(10 Oct 1997) English/Nat

The U-S-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (I-C-B-L and its coordinator Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

They were cited for their work in pushing worldwide elimination of the weapons, which kill or maim some 26-thousand people a year.

The choice is certain to increase public pressure on the United States to sign a mine-banning treaty that the I-C-B-L was instrumental in pushing through.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (I-C-B-L) began in 1991 when long-time activist Jody Williams was asked by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation to lead a drive against mines.

The cause soon attracted wide international support.

A draft treaty approved in Oslo was formulated less than a year after the first talks on a pact were held in Ottawa, Canada.

The Nobel Committee cited Williams and the I-C-B-L for starting a process which in the space of a few years changed a ban on anti-personnel mines from a vision to a feasible reality.

Co-founder and director of I-C-B-L, Robert Muller, said his group never expected a Nobel Peace Prize.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"At around 4:30 this morning the doorbell rang and my wife got up and opened the door and it was like a publisher's clearing house. There was a TV camera and a light and it was Norwegian TV. And thank goodness I pulled my pants up because they came in the bedroom and they gave me a big bouquet of flowers and they said: ''Congratulations you've won the Nobel Peace Prize. You know what now?''"
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Muller, International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Princess Diana was the most visible supporter of the cause.

And after six years of quietly working toward a ban on landmines, the campaign burst into public consciousness with her death earlier this year.

The Landmine Survivors Network was instrumental in getting Princess Diana to tour Angola and Bosnia and Jerry White says her presence gave a boost to the entire movement.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"She has educated the world. She was instrumental in raising public awareness and translating this debate from a security issue to a humanitarian issue so people could see the suffering of the families. And she was also determined that victims not be forgotten in our race to Ottawa to sign a treaty to ban landmines."
SUPER CAPTION: Jerry White, Landmine Survivors Network

Jerry White says the pressure will now be on the United States to sign the treaty.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think that this leaves the United States rather isolated. Here we are. President Clinton was one of the early leaders in calling for a ban on anti-personnel landmines. In 1994 at the United Nations he called on everyone, ban these weapons and he has moved on to dally, to delay and now to insist that the world's superpower needs these weapons to protect our troops. It's ludicrous."
SUPER CAPTION: Jerry White, Landmine Survivors Network

Isolating the United States even further, Russia announced Friday that it will join the more than ninety countries that drafted a treaty last month to place an immediate and total ban on the export and use of anti-personnel land mines.

State Department spokesman James Rubin defended the U-S decision not to sign the treaty.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: James Rubin, US State Department spokesman

White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the administration continues to believe a treaty must provide some exceptions

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Mike McCurry, White House spokesman



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