 |
Cluster Bombs
Cluster bombs have killed and
injured thousands of civilians during the last 40 years and continue to do
so today. They cause widespread harm on impact and yet remain dangerous,
killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of
all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of cluster bomb
casualties are injured while undertaking their normal activities.
Cluster Bombs:
Cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and
from the ground and release dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions.
Submunitions released by air-dropped cluster bombs are most often called “bomblets,”
while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually
referred to as “grenades.”
Problem with this Weapon:
Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian
problems and risks to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means
they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the
humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or
near populated areas.
Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto
antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has
ended. These duds are more lethal than antipersonnel mines; incidents
involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury.
Cluster Munitions Used:
At least 15 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia,
France, Georgia, Israel, Libya, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia
(USSR), Saudi Arabia, Former Yugoslavia (Serbia), Sudan, United Kingdom and
United States. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon
(such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006). Billions of submunitions have been
stockpiled by some 85 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have
produced over 210 different types cluster munitions. More than two dozen
countries have been affected by the use of cluster munitions including
Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia,
Chad, Croatia, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Iraq, Israel,
Kuwait, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia,
Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uganda, United Kingdom, Vietnam and
Zambia, as well as Chechnya, Falkland/Malvinas, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh,
and Western Sahara.
Ban on Cluster Munitions:
Simply put, cluster munitions kill and injure too many civilians. The
weapon caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999
than any other weapon system.
Cluster munitions stand out as the weapon that poses the gravest dangers to
civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Israel’s
massive use of the weapon in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than
200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as
the catalyst that has propelled governments to attempt to secure a
legally-binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions in 2008.
OSLO PROCESS:
In February 2007, 46 governments met in Oslo
to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude
a new legally binding instrument in 2008 that prohibits the use, production,
transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm
to civilians and provides adequate resources to assist survivors and clear
contaminated areas.
Subsequent International Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007),
Austria (December 2007), and New Zealand (February 2008). 107 countries
negotiated and adopted a treaty that bans cluster bombs and provides
assistance to affected communities in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. The
treaty was signed by
94 countries
at the Signing
Conference in Oslo in December 2008 and is now open for all countries to
sign at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
See
http://clusterprocess.org/ for more information.
Cluster Munition Coalition:
The Cluster Munition Coalition
(CMC) is a global network of more than 350 civil society organisations
working in some 90 countries to end the harm caused by cluster bombs. The
CMC was launched in November 2003 and founding members include Human Rights
Watch, Handicap International and other leaders from the Nobel Peace
Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which secured the
1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Since the signing of the Convention on Cluster
Munitions by 94 countries at the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008,
the CMC mobilised an intensive global ratification campaign to ensure that
30 countries ratified the Convention swiftly. After this happened on 16
February 2010, less than two years after the treaty was formally adopted,
the CMC’s priority is to ensure the highest level of participation as the
treaty enters into force and States Parties begin the formal process of
implementation.
@
Copyright Sustainable Peace and Development Organization - SPADO
For General Inquires Contact us at:
spado@spado.org.pk
|
|
 |
