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According to government officials yesterday, Sri Lanka will not be able to sign the Ottawa Convention that seeks to ban the manufacture, sale and the use of mines due to legitimate national security requirements specially since different types of mines constitute a part of the defences against LTTE terrorist attacks. According to a news report in a local news paper, the treaty does not impose any restrictions on terrorists organisations but seeks to ensure legitimate armies do not use them. However, the current war situation in Sri Lanka does not permit the government to enter the treaty. "Organisations like the LTTE are free to acquire, manufacture and deploy mines," a security official said. At the second meeting of the parties to the Ottawa Convention in Geneva last week, two members of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation [SAARC] ratified the treaty. Diplomatic sources said that at the meeting to review progress of the landmark December 1997 treaty aimed at imposing a global ban on mines with SAARC countries, which ended on Friday (15), Bangladesh and Maldives and also four other countries came on board. With them, the total number of countries that have ratified the treaty has risen to 107. The Ottawa Treaty bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of mines but the major producers United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea, North Korea, Israel were not committed to sign the treaty. Sri Lanka and several other countries affected by terrorist activities too were not committed to the treaty, the sources said. Canada has been engaged in a major campaign to secure international support to ban the use of the mines. "Since opening for signature in December 1997, the Convention has been signed by 139 states and ratified by 107. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines Landmine Monitor Report 2000, the use of landmines is down sharply, the illicit trade in landmines has all but ended, stockpiles are being rapidly destroyed and the numbers of new mine victims continued to decline," the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said in a statement made available to The Island by the High Commission in Colombo. The sources said that Sri Lanka has told Canada of the difficulty in signing and ratifying the treaty in view of the war waged by the LTTE. "We’ll not be able to sign the treaty as long as the LTTE wages war," one official said. Sri Lankan security officials also said that the LTTE continues to use foreign funds to acquire armaments including various types of mines and explosive devices.
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