Use of explosives against civilians “unacceptable”

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Use of explosives against civilians “unacceptable”

9:37 CAT | 27 Nov 2017

The use of explosive weaponry against civilian populations is “morally unacceptable” and violates the principles of International Humanitarian Law, declared Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi on Monday.

He was speaking in Maputo at the opening of a regional seminar on explosive weapons in populated areas, organised by the government and by the NGO Handicap International.

Figures from the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW) suggest that 92 per cent of all people killed by explosive weapons are civilians. Baloi said that the use of these weapons in densely populated areas leads to “multiple situations of risk”, and the mass displacement and vulnerability of civilians.

Bombardments of civilian areas destroy people’s homes, and turn them into internal refugees. Baloi said “advocacy for a Political Declaration to avoid the use of these devices, which have such negative effects on the life of the population, will represent an important step forward in protecting civilians in situations of armed conflicts, and could strengthen the implementation of international humanitarian law”.

Baloi added that Mozambique had, right from the start, joined the initiative against the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas, in order to protect the civilian population, because it recalled its own experience of the impact of high explosives during the national liberation struggle against colonial rule, and in the later wars of destabilisation waged by the white minority regimes of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa.

Baloi pledged that Mozambique will do all in its power to ensure the success of this initiative, and to halt the use of explosive weapons against civilians.

Source: AIM