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New pressure to clear land mines; Public smoking ban discussed; Still no consensus on assessing finfish track records.

New pressure to clear land mines

DESPITE the fact that there is no pressure from Falkland Islanders to clear land mines, Britain was accused last week of failing to meet its obligations under the international landmine ban treaty. The British Government signed the Ottawa Convention soon after coming to power in 1997, and when it came into force two years later it gave countries a decade to clear minefields in their territory. This includes minefields in the Falkland Islands. However, in the annual report from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate organisation, Britain were classed with Mozambique, Tajikistan, and Chad as being unlikely to meet its commitment. So far no action has been taken to clear between 16,000 and 20,000 mines still lying in the Falklands, the Landmine Monitor report pointed out, even though the treaty requires action, "as soon as possible." The Argentine mines from the 1982 Falklands War are spread in marked and fenced minefields, covering some 20 million square metres. "The UK has done basically nothing," said Stuart Maslen, one of the editors of the 1,230-page report, widely used as a specialist reference work. "We don't believe that at this stage they can meet their deadline." "It's clearly not a positive example that a country as rich as the UK can't clear a relatively small problem. It's a question of lack of political will." The UK is a major donor to mine clearance around the world, but, he said, "that doesn't excuse the lack of action for the Falklands." He added, "We are very concerned that countries, and the UK is one, will just simply turn up in 2009 and say ?could we have another 10 years please?' That's not acceptable." "It's only those who are most seriously affected who could justify an extension, not those who just can't be bothered." Falklands First Secretary, Harriet Hall, confirmed that a feasibility study on the removal of mines is due to commence in December and that a tender process as to who will carry out the study, is presently being undertaken. The tenders will be evaluated by the joint working party. Around the world, 330 million square metres, were cleared in 2005, more land than in any other year since the treaty was signed, the report said, with more than four million explosive devices removed from mined areas and battlefields. Another 405 million square metres formerly thought to be hazardous was reclassified as low risk after surveys and released back into use. Only three countries - Burma, Russia and Nepal - used landmines last year, according to the document, and Nepal has since agreed not to. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said, "We are fully committed to the Ottawa Convention and we are compliant with it currently." "We have got until 2009 and we are not off course for that...we have made quite a lot of progress." "We know where they are, they are clearly ring-fenced, and we are helping around the world to clear mines in other countries where they are a real threat."

Public smoking ban discussed

AS ONE wag put it, the smokers of Stanley were probably out polluting the atmosphere of pubs, because they certainly weren't present in Stanley Town Hall where a mere fifteen members of the public gathered on Tuesday evening to discuss with councillors the motion on smoking in public places which is due to be put before Legislative Council today. Andrew Alazia began proceedings by asking the panel of six councillors what the options were for the introduction of a smoking ban. Responding, Councillor Dr Richard Davis, who will be proposing the motion at today's meeting, said that there were three parts to what was proposed, the first being to seek majority agreement in principle that smoking in public places was harmful, not only to the smokers themselves, but also to others about them. Once this agreement had been reached, said Councillor Davies, the next step would be to consider whether legislation was an appropriate way of controlling or eliminating tobacco smoking in public places. If this, in turn, was agreed and a ban decided upon, Dr Davies said that the third and final step would be to form a working group to discuss how this should be accomplished, bearing in mind a number of associated issues, such as how such a ban would be enforced and how it would be policed. This gradualist approach did not appear to find favour with the public gathered at the meeting. Brian Summers asked why government were "pussyfooting around" and were not willing to announce an outright ban. Annie Gisby agreed, saying "we are talking about something that actually poisons people and we've been discussing this for some time." She called for something to be done soon. Continued on page 3.

Still no consensus on assessing finfish track records

THE September meeting of the Fisheries Committee heard that attempts to arrive at a consensus view on the allocation of quota in the finfish and restricted finfish fisheries had so far proved unsuccessful. Director of Fisheries, John Barton, reported that there had been a number of divergent views expressed by industry representatives and a multiplicity of approaches suggested as to how the track record of participating companies should be assessed. The Fisheries Department had circulated a paper to fifteen local companies and had also received responses from other companies not contacted. Mr Barton told the meeting that there had been no unanimity of response on the qualifying period and a number of different approaches to assessing track record had been suggested. Alternative approaches included looking at effort as well as catch, relating use to the amount paid, using a longer qualifying period and including high seas catches. Committee Chairperson, Councillor Dr Andrea Clausen, told Penguin News that the Director of Fisheries had been asked to make another attempt to narrow down the possible options and to see whether a consensus or majority view could be achieved. Given that the original timetable for the introduction of individual transferable quotas (ITQ) and provisional quotas (PQ) called for an agreement to be presented to ExCo at their September 29th meeting, Dr Clausen said this matter was becoming urgent.

Inside Penguin News

Centre: Stanley Darts League prize giving.
Page 12: Hill Cove Championship dog trials
Page 7: Your Letters.

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