CROATIA CO-CHAIRS COMMITTEE ON PROTECTION OF LAND MINE VICTIMS

ZAGREB, Sept 19 (Hina) - At the 5th conference of countries- signatories to the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Croatia and Australia have taken over the co- presidency of the committee on the protection of land mine victims and their social and economic reintegration, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. #L# Croatia has been awarded the co-presidency primarily because it established a centre for the psychosocial rehabilitation of land mine victims in Rovinj, the first such centre in the world, the ministry said. The conference of countries-signatories to the Ottawa Convention is being held in Bangkok, Thailand , from 15-19 September. The said committee is one of the four committees which the countries-parties to the Ottawa Convention established at their first meeting in Maputo, Mozambique in 1999. During its 15-month co-presidency Croatia intends to draw the attention of participating countries to the stagnation of donations for land mine victims and a growing number of the victims. Croatia has also been chosen to host a conference of the international organisation Landmine Monitor, a non-government research association which is a member of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines and the winner of the 1997 Nobel prize for peace, led by Jody Williams. The conference will be held in Bizovacke Toplice, east Croatia, in June 2004. The Croatian delegation at the Bangkok conference is headed by Dijana Plestina, ambassador in charge of de-mining and advisor to the foreign minister. (hina) rml