«Normal social and economic life is hindered by the presence of explosive remnants of war,» said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Holy See’s permanent observer at the United Nations here, on Tuesday at a meeting of a group of government experts.
The meeting took place in the context of a convention on the prohibition or restrictions on the use of conventional weapons deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.
«There is certainly no advantage, military or otherwise, in not rapidly clearing explosive remnants of war, whereas the humanitarian and human risks of non-clearance are indeed great,» the archbishop said.
«Explosive remnants of war ravage, injure and are a risk to life among the world’s poorest, just at the moment in which they see a more hopeful and profitable future open up for them,» he added.
