The Lithuanian parliament’s decision to pull the country out of the Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel landmin...

“Today’s decision to leave the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is a retrograde move that will only further weaken the global consensus aimed at minimising civilian harm during armed conflict,” said Esther Major, Amnesty International’s deputy director for research in Europe.

“We call on the Lithuanian government to reverse this decision that could put civilian lives at risk,” she said, adding that anti-personnel mines have devastating effects on civilians.

  • randomnameEnglish
    21·
    1 day ago

    In a recent interview, the Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Dovilė Šakalienė said:

    While for some it may seem cruel [to exit the landmine ban treaty], for me it is a necessity. Because we are going to have mines on our territory, but they will either be Russian mines, where we won’t know where they are and they will be in large quantities and may kill a lot of our citizens. Or it will be our own mines where we will know where they are placed, and they do have a very good deterrence effect on Russian soldiers … We have to imagine the worst-case scenario for us to be prepared. This is not a mistake that can be corrected. This is not a possibility to get an extended deadline.