Adelaide Mercy Sister Pat Pak Poy may have appeared a little out of place among the mostly male delegates present at a workshop held in China earlier this year.
But the landmark workshop was on the humanitarian impact of landmines, and as the national coordinator of the Australian Network of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Pat was definitely in the right place.
‘Funnily enough, two of the three women at the top table at the opening banquet were Sisters of Mercy from Australia’, she laughs. Her fellow sister was Denise Coghlan, who has been working with landmine victims in Cambodia and on the Thai-Cambodian border for the last twenty years.
Perhaps the coincidence is to be expected rather than remarked upon. Mercy sisters have worked with landmine victims among refugees in border camps for many years. Pat was the impetus for the formation of the Australian Network of the ICBL in 1991, and has spearheaded the Australian anti-landmine movement ever since.
‘It’s sad to see the young people in countries that have been heavily landmined’, Pat says. ‘It’s an everyday thing for them; many don’t even realise that other people don’t have to live with it.’
The workshop, co-hosted by the Australian Network of the ICBL and the Chinese Government, was attended by delegates from countries in the region, from donor countries and from Eritrea, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan.
‘I think it was a very good, constructive and hopeful workshop. The outcomes remain to be seen of course, but there was a high degree of openness and trust. And China did say that they would no longer export landmines, which is a small victory’, she says.
Pat hopes that gaining some ground with the Asian superpower will have an impact on the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, which, despite containing some of the worst affected countries in the world, has been slow to sign the Mine Ban Treaty. She credits some of this reluctance to the lack of a US signature on the treaty. Former president Bill Clinton promised that the USA would sign in 2006 if they found ‘suitable alternatives’—which seems an unlikely prospect now.
Australia signed the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, and the Australian government has been a generous supporter of landmine action. In September 1995 it pledged 100 million dollars over ten years when the Australian ICBL Network presented parliament with 219,000 signatures in favour of signing the Mine Ban Treaty.
Now the ten years is nearly up, and Pat is concerned because the need for the funding is still there. This year the Network will present a second petition to the Australian government asking it to renew its financial commitment.
Because many landmine victims are unable to work or require long rehabilitation, they can seem a burden on their communities. Pat would like to see the corporate sector find more ways to employ landmine victims so they can earn a living and contribute to society.
She has been pleased to see the way other sectors of the community, such as churches, aid agencies and political groups, have worked together to support the Australian Network of the ICBL. Her perception of the church’s role in landmine action is clear:
‘The church has a social responsibility to help stop the use of landmines and to support the victims’, she says.
To find out more about landmine action go to http://australia.icbl.org/
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