Dear Reader,

Welcome to Landmine Expedition 2001's website.

Landmine Expedition 2001 is a 15,000 mile journey across three continents which aims to raise awareness of the problems caused by landmines in the world's worst affected areas. By targeting different forms of media we hope to bring the issue of landmines to as broad a cross section of the public as possible.

The expedition started from London on August 21st, 2001 and will take us through some of the most heavily mined countries in the Balkans, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Far East Asia, ending in China during the second quarter of 2002. The expedition was conceived out of our belief that it represents an effective way of attracting the public's interest, and can therefore be used as a platform for raising awareness of landmines and the important work being done by various de-mining and aid organisations around the world.
In recent years many of these organisations have experienced a decrease in funding from the public, particularly after reduced press coverage of landmines following Princess Diana's death. Maintaining the public's interest in landmines is critical as the vast majority of landmine activities are being funded only through voluntary contributions from states and individuals. This is particularly important at a time when the international community is in danger of turning its attention to the next "hot" issue. We hope that by contributing to the general public's understanding of the dangers and problems posed by the use of landmines, we will increase the interest in, and financial support for, the work being carried out by de-mining and aid organisations. Underpinning the expedition's aim of creating awareness of landmines is therefore the fundamental assumption that an educated audience is more likely to lend it's support to landmine organisations than an audience unaware of the extent of the problem.

There are three primary ways in which we hope to reach the public:

We will be filming a television documentary about landmines during the course of the expedition. Through the expedition's supporting organisations (see Supporting Organisations) we will have access to de-miners, aid workers and landmine victims in the countries we visit, and have also been offered tours of affected areas. During our expedition we will visit a total of 20 countries that suffer from landmines, some of which have recently experienced the use of mines in war, while others are still burdened with landmines buried decades ago. We feel this gives us a unique opportunity to document and report on landmines in a way in which would not be possible for us by just visiting a few affected areas or countries. For more information about the documentary feel free to email us at mail@le2001.org.

Articles will be written en route for both national and international newspapers and magazines, investigating and analysing different issues relating to landmines. Several newspapers and magazines have already expressed interest in such stories.

Finally, this website will serve as the focal point of all media attention generated and will be updated regularly during the expedition with written material and photos, as well as all media coverage received. For those of you interested in learning more about landmines, Scope contains a brief introduction to landmines and their effects, while the Route section contains links through to more detailed information about the landmine situation in different countries around the world, courtesy of ICBL (International Campaign to Ban Landmines).
We hope you find this website informative (and interesting!) and invite you to follow our expedition's progress on our Updates page.