Political Quotes

“we have to assume greater responsibility for and take greater leadership against the proliferation of land mines throughout the world. Land mines were responsible for one-third of all the casualties in the Vietnam war. Likewise in the Persian Gulf war, they were responsible for one-third of the casualties. Already there have been 284 casualties due to land mines in Bosnia. But it is not just professional military forces that suffer from these horrible instruments of death. Last year over 26,000 people were killed or maimed by land mines. That is one person every 20 minutes. Most of these victims were not members of the military. Most of them were children. Many of these children are victims of wars long ended, of conflicts long forgotten, but land mines can stay active for over 50 years, Mr. Speaker. They will kill children whose parents are not even born yet. And even though some countries have more active land mines in their territory than people, we continue to plant 2 million more land mines every year. It is time to ban them.”