Get as many people as possible to sign the petition against cluster bombs. That was the main mission of the volunteers last Saturday in Nice.
In total, more than 2802 signatures were collected despite a slight apparent decrease in the number of people who came. The head of the Nice Côte d’Azur office for Handicap International, Patricia Malissart, is delighted: “The French have really mobilized. It is satisfying, especially as we are approaching December 3, an important date.” This is the date when the Oslo Treaty, aimed at banning the use, production, and commercialization of these bombs, will be open for signing. Already in 1997, civil mobilization led to the ban on a conventional weapon: a first in the history of armament.
A yearly event since 1995, the shoe pyramids aim to raise citizens’ awareness of the issue of anti-personnel bombs and cluster bombs. To achieve this, Handicap International uses several methods: information stands, educational activities, photographs, videos, … and for the first time in France [realized in Lyon, Paris, Dijon, Nice], a life-size reconstruction of a mined area and fictitious demining demonstrations were planned. “It is important to know that cluster bombs are extremely tedious to clear because they fall where they do: on trees, on roofs, etc. They are therefore difficult to spot and very unstable. They can explode at the slightest movement or not at all,” notes Nils Roklin, demining activity leader in Nice. It remains to be seen if these days will have an impact on the opening of the Oslo Treaty for signing, scheduled in ten weeks.
