ID :
149496
Thu, 11/11/2010 - 11:11
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/149496
The shortlink copeid
Princess Astrid of Belgium wants the world to give more help to UXO victims
VIENTIANE,10.NOV (KPL) - Princess Astrid of Belgium said that her country, Belgium, had destroyed its stockpile of cluster bombs and added that the victims of unexploded cluster bombs would receive assistance.
“NGOs had been playing an important role in giving support to such victims, every one of them have their own personal stories and they have a right like anyone else to live with dignity,” added the princess when she addressed the delegates on the first day of the four-day meeting of the First Meeting of State Parties on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 9 November.
She also emphasized the fact that that it was not only the disabled victim who had to go through extreme pain and suffering but that the victim’s family also had to go through social and psychological pain.
Madam Asha Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, who also spoke during this meeting said that cluster munitions or UXO had inflicted 50,000 casualties in Laos, they continued to tear human limbs and bodies and they wrecked profound socio-economic and environmental impact
In her tribute to NGOs and civil society groups, she commended them for working tirelessly to lobby their own governments and the international community to ban the usage of cluster munitions.
In her speech she stressed the need for clearance of unexploded munitions and to give assistance to the victims.
Another speaker, Thomas Nath, head of Coalition on Cluster Munitions or CMC, cited his encounter with a villager in Laos, who told him that his brother was killed by a cluster bomb in 1975, but 35 years later, 2010, his rice field had so many unexploded cluster bombs that he was not able to grow rice on it and as he had to grow rice on only a small patch of ground he did not have enough rice to give to his family members.
Though, he said, as many as 108 countries had signed the convention on cluster munitions and so vowed not to use such a weapon if they went to war, but then, he added there were too many countries outside the convention and also that many countries had huge stockpiles of this kind of weapon.
Commenting on the campaign against the use of cluster bombs in any conventional war, he said it had been gathering momentum, looked assured of achieving success and so it was timely to increase resources to UXO victims.
Up to date 108 countries had signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including stockpilers, former users and producers of the weapons as well as the majority of affected countries.
“NGOs had been playing an important role in giving support to such victims, every one of them have their own personal stories and they have a right like anyone else to live with dignity,” added the princess when she addressed the delegates on the first day of the four-day meeting of the First Meeting of State Parties on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 9 November.
She also emphasized the fact that that it was not only the disabled victim who had to go through extreme pain and suffering but that the victim’s family also had to go through social and psychological pain.
Madam Asha Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, who also spoke during this meeting said that cluster munitions or UXO had inflicted 50,000 casualties in Laos, they continued to tear human limbs and bodies and they wrecked profound socio-economic and environmental impact
In her tribute to NGOs and civil society groups, she commended them for working tirelessly to lobby their own governments and the international community to ban the usage of cluster munitions.
In her speech she stressed the need for clearance of unexploded munitions and to give assistance to the victims.
Another speaker, Thomas Nath, head of Coalition on Cluster Munitions or CMC, cited his encounter with a villager in Laos, who told him that his brother was killed by a cluster bomb in 1975, but 35 years later, 2010, his rice field had so many unexploded cluster bombs that he was not able to grow rice on it and as he had to grow rice on only a small patch of ground he did not have enough rice to give to his family members.
Though, he said, as many as 108 countries had signed the convention on cluster munitions and so vowed not to use such a weapon if they went to war, but then, he added there were too many countries outside the convention and also that many countries had huge stockpiles of this kind of weapon.
Commenting on the campaign against the use of cluster bombs in any conventional war, he said it had been gathering momentum, looked assured of achieving success and so it was timely to increase resources to UXO victims.
Up to date 108 countries had signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including stockpilers, former users and producers of the weapons as well as the majority of affected countries.
