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| August 3, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 26, 1426 |
Compliance urged with weapons convention
ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: Pakistan has called on the international community to implement earnestly instruments on prohibition or restriction of the use of ‘Certain Conventional Weapons’ (CCW) to effectively address humanitarian and security concerns of states.
A dispatch received here on Tuesday from the country’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva said Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Masood Khan made the plea at a meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts of CCW.
He emphasized that the delicate balance in the international instruments to minimize human sufferings without sacrificing the legitimate security interests of states must be maintained.
The group is meeting in Geneva, from Aug 2 to 12 to discuss unexploded ordnance, mines other than anti-personnel ones and compliance with the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Ambassador Khan warned that unexploded ordnance left by wars and conflicts was a deadly threat to tens of thousands of people. He said Pakistan had initiated the legal and administrative process for ratification of the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), which helped address humanitarian problems in the post-conflict period.
“Pakistan’s armed forces are being trained and sensitized to the principle of international humanitarian law (IHL) at all levels. They apply the principles of humanity, discrimination, proportionality and superfluous injury. To ensure formalized availability and consideration of the IHL, legal advisers are associated with planning at the strategic, operational and tactical levels,” he stated.
He maintained that anti-vehicle mines were defensive weapons. “States have the legitimate right to use AVMs, but, at the same time, they must use them in a responsible manner to counter aggression, he said.
“The empirical evidence collected over the past 55 years had established that mines other than anti-personnel mines had not caused military or civilian casualties, he said. “Mines help redress conventional imbalance in our region,” the ambassador said.
He asserted that “the right approach will be to restrict the use of mines, regulate their transfers and deny access to non-state actors.”
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