Political Quotes

“in the 9 months between the declaration of the cease-fire last March and the signing of the final peace agreement last December, not a single shot was fired between the forces of the Guatemalan Government and the URNG guerillas. Nonetheless, the last death of the war took place just before the signing when a 17-year-old boy in San Pablo, San Marcos stepped on an antipersonnel landmine while walking home. In fact, every 22 minutes, someone is either killed, maimed or permanently disfigured by a landmine. Twenty percent of the victims are children. In Cambodia, where there are twice as many mines as there are children, there are 40,000 amputees resulting from landmines, and the figures continue to rise. The fact is that AP landmines continue killing long after the warring parties which laid them have settled their differences. Sometime early in the next century, the last victim of the Angolan civil war will probably be a child not even born when the war was fought. It is time for this Nation to take leadership and to write to the President and urge him to take the lead in implementing it.”