2023-04-24 05:28:05
From simple grenades to guided missiles, explosive weapons destroy tens of thousands of lives, school equipment and heritage sites every year in urban areas. And let the fear of a delayed explosion hover over the populations. This type of weapon uses “high doses of explosives to create a zone of deflagration and fragmentation around their point of impact”, indicates the Explosive Weapons Observatory in a report published this Monday, April 24, to which had access The cross.
In charge of “disarmament, crises and conflicts advocacy” within the Handicap International association, Baptiste Chapuis, who has been warning for years about the collateral damage to civilians caused by this type of weapon, analyzes the impact of this little-known scourge.
La Croix: Why such a report?
Baptist Chapuis: During the Dublin conference last November (1), a historic political declaration, supported by a coalition of NGOs and signed by 83 States (including France and the United States), was adopted: it considerably enhances the humanitarian standards. In addition to existing international humanitarian law, it aims to regulate and drastically limit any use of explosive weapons in populated areas. This text insists more than ever on what is called the “duty of reparation”: it is a question of forcing States to carry out post-conflict actions such as assistance to victims, mine clearance campaigns or the facilitation of access to affected areas and people for humanitarian aid.
The report published on Monday 24 April takes note of the growing urbanization of armed conflicts and supports an established diagnosis: when explosive weapons are used in densely populated areas, 90% of victims on average are civilians. A trend that has been stable for several years.
What are the main takeaways?
B.C Due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the continuation of conflicts in Myanmar, Somalia or Ethiopia, the year 2022 saw an 83% increase in victims compared to the previous year. Over the period 2021-2022, the Observatory counts more than 50,000 people killed or injured, and nearly 1,600 incidents on vital infrastructure (education and health) due to the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas. . In addition to these quantitative data, the report brings to light a set of testimonies from victims and survivors. With specific case studies (Mariupol Theater in Ukraine, Rimal district in Gaza or Al Shifaa Hospital in Syria), it gives voice to civilians and highlights their physical and psychological wounds.
The consequences of the use of explosive weapons are not only direct and immediate. In Syria (with the bombardments of cities and the forced displacement of populations), in Yemen (with the difficulties of access to health due to the damage or destruction of hospitals) or in Iraq (with the mining of entire territories by bombs that have not yet detonated), explosive weapons have a devastating long-term impact.
What levers do we have to reduce these practices?
B. C. : Increase the pressure by raising the extent of the evidence available to us and continue to stigmatize the use of explosive weapons by showing that the bombing of cities is not the alpha and omega of military strategy, that it is above all a question of political choice. We want the bombing of towns and villages to become a military practice of the past, just as mines are today “weapons of the past” in the words of Jacques Chirac in 1997.
Forty years ago, anti-personnel mines were a weapon used by all state and non-state armies in the world. The Ottawa Treaty of 1997 on their ban, supported by Handicap International and a coalition of NGOs, has made it possible in fifteen years to eradicate their use almost entirely, going from 30,000 annual deaths to 3,000.
The objective of this report is not to prohibit a weapon as such but to frame a practice.
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