Jordan’s Queen Takes Up Opposition to Land Mines

Queen Noor pledged her support to a worldwide campaign against land mines on Saturday, nearly a year after Princess Diana’s death robbed land mine activists of their first royal patron.

The Jordanian queen, opening a conference of Middle East land mine survivors, denounced mines as “the cruelest, most severe form of warfare” and spoke of her personal anger at the suffering they have caused in her country.

She also announced a Jordanian Cabinet decision on Saturday to sign an international ban on antipersonnel mines.

“It is with a great sense of privilege that I commit myself to join your efforts to realize our shared goal of not only a worldwide ban on mines but also a collective commitment to the survivors,” Noor told the conference.

About 350 delegates, including land mine survivors, gathered in Amman to highlight the problem of mines in the Middle East--the “land mine heartland” of the world, where more than half of all deployed mines are thought to be strewn.

“You can help us to see the magnitude of this menace--to put a human face on this hidden evil,” Noor told them.

The 46-year-old American-born queen, wife of King Hussein, praised the “courageous humanitarian contribution” made by Diana, who visited mine victims in Angola and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Diana’s “unique prominence sparked unprecedented international awareness of the suffering of land mine survivors,” Noor said.

She said she saw in the United States the “terrible waste of talent and lives” caused by the Vietnam War.

“I appreciated more directly the horror of land mines--and the human and economic waste they cause--after I came to live in Jordan,” she said.

Mines in Jordan regularly maim children, soldiers and civilians, Noor said. About 250,000 mines are buried on Jordan’s borders with Israel, the West Bank and Syria.