Pontiff ‘Angelus’ message urges for ban on mines and cluster bombs

(April 6, 2009) Pope Benedict made an urgent appeal to the whole international community to ban anti-personnel mines and cluster bombs. Before praying the midday Angelus, after the Palm Sunday Mass on April 5, the Holy Father recalled the United Nations' 4th International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, observed each year on April 4. This awareness day, the Pontiff noted, has great importance ten years after the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines entered into effect March 1, 1999. The signing of the treaty banning cluster bombs took place in Oslo on December 3, 2008. Pope Benedict encouraged the countries that hadn’t done so to sign “without delay these important instruments of international humanitarian law, which the Holy See has always supported." The Holy Father expressed support for measures guaranteeing assistance for the victims of these devastating weapons. As of today, 156 countries, or 80% of the countries of the world, have adhered to the Ottawa anti-personnel mine ban treaty. There are 39 countries that have not formally adhered to the treaty and remain in disagreement with the rejection of these munitions. Among them are China, Russia and the United States.
At Palm Sunday ‘Angelus’ Pope Benedict XVI also demanded urgent action by the European Union and African nations to stop the trafficking in migrants, saying the global economic crisis was driving more people to make the perilous voyage. Pope Benedict recalled the recent drowning of more than 200 Europe-bound migrants whose overcrowded boat capsized in the stormy waters off Libya. "We cannot resign ourselves to such tragedies, which unfortunately have been repeating themselves for some time," Pope Benedict said. "The scope of the problem,” he said, “requires urgent strategies coordinated by the European Union and African countries, as well as the adoption of adequate humanitarian measures, to prevent these migrants from going to unscrupulous traffickers." Pope Benedict has been speaking out about the plight of the poor in the global downturn, particularly following his visit last month to Cameroon and Angola. He has been working on an encyclical on globalization and the poor, and said recently he is refining it because of the economic downturn.