Vahidi Urges Int'l Bodies To Support Elimination Of Land Mines

Tehran, April 4, IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi criticized countries waging civil wars in other countries and called on international bodies to back elimination of land mines. Addressing the opening session of an international gathering on elimination of land mines here on Tuesday, he said while there were talks of ‘no wars in the third millennium’ the questions on the reason for so much rhetoric about war, military threats and even encouraging civil wars in the world were yet to be answered. The minister said when civil war started, terrorists groups, backed by the Saddam regime and some other countries, began to plant land mines in Iran’s Kurdestan province which resulted in martyrdom of a large group of Iranian civilians. Referring to message of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the occasion of International Day of Mine Awareness, he said it was good that the UN chief has encouraged all to join protocols and agreements but what practical steps he has taken to prevent wars. The defense minister also stressed the need to confront war-encouraging literature and said all should resist the military policies of certain countries in other states, terrorist operations and using violent literature. Vahidi termed insufficient international measures to eliminate land mines and said the reason might be that big powers at the United Nations were not suffering from the problem themselves./end