Скачать или смотреть Start of destruction of landmine stockpile

(11 Mar 2004)
1. Wide shot Shchitkovichi military base
2. Wide shot soldier in mine warehouse
3. Boxes of anti-personnel mines
4. Close up boxes of anti-personnel mines
5. Anti-personnel mines in a box
6. Soldier shutting box of anti-personnel mines
7. Landscape
8. Stop sign
9. Wide shot scene of previous detonation
10. Zoom out anti-personnel mine in ground
11. Soldier
12. Soldier putting mine in ground for detonation
13. Soldier arranging mine in ground for detonation
14. Wide shot detonation cable
15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Colonel Sergei Luchina, head of the army's engineering corps:
"That is, above all why we have taken this decision. The President made the decision about signing the convention, we have taken everything into account. What is the point of spending extra money to keep them? Our first priority is to ensure that they are exploded safely, we've looked at it in detail and our calculations have shown we do need to keep them."
16. Soldier laying mine
17. Close up mine
18. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Colonel Sergei Luchina, head of the army's engineering corps:
"The international community is looking into this and in the first instance we are working with the international agency of technical security of NATO which in our interests is in charge of ecologically sound technology. In the first case of course the tenders' main priority is to dispose of the mines in an ecological way."
19. Zoom out soldier activating detonating device
20. Wide shot detonation

STORYLINE

Belarus began destroying millions of anti-personnel mines on Wednesday, the most of any nation that has ratified an international convention banning mines.

The first mines were destroyed at the Shchitkovichi military base 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) south of the capital Minsk.

Belarus has some 4.5 million (m) mines, the seventh-largest such arsenal in the world.

By 2008, the former Soviet republic plans to destroy some 4 million (m) devices covered under the Ottawa convention, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

The Convention has been ratified by 141 countries.

The US, China and Russia are among those that have refused to sign the treaty.

Belarus became a full participant in the treaty this month, but is still seeking funds to help pay for destroying the mines.

Canada has agreed to finance 25 percent of the costs, and negotiations are ongoing with NATO while other donors are also being sought.

Destroying the most common type of mine in Belarus' arsenal will cost about 35 million (m) US dollars, in order to also prevent mine remnants from causing environmental damage, experts say.

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