| Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC June 27, 2006 "To Walk the Earth in Safety": U.S. Actions to Clear Landmines and Stem Illicit Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons"This edition also reflects progress by its omissions," stated Dr. John Hillen, the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, in the forward to the report. The U. S. assistance that enabled Costa Rica, Djibouti, Guatemala, and Honduras to become free from the humanitarian impact of landmines, means that they are not mentioned in this edition in the report. During the period covered by this report, the United States announced its new, precedent-setting landmine policy, and banned the use of all non-detectable mines as part of that policy, surpassing several of the provisions of both of the world’s international landmine treaties, including Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to which the United States is a party. United States total contributions to humanitarian mine action also passed the $1 billion mark in 2005. The report profiles the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (www.state.gov/t/pm/wra), the U.S. Department of Defense’s Humanitarian Demining Training Center, the Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program of the U.S. Army’s Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, the Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University, the Mine Detection Dog Center for South East Europe in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Regional Center for Underwater Demining in Montenegro. The report also features vignettes on the U.S. Department of State’s Quick Reaction Demining Force, the only standing humanitarian demining unit that can rapidly deploy worldwide, and U.S. efforts to keep man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. To request a copy of To Walk the Earth in Safety, email your complete mailing address and postal (or Zip) code to John Stevens at SteveJE@state.gov. An online version will be posted shortly at www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth. Previous editions may also be downloaded from that site.
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The 6th Edition of To Walk the Earth in Safety, a comprehensive report on United States efforts to clear landmines, assist landmine survivors, and reduce trafficking of small arms and light weapons, has been released by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. This publication catalogues the activities of the interagency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program in 30 countries in 2004 and 2005. 