Political Quotes

“in October of 1996, I was privileged to participate in a conference in Ottawa hosted by Canada's Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy. I was there with Tim Rieser of my staff who has done so much work on the issue of banning landmines. We were also accompanied by Bobby Muller, the head of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, a man who was way ahead of most of us in pushing for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. The purpose of the conference in 1996 was to chart a strategy culminating in a global treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. The Ottawa process was conceived of by Canada and a number of other governments that were fed up with the failure of previous efforts to seriously deal with the mine problem. Over 70 governments and dozens of nongovernmental organizations accepted Minister Axworthy's invitation to Ottawa. At that conference, to the surprise of everyone present--but certainly to my delight-- Minister Axworthy took the courageous step of challenging the world's governments to return in a year's time to sign a treaty that would accomplish nothing less than a total ban on antipersonnel landmines. It was that bold challenge which enabled the international community to finally move from rhetoric to action. In December 1997, just barely over a year later, 122 governments returned to Ottawa to sign a treaty banning the production, transfer, and use of antipersonnel mines forever.”