David Norris (Independent)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, subsection (1), to delete lines 30 to 33.

This is a matter of excluding "anti-handling device". This is a rather Jesuitical thing to do and may expose innocent people, civilians and army personnel who should not be killed in these circumstances to the operations of an anti-personnel device. I believe these anti-handling devices can in themselves be dangerous weapons and can affect civilians.

Take, for example, where one of these devices is left lying in a field and a child comes across it. I have known this to happen. I remember a particularly sad case in Palestine where a family known to Ezra and me was affected. The family had been rendered unemployed by the policy of absorbing agricultural land, destroying olive groves and building roads through them by the occupying power and had been reduced to living on the clippings of tin.

One day, one of them picked up a metal object — they had been making money by collecting and selling scrap metal — and, unfortunately, either shook it or gave it a kick. There were four young men there at the time. One of them, an eleven year old, had his stomach blown out and died instantly. The 17 year old boy holding the object lost both his hands. He was taken for treatment and was in a state of shock.

This was a disaster for the family. In that society young men were expected to get married at a young age and start a family, but this boy could not because he was now soiled goods and no woman would take him. He was not able to get a job. We tried to get prosthetic limbs for him and to arrange for him to get special education. However, he got a sudden asthma attack about six weeks later and died. I believe his death was the result of delayed shock because he had not realised the seriousness of what had happened when he lost his hands. Sometimes when something like this occurs, the person is incapable of dealing with it and the imagination closes down. I cannot imagine the asthma attack was provoked by anything else.

It is this sort of accident I want to ensure we avoid and if we can provide for that in the legislation, we should do so. Therefore, I do not accept that anti-personnel devices should be excluded from the Bill.