The power of people

Rosie Hoban

Australia signing the UN Treaty on banning landmines has not meant the end to the campaign to eliminate such ‘victim-activated’ weapons. Rosie Hoban talks with anti-landmine coordinator, Mercy sister Patricia Pak Poy.

Wars begin, battles rage, body bags are filled, diplomacy is employed, a peace accord is signed. It’s a bizarre process, but it’s the war scenario that most people recognise. Yet today in Laos, more than 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, people are still standing on undetonated cluster bombs and dying. If they survive, the explosion will have claimed some limbs and their quality of life for as long as they live.

These people are the ongoing victims of the Vietnam War, which saw millions of these small bomblets dropped by the US military. This is the untold war story that continues to drive Adelaide-born woman, Sr Patricia Pak Poy, 15 years after she helped found the Australian Network of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL-AN).

In 15 years, the ICBL has achieved extraordinary things. The most important is the Ottawa Treaty, which has seen the production, stockpiling and use of land mines banned by more than 152 countries. Australia signed the Ottawa Treaty on 3 December 1997—just five years after the movement began officially. Patricia, a Mercy sister since 1957, and coordinator of the Australian Network to Ban Landmines for more than a decade, has spearheaded the campaign along with thousands of activists around the world.

The story of this successful campaign to ban landmines has just been told in a new book, A path is made by walking it. Significant players in the Australian campaign have contributed a chapter, including Patricia, who has also edited the book. But this book is much more than just a history of the landmines campaign in Australia. It is also a how-to resource for other groups committed to developing a powerful grass roots campaign to achieve an outcome.

In her introduction to the book Patricia states how people were motivated ‘to work together across all boundaries of states, status or expertise for a policy solution that would remedy the harsh situation of thousands of children, women and men who have to live without their legs, without arms, without eyes, or made deaf or otherwise maimed, their lives reduced by trauma and fear’.

The book tells how a group of people learnt from one another, and from other groups around the world, how to lobby governments and policy makers to bring about change. However, though a book has been published on the campaign, it is more of a review than an end to the story. Sadly, the legacy of war continues in many ways and in so many countries. More than 152 countries may have ratified the ban on land mines, but the battle is still raging on many other fronts. The clearance of landmines and assistance to victims, all conditions of the Ottawa Treaty, are proving difficult to achieve.

The Australian campaign is now seeking a ban on cluster bombs, used around the world, and most recently in the brief but bloody wars in Lebanon and in Iraq. These bombs are meant to explode on impact, but the failure rate is estimated at 30 per cent, leaving them sitting on the ground, possibly for many years. Tragically, history shows that such ‘failed’ munitions may detonate when a civilian car drives over them, or a child walks on them. These sorts of bombs are currently used by the US and Britain, and Australia is one government not yet convinced that these ‘victim activated’ weapons should be banned.

Patricia is not daunted by the battle ahead. She and other land mine lobbyists are on familiar ground and they will call on the skills and resources used in the past 15 years. To date, 27 countries (not including Australia), led by Norway, have agreed that the use of these cluster bombs need to be investigated with a view to banning them.

‘Once these bombs are dropped, they either explode, killing people, or they fall in soft areas, such as rice fields—a common example of what happened in Laos. So they don’t explode on impact and lie in the soft ground, often with green moss or growth hiding them over the years and then someone walks over them. That’s when they explode. So the war goes on and on’, Patricia says.

If Patricia and her fellow activists are weary of the fight, she shows no sign of it, sounding as committed to the cause as she did when Madonna first interviewed her in 1998. Forces greater than those she has had to confront over the years sustain her.

‘I am constantly strengthened by a belief in the power of people to bring about great change. I am confident that if people are educated about issues and want peace, then a peaceable solution can be found’, she says. She tells a great story about a group of workers in a Northern Italy factory, which produced one small piece of equipment that was used in the production of antipersonnel mines. Once the International Campaign had identified this factory and began to talk to workers about what the product was used for, change began.

‘These workers, led by two women began to realise how crazy it was to go to work each day to make a part of a bomb that was used to kill children, then knock off and go home to their own children. They refused to keep making this particular piece of equipment. This is the power of the people at its best’, she says.

The 15-year campaign, while inspiring her, has also forced Patricia to face some personal demons. Realising that everyone, including herself, has a part to play in the injustices around the world is disturbing, but important.

‘Somehow we are all caught up in world affairs. If we look at how we run our personal affairs, or how we accept the outcome of actions because of a perceived national interest, then we will see that things can impact on people rather cruelly.

‘I remember before getting involved in the landmine campaign, I used to wonder why nobody was doing anything about it and I felt a sense of outrage about the inaction. Now I understand better that everyone has a part to play, no matter how small. That part may be finding out one bit of information and telling one other person.’

Patricia has no doubt that she is still in the place God means her to be. She has witnessed enormous suffering over the years, meeting victims of landmine explosions and seeing the difficulty of their lives. She has also seen great courage in the survivors. She has found God in the suffering—yet another collaboration that sustains her.

‘I believe it is when we reject God and turn away from God that we make trouble for one another. But we are just frail human beings and I believe God keeps me working in places we have made a mess of.’

For further information contact the Australian Network of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines at http://australia.icbvl.org. Purchase a copy of the book by sending a cheque for $25.00 (p&p included) to Landmines Book, PO Box 44, East Kew, VIC 3102.