The Ban Bus

(New York, NY, November 21, 1997) A whirlwind series of events in New York City saw the Ban Bus parked in a garage so that the campaigners could take full advantage of New York’s yellow cabs to zip from event to event. At the first stop of the day, Michael Hands and Stephen Goose, Human Rights Watch, debated David Appleton, U.S. Department of State, and Brigadier General Larry Dodgen, U.S. Department of Defense, at a Council on Foreign Relations breakfast hosted by the Center for Preventative Action and moderated by Barbara Crossette of the New York Times. The breakfast was titled: “The Campaign to Ban Landmines: Why is the US Reluctant?”

The International Campaign’s photographer John Rodsted got to shop at the famous B & H professional photography store while Michael Hands purchased flags representing the nations on the Ban Bus at the United Nations gift shop. The next event was a speaking engagement sponsored by Vernon Nichols, President of the NGO Committee on Disarmament. Then the ban bus crossed the street to the United Nations to participate in a press conference organized by the UN Correspondents Club at the UN Secretariat - speakers included Stephen Goose, HRW, and Robert Muller of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Last week a UN General Assembly resolution passed through the UNGA’s Disarmament Committee by a vote of 127 to 0 with 19 abstentions, including
the United States. Nations expected to sign the Ottawa ban treaty on December 3 and 4 now include: all of the Western Hemisphere except for the U.S. and Cuba, all of the European Union except for Finland, all of NATO except for the U.S. and Turkey, nearly all of Sub-Saharan Africa with probably 4 or 5 exceptions, most of the former Warsaw Pact nations including Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, many nations of the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Japan, Malaysia and perhaps Indonesia. In total an estimated 120 nations will sign in Ottawa while 40 nations look on as observers
including the United States.

The Ban Bus spoke to students at Barnard College, Columbia University at an event organized by Hazel Tamano of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom before leaving to watch a debate at the Asia Society between Robert Muller, VVAF, and Brigadier General Dodgen from the Pentagon. The Asia Society event, organized by Andrew Thornley, was titled “Toward a Landmine Ban: Implications for the United States and Asia”. Dodgen, Muller, Goose and the ban bus then walked 6 blocks down to the residence of the Canadian representative to the United Nations. Ambassador Robert Fowler and Mary Fowler hosted the reception for the US Campaign to Ban Landmines to welcome the Ban Bus to New York City and to also award Steve Ransley with a United Nations medal for his contribution to the UN’s mine action efforts.
On Saturday, the Ban Bus spoke at the Good Shepherd Church where dancers of the Cambodian Buddhist Society Inc. performed having traveled from Maryland to join the ban bus. The next day, Mary Wareham spoke to a luncheon hosted by John Kim of the National Association of Korean Americans.

The Ban Bus would like to thank Alan Gross for his kind hospitality on Friday night. The next stop for the Ban Bus is New Haven and Hartford, CT on Monday November 24, where the contact person is Rob Forbes, Connecticut Coalition to Abolish Landmines, tel. 203-782-9101.