Proposition 52K1935

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 8 juin 2006 réglant des activités économiques et individuelles avec des armes, en vue d'interdire le financement de la fabrication, de l'utilisation ou de la détention des armes à uranium.

General information ¶

Submitted by

The Senate

Submission date

April 17, 2008

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

nuclear weapon uranium arms limitation arms trade

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR FN VB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

June 25, 2009 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

The bill that we discussed today was unanimously adopted in the committee yesterday. It was transmitted by the Senate. This is actually following the leading role we played. You know that our country has played a leading role – colleague Van der Maelen knikt – in connection with anti-personnel mines. Well, we want to do that with this design also around the uranium weapons.

The discussion was actually very short because we want to approve it now. The law would enter into force next week. We have opted to add the ban on the financing of uranium weapons so that it can come into effect together. We have agreed in the committee that the bill amending the law of 8 June 2006 concerning the regulation of economic and individual activities with weapons, by Mrs. Gerkens, will be placed on the agenda at a subsequent meeting. So far the report because the discussion was very short at the committee meeting yesterday.

I would like to give a brief explanation on behalf of Open Vld. Open Vld is very pleased that we can also play a leading role in this area. Belgium has shown how we can be great as a small country with the ban on anti-personnel mines. We would very much like the world to follow us now with the ban on uranium weapons. Of course, everyone knows the very harmful consequences. If one simply goes to the peristilium and sees the pictures that are displayed there, then one sees that those things have very harmful consequences. As a country, we must take our responsibilities and once again play a leading role. Therefore, we yesterday in the committee fully approved the ban on the financing of uranium weapons. We will do this again in this plenary session.

Mr. Speaker, like my colleague Vautmans, my group and I can only rejoice over this achievement. I also wanted to take the opportunity to pay tribute to my colleague Josy Dubié, who today made his last speech in the plenary session of the Senate. He had worked a lot on banning anti-personnel mines. Already at that time, he was referring to the importance of prohibiting the use of weapons with impoverished uranium, work relayed to the House of Representatives by my colleague Muriel Gerkens.

In 1997, the Treaty of Ottawa banned anti-personnel mines. It was followed by the Oslo Treaty, signed in December 2008, prohibiting the use of submunition bombs. This device was not enough, especially when in December 2008, the Israeli army, during its offensive against the Gaza Strip had used weapons of impoverished uranium, a fact denounced at that time. Minister De Gucht had answered that we should also use the Code of Conduct for arms exports. Today, the project allows us to do more. We welcome the adoption of this project.

We know the impact of using weapons with impoverished uranium on the current population but also on future generations as well as on the environment, and for very long years. This can be seen through the current exposure in the peristyle. The impact of the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the population in 1986 and still today on subsequent generations has been observed many times. We can see the damage caused both at the level of the population and the environment.

The amendment to the Act of 8 June 2006 allows us to go further as it aims to prohibit the financing of the manufacture, use or possession of weapons of impoverished uranium. This is not the shadow of a doubt: we will vote on this bill, especially since the members of the Defence Committee have committed to make sure that we can discuss soon – Ms. Vautmans noted it in her report – of our proposal to amend another article of that same law. This amendment aims to prohibit the use of anti-manipulation devices that complicate the work of civilian and military deminers. We will, of course, be attentive to the positions adopted by colleagues from other parties on the matter. Indeed, it is important that we take the necessary steps to facilitate the task of civilian and military miners wherever they carry out their mission in the world.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, I will be brief because I do not want to repeat the words of our colleague on environmental and health impacts.

On June 20th, Russia became the first country in the world to ban the manufacture, use and possession of uranium weapons. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the work done by the whole of our Parliament and, in particular, by our colleague Josy Arens who, in October 2005, had submitted a bill concerning submunition but also impoverished uranium.

Today, it seems logical and consistent to add a ban on the financing of the manufacture, use and possession of uranium weapons. The same logic was followed for anti-personnel mines and sub-munition bombs.

It is important to approve this text which will make it possible to usefully complement the device aimed at combating these weapons which have as characteristics in particular to reach civilian populations and to have effects very long after their use. In fact, they would continue to kill, irradiate after a blow because radioactive and toxic contamination would lead to serious health problems such as, for example, malformations at birth and cancers.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, we will support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I will keep it brief on my bank.

The colleagues who spoke for me have clearly explained the reasons why we would prefer to approve this bill as soon as possible. I would only like to call on all my colleagues in this Parliament to pay attention to a problem of application that arises with regard to this legislation on the prohibition of the financing of certain types of weapons, landmines, cluster bombs and weapons with impoverished uranium.

What is the problem? The problem is that this legislation requires a list of companies that produce these types of weapons – landmines, cluster bombs or weapons with impoverished uranium. On the basis of that list, consumers, people who want to invest money, are informed whether or not they are investing in a sector where there may be problems.

What is the problem now? The problem is that there is a competence dispute. I have to express it diplomatically. I could also say that the Ministers of Justice and Finance are playing the ball together. The Minister of Finance, who, in my opinion, is competent in this matter because he is competent in the financial sector, argues that it is not he who must draw up that list, but the Minister of Justice, since it is the law of June 2006 for which in the first instance the Minister of Justice is competent.

We will vote on this law with everyone. I will be very happy and, as I assume, with me most colleagues. However, I think it is high time that we work out the application problems that arise here and that we ask both ministers or the government, with the prime minister at the head, to finally implement what we approve in these laws.

I propose, colleagues, that we have a conversation with both ministers about this after the recess, so that we can get clearness and clarity from the government so that that law can finally be applied.

First, I would like to thank Mr. President. Brotcorne for his report on the work of our committee yesterday.

Weapons with impoverished uranium are real radioactive poisons. Once used, what they caused can no longer be cleaned. The particles remain in the atmosphere for a very long and indefinite period. These weapons affect the population without discrimination.

The peristyle is currently home to an exhibition about the use of this type of weapons in Iraq. As Ms. Boulet recalled, we could also have the same exhibition in the Gaza Strip. It demonstrates that it is always the civilian population first affected by this kind of dirty and treacherous weaponry.

The PS group welcomes the adoption of the bill in the Senate that was initiated by Mr. Philippe Mahoux, in order to prohibit the financing, manufacture, use and possession of such weapons. We are pleased that the urgency was achieved yesterday, so that we can adopt this provision today.

While the law banning such weapons, initiated by Dirk Van der Maelen, came into force a few days ago, it was also necessary to ban its financing, as well as for anti-personnel mines and sub-munition bombs. Once again, Belgium will be an example and we must be proud of it. If our country adopts this bill, it will once again be the first country in the world to enforce a law that prohibits not only the production, use, storage, trade and transport of weapons of impoverished uranium but also their financing.

However, the fight is not over! The next step will probably not be easy. It will be about convincing the international community and other countries to join this ban in order to ⁇ , as in the case of anti-personnel mines and sub-munition bombs, a treaty banning weapons with impoverished uranium with a monitoring mechanism. Our country will also have to be a pioneer internationally.

I would just like to say to Mrs. Boulet that in our case, a commitment is a commitment! A word is a word. Consequently, on the agenda of next Wednesday, the bill you submitted will be discussed and which is actually interesting. For our deminers on the ground, these anti-manipulation mechanisms are really instruments of betrayal, even more than anti-personnel mines and mines in general. This is the life of our miners.