PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY CANADA ON LAND-MINE BAN
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY CANADA ON LAND-MINE BAN
19970513
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
United States President William Clinton "speaks very poetically in support of a ban on land-mines and we would beg him to put a signature to his words", Tun Channareth, a double-amputee land-mine victim told correspondents this morning at a Headquarters press conference.
Expressing concern that several countries were not interested in signing a treaty banning land-mines, Mr. Channareth, who was wounded by a land-mine in his native Cambodia in 1982, said the United States should use its influence as a role model to others. So far, about 60 countries had pledged to sign a comprehensive treaty banning the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel land-mines in December. Mr. Channareth urged the world to support a land-mine ban.
At the briefing, which was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Canada, Mr. Channareth was introduced by the Reverend Larry Tankersley, Director of the Church World Service Southern Asia office. Church World Service is the humanitarian assistance arm of the National Council of Churches. Patricia Curan, an American Maryknoll lay worker who directs a skill training project for land- mine disabled in Cambodia, acted as Mr. Channareth's interpreter.
Mr. Channareth said there would be a new world order if people could join together to ban land-mines. He was particularly worried about the children and said the future was bleak for Cambodian children who had had land-mines as an introduction into adulthood. He emphasized that he was 37 years old and he had never experienced peace. He was not familiar with human rights and his life had been marked by war and suffering. He hoped his children would have a better, peaceful life. He asked the people of the world to join with him in the call for a land-mine ban. Several voices were stronger than one, he stressed.
He suspected that it was not appealing to see a body like his but there were over 3 million land-mines on Cambodian soil and over 40,000 Cambodians were amputees who had been maimed by land-mines, he said. Uncounted numbers of children had been killed or maimed. He stressed that the wounded not only lost limbs but there was a kind of death that affected the person and the family. He stressed often that he was lucky because he had a job with an international organization producing wheelchairs. Without that, he would not be able to support his family.
He was not here just to get assistance for demining activities as that did not stop the production of mines, he said. Responding to a question, he said land-mine production was a business and it was not illegal. It was difficult for
Land-mine Ban Briefing - 2 - 13 May 1997
people to give up something that made money. He urged countries to follow Canada's lead and turn former land-mine producing factories into candy-making factories.
Asked about therapeutic and rehabilitation efforts of the international community in Cambodia, he said there were a few skill training programmes for the land-mine injured but the number was not even close to responding to the needs of the many disabled persons. Moreover, the vast majority of injured people who stepped on land-mines were poor. They did not have strong study skills to enable them to be successful in a vocational training programme. Also, one rarely met someone who had retained a hopeful outlook following their injury.
He went on to say that he was amazed at the resources for the disabled outside of Cambodia. It was easy to get in and out of buildings and it was easy for employers to look beyond someone's disability and give them a job. In Cambodia, the welfare of amputees was not a government priority.
Ms. Curan, replying to a question about her perceptions of the situation in Cambodia said that at first, when she understood that someone had sustained his injury as a soldier, she had thought that while it was tragic, a soldier had to accept that he might meet death or injury. She later learned that young men had not chosen to defend a particular political ideology but had been handed a gun and a bag of rice and told to take both or they would get neither. When she had asked women why they had gone into fields they knew to contain land-mines, they responded that they had to take the chance in order to get food and firewood to feed their children.
One saw few young children who were land-mine injured because children under 12 rarely survived the blast. The land-mine treaty was an urgent, urgent matter, she emphasized.
Mr. Channareth repeatedly urged people to support an international land- mine ban treaty, stating that everyone had the responsibility to spread the word to his neighbour. He had been a broken man but he was sustained by the hope that the ban would be enacted.
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