USA: Paul McCartney and his wife host fifth annual Adopt- A- Minefield benefit gala in Los Angeles

Record ID: 224965

  • Title: USA: Paul McCartney and his wife host fifth annual Adopt- A- Minefield benefit gala in Los Angeles
  • Date: 17th November 2005
  • Summary: SINGER TONY BENNETT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAE6P7KTYLODAX4YTJ7JTMZGX5T
  • Story Text: Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills- McCartney hosted the 'Adopt-A- Minefield's' Fifth Annual Los Angeles, California Benefit Gala on Tuesday (November 15). The McCartneys, who are Goodwill Ambassadors, successfully raised 1.4 million U.S. dollars at last year's events and subsequently became involved more directly with the charity.
    "It just happened by chance actually, we were at a event to support my sister-in-law and Heather and I started to talking to Ambassador Bill Luers who started this thing with the UN. I think he was very interested to learn Heather's knowledge about the subject so he got us involved so that was it. That was a little while ago and we have been able to do some great work since and we are just going from strength to strength with people's support," McCartney told Reuters.
    This year's gala will feature a silent auction on goods donated by various celebrities including Pamela Anderson.
    "Well, Paul and Heather have done a lot of animal charities of course, and so we have known each other over the years and they have explained to me the need of this charity. It has just been a wonderful learning experience and I supported them last year and I am here this year and from what they have done from last year to this year it is just a miracle. Its helpful to bring awareness there is so many animals, children people that get hurt by these horrific things so these guys are wonderful and they are helping to help cleaning it all up," Anderson said. McCartney will perform with special guest, Tony Bennett while his wife, Heather presents a movie showing the effects of land mines on people around the world.
    "He was nice enough to invite me to sing his wedding and they did their first dance to a beautiful song 'the very thought of you' so then we are going to sing tonight together so I hope the audience likes it," Bennett said on the arrival line.
    The association honored top Latin Grammy winner Colombian rock star, Juanes for his commitment to the landmine issue. Juanes a Goodwill Ambassador for United for Colombia, works with the not-for-profit organization that seeks to raise awareness about the impact of landmines within his country.
    As a result of the ongoing civil conflict, Colombia is the most mine-impacted country in the Western Hemisphere and second only to Afghanistan in the number of new mine victims.
    While the government of Colombia has signed the Mine Ban Treaty and is not using mines, non-state actors- the guerrillas and the paramilitary forces- continue to lay mines. Every nine hours, there is a new landmine victim and one third of the victims are children.
    Adopt-A-Minefield seeks to prevent new accidents through mine risk education and to help existing survivors by supporting organizations that are providing services to landmine survivors.
    The United Nations Association of the USA launched the successful Adopt-A-Minefield program in March 1999. The United Nations Association of the USA and the Landmine Survivors Network are both U.S. Department of State public-private partners in humanitarian de-mining. Mills- McCartney a long time advocate for the cause had some words for Americans about their President George W. Bush.
    "Just get a decent president who does not pull out of the Mine Ban Treaty that was already signed to ratify in 2006 that Clinton had done. Sadly he did not get it ratified earlier but that was not his fault he was very behind it. The saddest thing is that we are trying to really plead with your president they started developing a new mine, not only did he not sign it, they are developing a new mine called a Spider mine which they are talking about finishing it and putting it into war zones," Mills- McCartney said.
    The Pentagon is close to deciding whether to produce a new generation of land mines, but the system is drawing fire from critics who say the military is ignoring international sentiment against such weapons.
    Underscoring the unpopularity of the devices, defense officials working on the program, called Spider, declined to call the weapon a land mine instead opting for descriptions like "networked munitions."
    Military officials said the system answers critics' complaints about traditional mines, chief among them that they remain a hazard long after a conflict ends, killing or maiming civilians who accidentally set them off. The new mines either turn themselves off or their batteries run out after 30 days, leaving them inert, officials said.
    According to the foundation, an estimated 60 to 70 million landmines are in the ground in at least 70 countries and every 18 minutes, someone is harmed by a landmine.
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