04526
December 2, 2004

Religious leaders in Nairobi back an end to the use of landmines

by Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News International 

NAIROBI — Religious leaders from different faiths attending the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World have called for a ban on the use of anti-personnel mines, which kill and maim an estimated 22,000 people each year.

      “We call upon governments to rid the world of landmines and that those who survive the scourge be given the assistance they deserve,” the Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Baha’i faiths said in a joint statement at an interfaith prayer service on Nov. 28 in Uhuru Park (Freedom Park).

      While appealing for care of survivors, the leaders lit candles at the grounds to commemorate the lives lost through mine attacks, saying they wanted to chase away the darkness of war, of landmines and of suffering by those weapons.

      “Landmines give a source of darkness and despair in the lives of people. They cause pain, disabilities and even death,” said the Rev. Roger Tessier, a Canadian priest in the Roman Catholic Society of Missionaries of Africa, before the Nov. 29-Dec. 3 summit.

      The Nairobi gathering is the first five-year review of the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their destruction — also known as the Ottawa Convention. Ethiopia, an African country infested with landmines on Monday became the latest nation to sign the protocol. It made a total of 144 out of the 191 UN member countries that have since 1999 signed the convention.

      Neighboring Somalia, China, India, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States are among 45 nations that have not ratified the convention and are thought to keep stockpiles of up to 180 million landmines.

      Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki officially opened the meeting, saying nations were in a position to prevent the deaths and suffering of innocent civilians affected long after a conflict has ceased. Urging remaining states to join the convention and destroy their stockpiles, Kibaki described the scourge of mines as one of the most pressing humanitarian and developmental issues.

      “We must not rest until every landmine is destroyed. Our conscience cannot be at peace until every minefield is cleared, and until all those persons injured or maimed are assisted and re-integrated into their societies,” said Kibaki.

      About 35 million stockpiles of mines have been destroyed and 4 million cleared from minefields. 

      “My expectation is the summit will propel us closer to our dreams of a world free of landmines,” said Wolfgang Petritsch, Austria’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva and president of the Nairobi summit.

      Afghanistan, Cambodia and Angola, countries where people face the aftermath of long wars, have registered the highest deaths and injuries from mines with tens of thousands of victims reported.