The treaty will go into effect on March 1, 1999. Although antipersonnel mines can kill, they are designed only to injure. These landmines often are buried to avoid detection. Because of unpredicted weather conditions, many mines are carried down rivers by heavy rains. So, after years of conflict, mines can be lost and dispersed over a war-torn nation.
Mines become more dangerous over time, exploding more easily as they corrode.
Landmines have become a constant threat of injury and death to people living in countries ravaged by war. Muller co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines with Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams. Williams and the International Campaign were co-recipients of the Peace Prize in 1997. The Campaign focuses on an international ban on the use, production, stockpiling and sale, transfer or export of antipersonnel landmines. It also calls for the signing, ratification, implementation and monitoring of the mine ban treaty.