ROB EDWARDS has drawn attention to the heinous devices which could sweep
future battlefields (快猫短视频, 4 December 1999, p 14). His list
included sound beams to liquefy the enemies鈥� bowels, sticky foams to fix foes to
the ground, capture nets that cut, chemically burn and electrically shock
opponents, and microwaves to disorientate your adversaries鈥� brains.
His focus was the attempt by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) to decide which weapons should be banned under the 1977 Geneva Protocol
with its Superfluous Injury or Unnecessary Suffering (SIrUS) Project. Today鈥檚
weapons are bad enough, so what of new ones? SIrUS suggests that weapons should
be banned if, of those soldiers they injure, more than a quarter die on the
battlefield or more than 5 per cent die in hospital, or if they cause specific
disabilities or diseases.
Britain鈥檚 Ministry of Defence is cautious about accepting the ICRC
initiative. Armed forces minister John Spellar tells me that the MoD is
analysing the data used by the project and the criteria against which it would
try to judge the legality of weapons systems. 鈥淲e have asked the ICRC for
clarification of a number of issues relating to the SIrUS methodology and await
its response. For the moment, we are unable to draw any firm conclusions on the
merits of its project and what positive contributions might flow from it.鈥�
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I hope the ICRC will widely publicise its scheme, and pursue it with
vigour.
THIEVES often make rich pickings from railway freight. The late Bob Kettles,
stalwart of the Labour Party and the executive of the old National Union of
Railwaymen, used to go spare about theft from rolling stock, claiming his
members always got the blame. Nowadays, many wagons have tracer beacons. But
infrequent servicing means the batteries in the beacon systems go flat. Barry Fox reported
(快猫短视频, 8 January, p 7) on an interesting solution
that the Sema Group is patenting. I asked Keith Hill, junior minister in the
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, for his views on it.
At one time he was parliamentary officer for the NUR, and now he has Britain鈥檚
railways among his ministerial responsibilities.
Hill said that the DETR welcomes innovative developments by industry to
improve the security of rail stock. However, theft of wagons per se is less of a
problem than the theft of the freight. Railtrack is working with English Welsh
& Scottish Railway on a 鈥渢rain control system鈥濃�攁 real-time way of
using satellite tracking to monitor the location and condition of
consignments.
Because Sema鈥檚 system is at the development stage we shall have to wait for a
presentation to see just what it has to offer.
NEXT to habitat destruction, the spread of invasive species in our
countryside is perhaps the most pervasive threat to our native wild plants. This
is the leitmotif of the wild-plant conservation charity Plantlife鈥檚 excellent
report At War with Aliens. It details the changes that Plantlife
considers necessary to protect native plants from invasive species. The
Countryside Amenity and Conservation Bill covering England and Wales is set to
succeed the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, and will go through its committee
stage in the current session.
Plantlife wants the existing list of invasive species, for which release into
the wild is an offence, updated, and the sale of invasive species banned. It
also wants to see a more precautionary approach to the release of non-native
species established in legislation. Finally, it wants custodial sentences for
anyone releasing scheduled plants.
I hope that the charity will be satisfied in all its aspirations.
