Mina's statement, Geneva, 18 February 2009
By Stephanie Castanie on Monday, March 2 2009, 11:26 - Statements - Permalink
Mina Zunac, CCW Conference, side event on victim assistance, Geneva, 18 February 2009
Hi, my name is Mina Zunac, I'm from Croatia and I'm a Ban Advocate. I am a cluster munitions survivor. It happened on May 1995 during bombing of Zagreb. It was a nice sunny day, 11 in the morning, centre of the town, working hours, I was double parked … I come out of the bank, loud sound (at that time I didn’t know that that’s how explosion sound like … IRONIC) My mother was with me, she was fine, my car not so fine … and I spent a year in hospital recovering.
I was 20 at the time, whole world was in front of me, and I was there to concur it. But we are not here to talk about me, we are here to talk about you, and what are you going to do about this. I am a typical representative of MTV generation. I don’t take NO for an answer. I was raised to believe in government and democracy, IN YOU.
I WILL NOT TELL YOU WHAT TO DO
- it’s all in Article 5 / VA of CCM that you signed (or will sign)
I WILL TELL YOU WHY
- VA is the last step in ending the war, and first step in long time peace keeping
SO HOW IT WORKS
-you think that war is over just because they lay down the guns (arms), and you don’t hear the shooting in the streets and fields - but it’s not, the war doesn’t start and end in the streets
IT STARTS AND ENDS IN PEOPLE’S HEADS.
By providing VA you are not helping only the victims, you are helping the future generations, and you are building world peace. This is how;
- I will give you two scenarios, one with VA and another without VA
1) help the victims, make them participate in society again, give them work/jobs, give them they dignity back, make them whole again
2) if not … what happens is those people are closed at home, they are unhappy, bitter, disappointed, angry and they carry their grudge* to the next generation, and next and so on …
And after a few generations you will have the same old war all over again. It’s a viscious circle, and it should be broken.
IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO TAKE AWAY THE WEAPONS, YOU NEED TO TAKE AWAY THE REASONS TO FIGHT.
Signing, ratification, implementation. Most of you have already signed, the other will follow. World peace, that’s the goal, there are no shortcuts and it’s a group effort. You can do it. You have the power to make the change.
Thank you.
* grudge / a fit of bad temper
You can also find in his Blog the statement "Assisting the victims is investment not a cost" made by Firoz Alizada (ICBL):
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