UN General Assembly
1996

because I think the motto should be “first things first” — is to improve the efficiency of mine clearance. We will attend a conference in Canada very soon which deals with the political aspects of this issue, trying to ban land- mines. But we should also at the same time try to concentrate on improving the efficiency of mine clearance, that is, testing and using mechanical clearance equipment. We quickly need machinery that can be mass- produced in order to remove this plague without harming people. I do not know whether anyone here has watched a mine-clearance operation. It is done by people and can be compared to trying to remove a sand-dune with a spoon. I think it is incredible that highly developed 10 nations such as ours and many others are not able to produce a piece of machinery for a large-scale de-mining operation. I want to focus the technical knowledge that we have to make this matter progress as quickly as possible. If we want to win peace, we must not only consider