Aspects to be agreed include the dates of the individual steps of the treaty's implementation. These include the renunciation of land mine use, cessation of manufacture, stopping the transfer of mines, destruction of stocks, clearance of existing minefields. Details of verification procedures have to be agreed on.

It is appreciated that not all countries will sign the treaty at Ottawa. There is concern that some participating countries have agendas of their own and will endeavour to impose these on the treaty. Arguments used will include claims for border protection, exceptions for so-called "smart mines", deferment of a starting date for the treaty, or perhaps inclusion of easy escape clauses from the conditions of the treaty.

It has been noted that while regular military forces find that they have no use for landmines, there is increasing use by guerrilla and insurgent groups. Ironically, this may prove to be counter-productive to their own cause, as it is not unknown for such groups to become the government in due time.

In regional meetings and conferences government and NGO people have been working together to resolve issues. Military, political, mine clearance, medical, victim rehabilitation and campaign people have all been involved. They have worked together to share information on the latest techniques in mine location and clearance, the treatment and rehabilitation of victims, and progress on convincing reluctant governments.

Progress is being made. Many countries, previously leading manufacturers, exporters and users, have now renounced their manufacture and use. They have started the process of destroying their stockpiles.

New technologies can assist mine clearance workers with what is still an extremely hazardous task.

Most anti-personnel land mines are now made from a plastic case containing a quantity of high explosive and a detonator. The only metal is in the very small firing pin. Traditional methods using metal detectors are virtually useless for finding these. Other methods such as using flails have a modest success rate that may be tolerable for the military, but is quite inadequate for civilian purposes. Ground-penetrating radars are being tested, but there are immense technical difficulties in making these effective.

Auckland University

Another avenue is being explored by a team at the University of Auckland School of Engineering. Senior lecturer Lawrence Carter's project involves a microwave generator such as that found in a domestic microwave oven, radiating into ground suspected of hiding buried mines. The soil, which will normally be a little damp, will heat up. A plastic-bodied mine will remain cool. An infra-red camera is then used to view the irradiated ground and display the cool patches which could indicate buried mines. Although the method has been demonstrated and has been shown to be effective in the laboratory, there is much further development and refinement to be done to produce a field-usable machine.

Mr Carter is frustrated that it is only possible for himself or any of his team members to fit in relatively small amounts of time on the project in the midst of the demands of other university and teaching work. His strong preference would be for finance to be available to enable a full-time appointment to be made to the project so that rapid progress can be made. In the meantime, there is another land mine victim killed or maimed every twenty minutes....