Nations working to ban cluster bombs
Hugh MacLeod
...
In a report released last month, Human Rights Watch said Israel dropped 4.6 million cluster bombs on southern Lebanon, more than in recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Last month, 122 nations met at a Cluster Munition Coalition meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, to work out final discussions for an eventual treaty banning cluster bombs. The draft, which has been endorsed by 82 nations, would bar signatory nations from producing, using or stockpiling cluster bombs.
Supporters say the final treaty, which is expected to be signed in Oslo, Norway, later this year, would be the most significant advance in disarmament since the 1997 ban on anti-personnel mines.
...
To be sure, cluster bombs have been used in warfare since World War II and are standard air-dropped bombs for many nations. At least 14 countries and a small number of nonstate militias - Hezbollah, for example - have used cluster bombs in at least 30 nations and territories, while at least 76 nations have stockpiles, according to Human Rights Watch.
Cluster bomb manufacturers say the failure rate is typically between 10 and 15 percent. But the United Nations says it is between 20 and 30 percent and was even higher in southern Lebanon due to Israel’s use of Vietnam War-era and Chinese bombs, whose date of effectiveness had long since expired.
“By their nature, cluster bombs are very likely to fail,” said Farran, the U.N. spokeswoman. “They are not accurate and not reliable.”
Farran said the mine removal campaign in Lebanon is far more daunting than that in Kosovo, an area comparable in size. “In a 2 1/2-year program, (the U.N. Mine Action Service) cleared 25,000 submunitions, and that was 90 percent of the problem,” she said. “In Lebanon, in a year and a half we have cleared 137,000 submunitions.”
To read the full article from The San Francisco Chronicle click on:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/17/MNGMV7SGR.DTL
...
In a report released last month, Human Rights Watch said Israel dropped 4.6 million cluster bombs on southern Lebanon, more than in recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Last month, 122 nations met at a Cluster Munition Coalition meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, to work out final discussions for an eventual treaty banning cluster bombs. The draft, which has been endorsed by 82 nations, would bar signatory nations from producing, using or stockpiling cluster bombs.
Supporters say the final treaty, which is expected to be signed in Oslo, Norway, later this year, would be the most significant advance in disarmament since the 1997 ban on anti-personnel mines.
...
To be sure, cluster bombs have been used in warfare since World War II and are standard air-dropped bombs for many nations. At least 14 countries and a small number of nonstate militias - Hezbollah, for example - have used cluster bombs in at least 30 nations and territories, while at least 76 nations have stockpiles, according to Human Rights Watch.
Cluster bomb manufacturers say the failure rate is typically between 10 and 15 percent. But the United Nations says it is between 20 and 30 percent and was even higher in southern Lebanon due to Israel’s use of Vietnam War-era and Chinese bombs, whose date of effectiveness had long since expired.
“By their nature, cluster bombs are very likely to fail,” said Farran, the U.N. spokeswoman. “They are not accurate and not reliable.”
Farran said the mine removal campaign in Lebanon is far more daunting than that in Kosovo, an area comparable in size. “In a 2 1/2-year program, (the U.N. Mine Action Service) cleared 25,000 submunitions, and that was 90 percent of the problem,” she said. “In Lebanon, in a year and a half we have cleared 137,000 submunitions.”
To read the full article from The San Francisco Chronicle click on:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/17/MNGMV7SGR.DTL
posted by Pax Christi @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008
<< Home