The Ban Bus

(Washington DC, November 19, 1997) The ban bus turned out to support coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and joint recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Jody Williams, as she addressed the Newsmaker Luncheon at the National Press Club. From the Press Club, Dalma Foldes and Petter Quande left for the airport to catch a plane to Ottawa, Canada where, with Mines Action Canada, they are organizing public events and activities for the ban treaty signing in the first week of December.

In the evening after watching Small Targets: Landmines in Mozambique, the ban bus spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science at reception hosted by Joe Mettimano, US Committee for UNICEF. They then split into two groups with John Rodsted, Loung Ung and Mary Wareham addressing George Washington University along with Tom O’Donnell, a congressional aide to Representative Lane Evans (D, IL) and Scott Nathanson, of Demilitarization for Democracy. The graduate students organizing the event handed out Ben and Jerry’s Peace Pops ice cream along with flyers to the event earlier that day.

Michael Hands, Mette Eliseusson and Jim Bridgman from Peace Action Education Fund spoke to students at American University. Bridgman handed out flyers for an event outside the White House in Lafayette Park on December 4th at 12pm midday - the event will feature Bill Clinton signing the ‘ban treaty’, bring banners and old shoes to represent those innocent who continue to lose their limb, and lives to antipersonnel landmines. Please throw on a warm coat and show you1 support on the 4th!

The Ban Bus leaves for Philadelphia on Thursday November 20th for events organized by the American Friends Services Committee, contact Dave Gracie: tel 21 5-241-7000. Then on to New York City where the contact person is David Biggs, United Nations, tel. 2 12-963-5598.