SOMALIA: Faction leaders' cooperation on landmines praised
NAIROBI, 1 July 2003 (IRIN) - Somalia's faction leaders have shown encouraging support to the international community's efforts to curb the use of landmines, and to clear out mines which have been buried for years throughout the country, a Swiss-based international humanitarian organisation has said.

Lare Okungu, the Africa regional director of Geneva Call which is dedicated to landmine action, said several Somali factions had cooperated with landmine initiatives and some had even sought assistance for mine clearance in regions under their control.

"The goodwill we have seen so far is paving the way forward," Okungu told a meeting in Nairobi aimed at reviewing a landmine accord signed last November. MORE