"What has been the effect of the Ottawa Treaty to ban land mines?"

IN THE GROUND: An uncovered land mine

"The level of awareness has been raised in these [donor] countries and their representatives have been made aware of an issue they had not been aware of, this is the value of the treaty signing. ... As far as operational impact is concerned there is no specific impact."
MARC BONNET
Country representative, Handicap International

"I can see that two countries are affected. First, from Japan the authorities are to present 2 billion Yen ($80 million) over five years. That’s for equipment to CMAC. Canada pledged [worldwide] $100 million over five years. Usually they put in $1 million dollars [to CMAC], and now they might put in $2 million."
SAM SOTHA,
Director, Cambodian Mine Action Center.

"The Ottawa treaty [itself] has not removed a single mine from the ground this year. But as a result of the treaty more money is available to clear mines."
PAUL HASLOP
Program manager, Halo Trust.

"There really isn’t an effect, not a direct effect [on AmCross], but I think that there is a raised public awareness of land mines and land mine victims, so it might be easier for us to find [future] funding as a result of the Ottawa Treaty."
GLENN DIXON,
Head of delegation, American Red Cross.

"I don’t think Ottawa or the ban has had any impact on us whatsoever. ... The same governments who took over and drove the campaign are the very same governments we can’t get a dime out of to do our work. And that’s very disappointing."
ARCHIE LAW,
Country program manager,
Mines Advisory Group.

Interviews & Photo by Douglas Grindle