Text and photo: Ditte Arendt Toft

The boy in the picture is six years old an lives in Basra in Iraq. One of his arms has been blown off. On his body and in his face he has many visible scars. He was hit by a cluster bomb while sleeping in his bed.

The picture is part of a campaign against cluster bombs that the Danish Red Cross and DanChurchAid have started. The picture makes a big impression on a little girl and boy visiting the ship together with their father.

– Did he cry, when he was hit by the bomb, the girl asks. Cecilie Dinesen, volunteer in the Danish Red Cross Youth, takes her time to explain the girl and her little brother, what has happened to the boy and what can be done to prevent something like this from happening again.

Totally unacceptable
During DANEX 07 ships from the Danish Navy visited Copenhagen where most of the ships were open to the public.

Danish Red Cross and DanChurchAid  on board HDMS ABSALON.

– The Navy asked us whether we wanted to come on board with our campaign in connection with Open Ship and the commemoration of the bombing of Copenhagen 200 years ago.

We of course wanted that very much. We would like as many as possible to see our campaign, says Eva Veble from DanChurchAid.

Together with Cecilie Dinesen from the Danish Red Cross Youth, she was busy. Most people, who visited HDMS ABSALON this weekend, were very interested in the campaign and asked many questions.

– Our purpose is to open people’s eyes to the problems with cluster bombs. The humanitarian consequences are very large. Not everything should be allowed in a war and using cluster bombs is totally unacceptable, says Eva Veble.

Something to think about
Not many of weekend’s visitors had expected to meet two humanitarian organisations on board Denmark’s largest warship. Casper Andersen is the father of Freya and August, the two children who earlier were very absorbed by the picture of the boy, who was hit by a cluster bomb.

Casper Andersen with his children  August and Freya

– I think it is fine, that the Danish Red Cross and DanChurchAid are here. It’s not exactly something I expect when I visit a warship.

We just came to see the inside of the ship, but after seing this campaign we bring home a lot to think about, says Casper Andersen. He chose to sign a plea to the Danish Government to work actively for a ban on cluster bombs.

 The plea was signed by 550 people. Stine Leth-Nissen, campaign manager from DanChurchAid, is happy that so many have signed.

– This numbers also reflects how many people were interested in our campaign. It was a really good experience to be on board HDMS ABSALON and I spoke with many, who found it positive that the Navy had invited the humanitarian organisations on board.