Letter: Landmine ban

Letter: Landmine ban

Sir: Mike Croll is right that mine clearance should be given a much higher priority (Review, 20 August), but he is wrong to regard the campaign to ban landmines as a waste of time. The objective is to reduce the overall number of mines in the ground as quickly as possible, and reducing the rate at which new ones are laid is a vital part of that. It is achieved as much by changing attitudes as by legal process.

True, the campaign has taken more than its share of the money and limelight, but it, and Princess Diana, have put landmines on the political agenda. True also that "the real battle is going to be won by people with sticks and trowels", but they will lose the war without the "PR initiatives and hot air".

BILL LINTON

London N13