China all along attaches importance to humanitarian issues, fully understands and shares the humanitarian concerns of the international community regarding the indiscriminate injuries to innocent civilians caused by landmines. China supports the efforts by the international community to address this issue. Meanwhile, we are of the view that the landmine issue involves both humanitarian concerns and legitimate self-defense needs of sovereign states. They should be addressed in a balanced way, without ignoring either aspect. We believe that the amended Landmine Protocol (Protocol II) to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) has successfully stricken this balance. If the Protocol could be implemented universally and effectively, the problem of indiscriminate injuries to civilians caused by landmines would be settled.

The Chinese Government attaches great importance to the problem of indiscriminate injuries to innocent civilians caused by landmines. China ratified the amended Landmine Protocol in 1998. Since 1992, China has launched two large-scale de-mining operations in its border areas and eliminated the landmine threats to the Chinese civilians. China has been actively engaged in international de-mining assistance. In 1998, China donated 100,000 US dollars to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Mine Clearance Assistance, which was earmarked for the mine actions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1999 and 2000, the Chinese Government, in cooperation with the United Nations, sponsored two de-mining training courses in Nanjing for the personnel from seven mine-affected countries, namely, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Mozambique. In 2001, China provided de-mining equipment to seven mine-affected countries, namely, Cambodia, Angola, Namibia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Mozambique. China also sent an expert group to Eritrea to carry out equipment handover training and to inspect local landmine situation. In 2002, besides donating de-mining equipment to Eritrea and Lebanon, China also sent a de-mining expert group to Eritrea to train Eritrean de-miners.