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139 美国激进主义分子敦促布什政府签署地雷协议
Activists Urge US to Sign Landmine Treaty
Joe de Capua
11 Jul 2001 02:04 UTC
A group of young activists is renewing its efforts to get the Bush administration to join the international 1)landmine treaty. The activists sent thousands of 2)petition signatures of young people to the White House asking for the government's support. But they say they are still 3)awaiting a response.
The petition drive called the Youth Against War Treaty began more than two years ago. It followed the 1997 international treaty banning the use, production, 4)stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.
The United States never signed the landmine treaty, 5)citing security concerns in South Korea.
Jackie Hansen is with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in Washington. "A Cambodian youth landmine survivor named Song Kosal she started the Youth Against War Treaty in 1998," she said. "And started 6)urging youth from around the world to voice their opinions and take a stand to ban landmines and show their support by signing this treaty. So youth in 42 different countries signed the treaty and we collected 7)approximately 263,000 signatures."
Ms. Hansen says, in March, a representative of the Bush administration refused to accept the Youth Against War Treaty petitions. So, they were mailed to the White House instead. "What the treaty says: We want no more war. We want no more mines. We want no more mine 8)victims. We want to work for peace in the world," said Ms. Hansen.
The petitions urged the United States to join the 140 countries supporting the 1997 treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. "We recently launched an action 9)alert and have started sending letters to the Bush administration asking for a response, because we have not even received a letter acknowledging receipt of the petitions," said Ms. Hansen.
VOA contacted the White House for reaction, but there has been no response.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines says the weapons continue to be a daily threat in Angola, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, Chechnya, Mozambique, Somalia, and many other countries. It says mines also 10)render large 11)tracts of agricultural land unusable - and are a threat to refugees returning home after conflicts end.
(1) landmine n.[军]地雷,投伞水雷
(2) petition[pI5tIF(E)n]n.请愿, 情愿书v.请求, 恳求, 请愿
(3) await[E5weIt]vt.等候
(4) stockpile n.积蓄, 库存vt.储蓄, 贮存
(5) cite[saIt]vt.引用, 引证, 提名表扬
(6) urge[E:dV]vt.催促, 力劝n.强烈欲望, 迫切要求v.促进
(7) approximately[EprRksI5mEtlI]adv.近似地, 大约
(8) victim[5vIktIm]n.受害人, 牺牲者, 牺牲品
(9) alert[E5l:t]adj.提防的, 警惕的n.警惕, 警报
(10) render[5rendE(r)]vt.呈递, 归还放弃vi.给予补偿
(11) tract[trAkt]n.广阔的地面, 土地, 地方
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