Obama fails to meet hopes
On the decision of the Obama administration not to sign the Ottawa Treaty on mine ban, Helmut Scholz (MEP), member of DIE LINKE Party Executive Board, announces:
With the decision of the Nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama fails to make an effective contribution to the worldwide abolishment of the horrid weapon. In doing so he causes disappointment to everyone who has engaged in promoting the abolishment of land mines over the years. The particular endangering of civilians, especially children, is drastically contrary to the argument of the US President that the land mines ensure security of the United States and their allies. It is a mockery for the ten thousand victims annually.
In propagating a nuclear-weapon-free world on the one hand and on the other hand not departing from the production and placement of this "weapon of mass destruction in slow-motion”, President Obama shows untrustworthiness.
More than 150 countries have answered the call for humanity and reason by ratifying the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines. I challenge the German Federal Government to plead for President Obama to revise his view. Only that way can justify his role as a Nobel peace prize winner to the other big non-ratifying countries Russia, China and India.