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World Landmine News
Disability Testimony by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan
U.S. Senate Victim Assistance Briefing
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 628
Thursday, April 11, 2002, 2:00pm
There is a saying in the Koran: "Imatatu al-'atha 'an al-tareeq sadaqah" – The removal of harmful objects from the path is a good deed." I want to thank each of you here for your commitment to good deeds.
Senator Clinton, I deeply appreciate your invitation to speak with you today. Your leadership with Senators Leahy and Specter, as well as Senators [Brownback, Chafee], Feingold, Harkin, Mikulski, Murray [and Gordon Smith] is an inspiration to those who struggle daily to recover and reclaim their lives. I also want to thank Congressman Lantos in particular, and Congressman Wolf for moving this bill swiftly and unanimously through the International Relations Committee in the House. And I deeply value the contributions of Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and USAID, notably the Leahy War Victims Fund. I applaud your humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of victims of landmines, war and civil strife.
In Afghanistan, Zainaba and her family were nomadic sheepherders. They had pitched camp near Kandahar. Gunfire woke everyone early one morning. The family rushed out to pack their meager possessions and run.
Suddenly, a loud, deafening explosion… Zainaba heard her eldest daughter screaming in the early morning darkness. Her granddaughter ran to help. Another explosion. The darkness began to lift. Zainaba saw her daughter and granddaughter lying on the ground, screaming, and covered with blood. She could see that each had lost her legs. By sunrise, both daughters were dead.
Zainaba then discovered that twelve sheep had also been killed. Small butterfly mines were lying all over the ground. (Show butterfly landmine model.) She screamed, and in her anger and grief, Zainaba picked up one of the mines lying near her tent to throw it into the field. It exploded in her hand. Zainaba is now blind and has no fingers on her right hand.
When will this senseless landmine slaughter end? A landmine is an insidious weapon designed to injure and maim. It is small, hidden in farmland, roads, playgrounds and parks. When peace is declared, treaties are signed, and soldiers go home, the cruel landmine is left behind, silent, alive, and ready to explode at any time.
Our charge today is to promote legislation that will save lives and assist victims of this subterranean terror. Let us redouble our efforts to rid the world of this scourge.
I recently visited Afghan refugees in Pakistan and realized that grandmother Zainaba’s story is all too common. Her experience is catastrophic and appalling. What a tragic twist of fate for this poor woman and her family.
In Afghanistan, one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, there are millions of mines and unexploded ordnance. Afghanistan can claim one mine for every four or five citizens. In the last six months, there have been six Americans injured or killed by landmines in Afghanistan. Just two weeks ago, a landmine killed a U.S. Navy SEAL and wounded another in the same area where Zainaba was injured near Kandahar. The death of Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois, 35 years old, from Tallahassee, Florida—was a reminder that Americans face the inevitable in Afghanistan. Our hearts go out to his family and we wish speedy recovery for the wounded.
Shockingly, in the last 10 years, there have been nearly half a million landmine victims in Afghanistan. We will never know their names, and more than half of the victims are dead.
We all share, I believe, a moral and legal responsibility to help the survivors. The question before us is how? How do the war-wounded heal and recover?
In Europe and the United States, survivors can expect advanced medical care, artificial limbs, legal protection and job opportunities. Most will have access to advance rehabilitation and state-of-the-art prosthetics for life. It’s never an easy road to recovery, but access to proper care certainly helps smooth the way.
In the developing world, on the other hand, millions go without rudimentary care. I have visited many hospitals in post-conflict countries. Few medical supplies, little sanitation or clean water, scarcity of surgeons, physical therapists and psychologists are the norm. There is really no way to convey how appallingly poor the conditions are by quote “western” standards.
Landmine Survivors Network estimates that comprehensive rehabilitation for the 300,000
survivors worldwide would require close to $9,000 per survivor or three billion dollars over the next ten years.
I have met hundreds of survivors and their families. They are among the bravest people in the world. They do so much with so little. I’ve seen their desperate circumstances, yet heroically they survive despite the tremendous obstacles they face.
They are denied jobs, considered unworthy of marriage, barred from certain religious practices and excluded from schools. In fact, 98 percent of disabled children in developing countries are denied formal education.
Discrimination against disabled people is a global phenomenon. And it hurts us all. If you stop to think about it, persons with disabilities along with their families comprise nearly half the planet. Today there are estimated 600 million people with disabilities worldwide. 80% live in developing countries. They live in deplorable conditions, blocked from full participation in society.
As my friend Nelson Mandela observed of his disabled friends in prison, they were both “Barred In…and Barred Out.” Too many must fight to participate in decisions about their healthcare. All too frequently the decisions are simply made for them, without their consultation or consent.
Poverty and disability are inextricably linked. According to the World Bank, about 82 percent of disabled people live below the poverty line in developing countries. Disabled people account for one of every five of the world’s poorest people. They live in the margins, on the sidelines of hope.
And today there aren’t many ways to protect them under the law. Of 189 U.N. Member States, only some 40 countries (including Jordan and the United States) have any kind of anti-discrimination law.
Full participation in society will be achieved not by quote “fixing” disabled people, Instead, we must break down the barriers that prevent the realization of equal opportunity, full participation and respect for difference. Unlike international conventions on the rights of women and of children, there is no similar Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. None. Mexico, Jordan and other countries are leading the global call to address this gap, and we look forward to U.S. leadership in this area.
Americans are in a unique position not only to lead the world out of the minefields of Afghanistan, but also to create a global humanitarian framework to address the urgent needs of war victims and stand up for the rights and dignity of all persons.
Americans have already made great strides to dispel negative stereotypes and ensure access to care and livelihood. The Americans with Disabilities Act is setting important precedents for disability rights around the world. The International Disability and Victim Assistance Act we are promoting today is a crucial step in globalizing this vision. It is my hope that disabled victims of war will experience the humanitarian support and compassion of the people of the United States.
With your help, victims of landmines, war and civil strife will reclaim their lives… and take their place as proud and equal citizens who are born free with dignity and rights.
Thank you
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002
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