Land-mine victims need world's attention, Vatican official says

Published: 2004-02-16

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican official called for improved assistance to victims of anti-personnel mines around the world. The international community has a responsibility to help "the innocent victims of this vile, murderous and useless (armament)," Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told a meeting of land-mine experts in Geneva Feb. 10. His remarks were released at the Vatican. Archbishop Tomasi, the Vatican's representative to U.N. organizations in Geneva, emphasized the Holy See's support of the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which called for a ban on land mines, destruction of stockpiles and increased aid to mine victims. The convention has been signed by about three-fourths of the world's countries. But 47 countries -- including the United States, China and Russia -- with a combined stockpile of 200 million anti-personnel mines remain outside the treaty. Archbishop Tomasi cited his own experience as a Vatican diplomat in countries where thousands of land mines remain buried. "In Asia and Africa I have personally seen the ravages caused by anti-personnel mines on the bodies of fleeing refugees and of working women and men in border villages. Such mines are a source of inhuman suffering," he said. He said the victims of anti-personnel mines were "innocent witnesses of a wrong approach to security." Experience has shown that those who suffer most in land mine programs are the citizens of the country employing the weapon, he said.

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