Accra, Nov. 5, GNA - The Ghana Action Network on Small Arms and Light Weapons (GHAANSA) on Monday expressed concern about the delay in ratifying the ECOWAS Convention on proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
Briefing newsmen on the Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions, the GHAANSA National Coordinator, Ms Afi Yakubu urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to peace and security in the country by becoming one the first nine West African states to ratify the convention to make it operational.
The Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions is an international day of action where members of the public and civil society organisations in countries worldwide take part in actions to demonstrate their support for a treaty banning cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are large weapons of war that open in mid-air and scatter widely in smaller sub munitions, which usually number in the dozens or hundreds resulting in the death and maiming of thousands of innocent civilians.
According to Ms Yakubu who is also the Associate Executive Director of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) the continuous use of munitions across the globe posed a challenge to acceptable principles of international humanitarian law. She said while all weapons were potentially dangerous to civilians, cluster bombs posed greater threat to civilians as they had a wide area of effect.
"The area affected by a single cluster munitions, known as its footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields put together. When dropped they disperse into hundreds of smaller bomblets, or sub-munitions - and that is what, according to the UN, makes them more dangerous and vicious than landmines," she stated.
According to Ms Yakubu, Munitions had consistently left behind a large number of unexploded bomblets, whilst the unexploded ones remained dangerous for decades after the end of a conflict.
"In some cases the colour, coupled with their small and non-threatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys, resulting in their untimely death and some severely injured," the GHAANSA Coordinator stated.
Even when only a small percentage fails, communities face long-term contamination from unexploded ordnance. These weapons must be stopped before conflict zones face another crisis on the scale of landmines.
According to Ms Yakubu, since the end of the cold war, Africa had spent approximately US $ 300 billion on wars and conflicts. Millions of people have been killed and Hundreds of thousands displaced and maimed. She said, it was important for Africa, West Africa and Ghana to concentrate on development and stand up against the production and use of weapons of violence and destruction.
"As a country that does not maintain stockpiles of cluster munitions, we congratulate the Government of Ghana for supporting the Oslo process to ban cluster munitions.
"We urged the Government to maintain its position not to acquire cluster munitions, not to use cluster munitions in the future and not to commence any production of cluster munitions. Like fire bombs and landmines before them, cluster munitions must be subject to specific international rules," She noted.
Ms Yakubu said while talks on cluster munitions continue, both at the United Nations and within civil society, all States must stop the use of the weapon in order to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
She noted that although the effect of cluster munitions is quite minimal in Africa, except Sudan and Sierra Leone, Governments must actively support the banning of those lethal weapons to prevent their future use on African soil.
Accra, Nov. 5, GNA - The Ghana Action Network on Small Arms and Light Weapons (GHAANSA) on Monday expressed concern about the delay in ratifying the ECOWAS Convention on proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
Briefing newsmen on the Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions, the GHAANSA National Coordinator, Ms Afi Yakubu urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to peace and security in the country by becoming one the first nine West African states to ratify the convention to make it operational.
The Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions is an international day of action where members of the public and civil society organisations in countries worldwide take part in actions to demonstrate their support for a treaty banning cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are large weapons of war that open in mid-air and scatter widely in smaller sub munitions, which usually number in the dozens or hundreds resulting in the death and maiming of thousands of innocent civilians.
According to Ms Yakubu who is also the Associate Executive Director of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) the continuous use of munitions across the globe posed a challenge to acceptable principles of international humanitarian law. She said while all weapons were potentially dangerous to civilians, cluster bombs posed greater threat to civilians as they had a wide area of effect.
"The area affected by a single cluster munitions, known as its footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields put together. When dropped they disperse into hundreds of smaller bomblets, or sub-munitions - and that is what, according to the UN, makes them more dangerous and vicious than landmines," she stated.
According to Ms Yakubu, Munitions had consistently left behind a large number of unexploded bomblets, whilst the unexploded ones remained dangerous for decades after the end of a conflict.
"In some cases the colour, coupled with their small and non-threatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys, resulting in their untimely death and some severely injured," the GHAANSA Coordinator stated.
Even when only a small percentage fails, communities face long-term contamination from unexploded ordnance. These weapons must be stopped before conflict zones face another crisis on the scale of landmines.
According to Ms Yakubu, since the end of the cold war, Africa had spent approximately US $ 300 billion on wars and conflicts. Millions of people have been killed and Hundreds of thousands displaced and maimed. She said, it was important for Africa, West Africa and Ghana to concentrate on development and stand up against the production and use of weapons of violence and destruction.
"As a country that does not maintain stockpiles of cluster munitions, we congratulate the Government of Ghana for supporting the Oslo process to ban cluster munitions.
"We urged the Government to maintain its position not to acquire cluster munitions, not to use cluster munitions in the future and not to commence any production of cluster munitions. Like fire bombs and landmines before them, cluster munitions must be subject to specific international rules," She noted.
Ms Yakubu said while talks on cluster munitions continue, both at the United Nations and within civil society, all States must stop the use of the weapon in order to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
She noted that although the effect of cluster munitions is quite minimal in Africa, except Sudan and Sierra Leone, Governments must actively support the banning of those lethal weapons to prevent their future use on African soil.
