Bosnia Mines Curse For Ages, Warns Report

Bosnia remains littered by 750,000 land mines, which will kill and main for decades, if not centuries, according to a report released Thursday.

International Red Cross researcher Ian Woodmansey, author of the report, said 35 people a month are hurt or killed by land mines in Bosnia.

The report was timed to coincide with the start here of an international conference on banning land mines.

Canada plans to give $10 million to help clear northwest Bosnia of land mines, Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, who has been a driving force in the effort to ban land mines, told the conference Thursday.

More than 120 countries signed a land-mines ban treaty in December in Ottawa, but the treaty does not take effect until parliaments ratify it. So far, only seven countries’ legislatures have done so.

The three-day conference, attended by representatives of l9 countries, was organized by the International Red Cross and by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.