An international conference on eradicating land mines has opened in Kenya. Ethiopia has become the 144th nation to accept the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel mines. Some 40 countries including the US, China and Russia have refused to sign the treaty which came into force five years ago. The Bush administration has decided not to send any representatives to the conference. At the opening of the gathering Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called landmines “one of the most pressing humanitarian and developmental issues of our time.” An estimated 20,000 people die because of landmine explosions every year.