governments accountable to both their commitments to the treaty and to the other statements they have made on anti-personnel landmines," Goose said.

It reports on every country individually and also has thematic chapters dealing with mine clearance, victim assistance programs, and production, stockpiling, trade, and use of the mines.

"We were able to identify 13 conflicts in which we feel fairly certain there has been new use of mines" between December 1997 and March 1999, Goose said. The counties in which mines were used, in addition to Angola, Guinea Bissau, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, are: Djibouti (by rebels), Somalia (various factions), Uganda (rebels), Colombia (various rebel groups), Afghanistan (opposition forces), Burma (government and various rebel groups), Sri Lanka (government and rebels), Georgia (partisans in Abhkazia), Turkey (government and rebels), and Lebanon (Israel and other groups in the occupied south).

Goose noted that although 13 conflicts is "too many when we want it to be zero," that number is "surprisingly low" and the numbers of mines being laid are not as huge as was the case in Bosnia, Afghanistan or Cambodia a few years ago.

Frequent, but unconfirmed, allegations have been made of new use by the governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, and Sudan, according to the report.

"Not too many years ago...in every conflict landmines seemed to be in use," he said. "We now seem to be in a situation where governments and rebel groups don't use mines as a matter of course. It is no longer considered just a standard weapon of war."

Landmine Monitor identified "only some 16 countries that are producing mines or who have produced in the past and have not forsworn production....Several of the 16 have not produced in several years although they reserve the right to resume production," Goose noted. Of the 16, China is probably the biggest manufacturer and some -- including the United States and Singapore -- have not made anti-personnel mines in recent years.

"Some 38 countries that produced in the past have now banned production," he said. Eight of the 12 biggest producers and exporters over the past 30 years who signed the treaty and have stopped production are Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Landmine Monitor found that of the 34 nations that exported landmines in the past, all with the exception of Iraq, have made at least a formal statement that they are no longer exporting.

On stockpiles, the monitors found that more than 12 million mines have already been destroyed in more than 30 nations.

But Goose pointed out that the report produced the first systematic and solid estimate of how many mines are stockpiled. And "it was surprisingly, if not frighteningly, high," he said.

"We discovered that there may be more than 250 million (landmines) in stockpiles in at least 108 countries with China alone accounting for 110 million mines and Russia some 60 to 70 million, and Belarus and the United States with over 11 million," Goose said.

Landmine Monitor also reports that the number of victims of anti-personnel landmines is dropping in several high-risk countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Eritrea, Mozambique, and Somalia. But the report warned that the data needs to be analyzed to get a clear understanding of why that is the case so that planning and funding for humanitarian demining programs can beapplied effectively.

The report pointed out that while the data on casualties and survivors may be lacking, the basic needs of mine victims everywhere remains the same: emergency medical care; amputation surgery and post-operative care; rehabilitation; prosthetics, wheelchairs, or crutches; psychological rehabilitation; combating social stigma; and returning victims to economic productivity.

The report identified approximately $640 million in spending by 17 major donors from 1993 to 1998. The vast majority of the funding has gone to Afghanistan, Mozambique, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Angola.

The top 10 major donors have been: United States ($164.3 million), Norway ($66.6 million), Sweden ($52.1 million), United Kingdom ($49.7 million), Germany ($42.4 million). Japan ($38.7 million), Denmark ($37.7 million); Canada ($37 million), France ($35.7 million), and the Netherlands ($30.2 million).

More information on the U.S. government position on humanitarian demining and eliminating anti-personnel landmines is available at http:/www.usia.gov/topical/pol/armsctrl.