ICBL Statement on the Bombing in Iraq

(Wednesday 20 August 2003 Washington, DC)

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) expresses its concern for all those injured in yesterday’s attack on the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Baghdad, and its deepest sympathy for the families and colleagues of those who were killed, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Iraq.

The explosion occurred as the leaders of the UN’s global mine clearance program were conducting a briefing for media and others on the landmine problem in Iraq. Several demining experts were injured, some seriously.

The ICBL expresses its extreme disappointment that respected individuals working for humanitarian principles that we all uphold should be targeted in such an attack.

Vieira de Mello also served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Shortly after assuming this position, on 16 September 2002, he delivered a message from the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the opening plenary of the Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Vieira de Mello was a proponent of the elimination of antipersonnel mines and was very supportive of mine clearance efforts when he served as the UN’s Special Representative in Kosovo. He had extensive field experience in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, including in the mine-affected countries of Cambodia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Mozambique, Peru and Sudan.

Iraq is severely affected by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), including cluster munitions. These are believed to cause hundreds of civilian casualties each year. The UN has engaged in mine clearance in northern Iraq since 1997 and in recent months has expanded its mine action program to cover the whole country. Key mine action NGOs are also active in mine clearance in the country including local demining NGOs and ICBL members DanChurchAid, Handicap International, Mines Advisory Group, Norwegian People's Aid, and Swiss Foundation for Mine Action.