By M.C. Linthoingambee
One of the designated campaigns is towards acknowledging the after effects of war. With a smaller division of the IHL (International Humanitarian Law), some of the deadly explosive debris left behind, illness, ailments, sufferings, etc caused as a result of war have been constantly overlooked either in parts, fragments or whole. Even with the massive uproar and the contained miseries that led on after the two World Wars, conflicts do continue to recur. With conflicts coexisting, so will wars leaving behind an ample lot of souvenirs. The remains of war are highly fatal to our environment claiming further civilian lives. We have only ourselves to blame as men often plays with curiosity and experiments to give birth to invention of explosives. Afghanistan, Laos, Kuwait, Iraq, Kosovo rank among the heavily prone areas of active hostilities still seeksing clearance. The hope of a single day of peaceful silence is overshadowed with ongoing wars that; sometimes even harms are hardly taken into account and go unnoticed as power gets the better of all of us. The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) alongside NGOs and various authorities are on the verge of attaining a recovery aid by seeking to fumigate the explosive remains. With a growing recognition of the Mine Ban Treaty, people are being given risk education and awareness so that innocent lives do not fall into trap used as decoys in the infected areas. The Utopian dream of World Peace is still miles away but the process is slowly pacing up today, as lives are being saved and as far as millions and millions of explosives are being deployed. Terror should be quashed and relived each day with harmony.
Wars leaves behind remains that are explosives and full of unhealed pains. You could say we are all walking on time bombs because even with the fast ticking ongoing dynamic development, the clock is slowly ticking marking the countdown of a degrading environment. The further invention of weapons of war would only amount to us fast pacing the above process. With the advanced use of explosives and nuclear power, the impact would be so huge resulting in the disappearance of our own planet. Before the strike of a next holocaust, before a diabolic turn of events occur which may lead to the destruction of our own race, it would be a dream come true if only we could put all the aforesaid on hold. The world has been uplifted many a times from its inevitable chaos. Time sets us in different stages either for a greater cause or a grave evil. What is so beautiful in the eyes of one, may not be so in the eyes of thousand others. Sometimes differences strike a quarrel, with furtherance into a conflict, and then without knowing so, we see brothers in arms for battle, which also leads onto something far worse, an upheaval – a war. The extravagant past is still remembered like a freshly cut wound after having witnessed many frontiers of war. The nightmare of the realm of the two greatest wars, men has ever laid eyes on are the First and Second World War which still haunts us as a recent enemy. These turn of events has left us wishing, hoping that a Third World War may not catch us at par. The main protagonist of war is weapon. During these times, records were made of the many great stories finding their way in the good and horrific pages of our diaries. The greatest weapons of mass destruction ever known to men were also invented in these eras as tools of war. The motion of an upper hand is ever challenged in war even though many men are sacrificed to achieve this selfish goal. This was the beginning of what we term as “War”. The result of men’s greed leads to an epidemic without a vaccine. Active hostilities are like an unending path of labyrinth with a dead end. Reports and documents* have had different entries in view of the various explosives and anti-personnel mines. Ranging to a total of 700 types of explosives, the clearance have rendered frustration as the dire consequences of the system consumes an ample of time and safety cannot be guaranteed when we are battling over the evil death-mines.
In all these viable threats of explosive remnants of war, several matters have been overlooked but the mere expedition that the remains would continue to outgrow if there are further occurrence of conflicts and events of war. Therefore, let us take leap to such a nuisance that goes on to bring tremor on our environment and closely look upon the recovery aid provided in different parts of the world. Till date, Afghanistan, Laos, Kuwait, Iraq and Kosovo ranks through the top runs of the war affected areas of the worlds leaving behind masses and masses of firearms which are still left today as formidable decoys which take a toll on the lives of millions of civilian lives. Even a search for the dream of peace is hard to proceed like a mirage in the vast land of deserts often bearing no fruit and left off in a flustered state. People are still living in fear overshadowed by the evils of armed artilleries as it is impossible to go up against them and therefore, human lives are disturbed. The main issue we would face today is that of the growing raids of explosives passing toxics to the environment, which can make it a place not worth living. Today, we have a crisis at hand. We need to solve our own puzzle whilst reflecting upon the cause of action.
(*John Walker, Landmines: Time for action <www.fourmilab.cb/minerats/figures/mines.html> )
(M.C. Linthoingambee is an undergraduate pursuing B.Com. LL.B(H). An avid blogger, poet, a seasonal artist and a foodie, she is also a life member to the Indian Society of the Red Cross.)
