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Colombia blows up 7,000 land
mines
Colombia destroyed
around 7,000 land mines on
Sunday, in efforts to implement
the Ottawa Convention that bans
the use of antipersonnel mines,
according to local reports.
Reports said that the mines
exploded are the last arsenal in
the country, and Colombia is
ready to explode thousands of
the remaining mines in the
ground planted by the
government. The mines were
destroyed in eight thunderous
explosions in a rural area
broadcast live on TV.
After watching the explosion
through a large-screen TV in
Bogota's main plaza along with
Jordan's Queen Noor and US
ambassador William Wood,
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
said that the unprecedented
public act underscored
Colombia's commitment to destroy
eventually all state-owned
mines.
However, Uribe said that rebels
are increasingly using
antipersonnel mines.
Queen Noor has worked to promote
the destruction of land mines
around the world.
Colombia has been plagued by a
four-decade civil war, in which
leftist rebels, far-right
paramilitaries and government
troops fight each other, killing
about 3,500 people every year.
All the warring parties have
used land mines, leaving
Colombia with the forth largest
number of mine victims in the
world, after Chechnya,
Afghanistan and Cambodia.
In 2000, the Colombian
government ratified the Ottawa
Convention that calls for
banning and destroying all land
mines worldwide by 2009.
Around three-quarters of the
world's nations have signed the
1997 international treaty.
Since the treaty came into
force, over 37 million
stockpiled mines have been
destroyed in the world.
Argentine woman rescued after 25
days in captivity
Argentine police on
Saturday rescued a woman
kidnapped 25 days ago, and three
kidnappers were killed and five
others arrested, media reports
said.
Patricia Nine, 37, was not hurt
in the operation that involved
heavy shooting. She was taken to
an emergency medical center for
physical examination.
The daughter of a Buenos Aires
businessman was kidnapped on
Sept. 28 by a criminal gang,
which demanded a
1.5-million--US-dollar ransom
from her family.
Thousands of Argentines,
including the relatives and
friends of Nine and families of
other kidnapping victims,
marched Thursday indifferent
parts of the country, calling on
the government to crackdown on
kidnapping and to improve
security.
Former
Ecuadorian governor sentenced to
16 years in prison
A former governor of the
Ecuadorian province of Manabi
has been sentenced to 16 years
in prison for drug trafficking,
local media reported Saturday.
Cesar Cevallos, former governor
of Manabi during the government
of Sixto Duran-Ballen, was found
guilty of having stored drug in
his house, said the first
Criminal Tribunal of Manabi,
which on Friday sentenced
Cevallos and 12 others involved
in the drug-trafficking case
dubbed "Anniversary."
These 13 were arrested last
October.
The ex-governor's lawyers said
they would appeal the sentence,
adding that there are evidence
showing the innocence of their
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