(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, Nov 21 (KUNA) -- Kuwait on Wednesday emphasized necessity of limiting hazards from abandoned explosives ordnance (AXO), left behind after wars or armed conflicts.
Wars' leftovers, prone to blow up, continue to threaten and maim civilians, haphazardly, posing a danger to lives of thousands of innocent people, said Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim, Kuwait's Permanent Representative at the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva.
Ambassador Al-Ghunaim was addressing a meeting grouping signatory states of the UN convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects.
AXO leave catastrophic and annihilating repercussions on the environment, deemed the basic foundation for peace, security and sustainable development, said the Kuwaiti representative at the UN, in his speech at the session.
Kuwait, which strongly believed in the convention significance and sought to bolster it as an international treaty, had inked and ratified it, along with its five protocols, on May 24, 2013. The treaty, also officially named the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, was concluded in Geneva on October 10, 1980, and entered into force in December 1983.
Ambassador Al-Ghunaim urged non-signatory states of the world to rapidly join the convention due to its utmost importance for barring arms of random damage's capacity in armed conflicts.
Unjustified employment of these weapons has increased numbers of victims of armed strifes, particularly nowadays, in shadow of complex political circumstances, prevailing across the world.
Kuwait, in particular, has suffered from the AXO, which also damaged wildlife on land and at sea, he said, alluding to many military ordnance and mines left behind by the Iraqi occupation forces following the 1991 liberation of the country.
He urged the UN convention parties to exchange technical aid, expertise and campaign for enhancing awareness of the mines damage capacity on human beings and the environment.
Following 1991, Kuwait had to comb its territories of the mines and explosives, out of keenness on citizens and expatriates' safety, affirmed the envoy, who shed light extensively on the complex aspects of the mines' clearing operation, noting that sandy nature of the Kuwaiti territories concealed a large number of the planned mines and summer scorching heat resulted in detonation of many.
Kuwait, after exerting tremendous efforts, succeeded in defusing and removing 1.650 million mines at a cost of USD 31,000-67,000 per a square meter. Moreover, the Parliament, in 2015, endorsed a law to collect unlicensed arms and ammunition left behind by the aggressors.
Furthermore, the law stipulated firm measures against any individual or party that make arms purchasing contracts with terrorist organizations or cells.
The authorities had launched a campaign to collect the unlicensed arms and offered free of charge treatment for people injured or maimed by the abandoned explosives and mines. (end) ta.rk
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