ARCHBISHOP MARTIN: NO ADVANTAGE IN NOT ELIMINATING WAR REMNANTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 25, 2002 (VIS) - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Office in Geneva, spoke on July 23 in the second meeting of a group of government experts on the "Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects."

"There is a growing awareness among States, that today, questions of conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, peacekeeping and post conflict peace-building and reconstruction must be addressed within a broad understanding of international activity and responsibility." And he recalled that the United Nations Millennium Declaration explicitly referred to this subject and considered "fighting poverty at the center of an integrated and multilateral approach to development and peace."

Afterward, he recalled that, always in this field, "normal social and economic life is hindered by the presence of explosive remnants of war. There is certainly no advantage, military or otherwise, in not rapidly clearing explosive remnants of war, whereas the humanitarian and human risks of non-clearance are indeed great. Explosive remnants of war ravage injury and risk to life among the world's poorest, just at the moment in which they see a more hopeful and profitable future open up for them."

"The Delegation of the Holy See recognizes the complex nature of defining the precise application of international humanitarian law to explosive remnants of war. Experience has shown, however, that in situations where questions of proportionality must be weighed, there is more likelihood of an equitable and consistent application of the fundamental principles of humanitarian law when certain basic, commonly accepted minimum norms can be agreed upon."

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