UK 'aims to weaken' treaty on bomblets (cluster bombs)

[Doondoo]

Britain has been accused of sending a delegation to "water down" an international attempt to ban cluster munitions which have killed and maimed children from Afghanistan to Lebanon.

Forty-eight countries are to attend the two-day conference which opens today in Oslo. They have been inspired by a campaign which led to the conclusion of a 1997 treaty banning landmines, despite opposition from the United States, Russia and China.

The initiative on cluster bombs was proposed by Norway after the UN-sponsored Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) failed to call for an outright ban last November.

It gained widespread support in the wake of Israel's war in Lebanon where, the UN says, four million bomblets were dropped and 100,000 failed to explode.

Norway hopes to adopt a declaration which would commit participants to set a treaty target date of 2008. But one activist said Britain, which continues to use cluster bombs, was attending "to weaken whatever comes out of Norway".

A Foreign Office spokesman said that the Government believed the outcome should "complement the process agreed at the CCW last year".



http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2293470.ece

[maddezmom]

1. Cluster bomb opponents push for ban at Oslo conference

OSLO (AFP) - Dozens of countries pushing for a worldwide ban on cluster bombs met in Oslo on Thursday for two days of talks, but key nations Israel and the United States were noticeable by their absence.

The conference received a boost when Austria announced it was banning the use of cluster bombs by its army.

"The time has come to agree that we need a new international instrument to ban cluster munitions that have unacceptable humanitarian consequences," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said as he opened the conference.

The objective was to reach agreement on a plan "by 2008," he added.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070222/wl_afp/norwayconflictweaponscluster_070222143100

[Solo_in_MD]

2. Cluster bombs, more correctly called submunitions, like land mines

have valid tactical uses. I don't see them going away any time soon, and I am not sure that they should, as long as they are restrictied to those approriate uses.

[saigon68]

3. Actually Willie Pete is so much better

The official line to that point had been that WP, or Willie Pete to use its old name from Vietnam, was used only to illuminate the battlefield and to provide smoke for camouflage.

'Shake 'n Bake' from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4442988.stm

This line however crumbled when bloggers (whose influence must not be under-estimated these days) ferreted out an article published by the US Army's Field Artillery Magazine in its issue of March/April this year.

The article, written by a captain, a first lieutenant and a sergeant, was a review of the attack on Falluja in November 2004 and in particular of the use of indirect fire, mainly mortars.

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes where we could not get effects on them with HE . We fired "shake and bake" missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out," the article said.

[Solo_in_MD]

4. Depends on the tactical situation

against artilery or missile batteries, submunitions are the bomb...

[saigon68]

10. ~

[struggle4progress]

5. 48 nations launch global drive against cluster bombs

By: DOUG MELLGREN - Associated Press

OSLO, Norway -- Representatives from 48 nations on Thursday launched a global effort to ban the use, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs by the end of next year, despite the opposition of several of the world's major military powers.

A draft declaration, obtained by The Associated Press, said these weapons -- which can linger on former battlefields for years -- cause "unacceptable harm." It calls for a treaty banning them by 2008, despite concerns that some countries would not agree to act that quickly.

Norway hopes the treaty would be similar to one outlawing anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said advocates should push for a treaty by the end of 2008, despite concerns. "I believe any other target will be a wrong signal," he said ...

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/23/news/nation/1_04_442_22_07.txt

[struggle4progress]

6. Campaigners say "cluster bombs don't add up"

19 Feb 2007 12:07:00 GMT
Source: Landmine Action - UK
Website: http://www.landmineaction.org

s more than 40 nations take the first step towards a new international treaty to protect civilians from the deadly effects of cluster bombs, new reports from Landmine Action and Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) highlight the continued problems caused by the use of cluster bombs by NATO on Kosovo and Serbia.

The Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions (OCCM), the first international meeting of a Norwegian government initiative to agree a treaty to ban cluster bombs, will take place from Thursday 22 to Friday 23 February 2007. This meeting follows the failure of UN talks in November 2006 to make real progress towards a new treaty.

A Civil Society Forum on Cluster Munitions will be held in parallel with the government meeting. This international movement for urgent action on cluster bombs comes ten years after the successful campaign to ban landmines achieved a treaty and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 ...

A new study released by Landmine Action of NATO bombing records from Kosovo has found the weapons "performed poorly in a role that had little strategic significance for the outcome of the conflict." They caused more than 220 civilian deaths and injuries and cost more than $30 million in humanitarian funds to clear up, a process that continues in the province to this day, more than 7 years after use ...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/459411/11718877755.htm

[struggle4progress]

7. Austria to ban cluster bombs; US, Russia, China avoid talks

... Talks in Geneva last November failed to achieve progress toward a ban, and countries that did not sign the mine treaty – including the US, Russia and China – are also boycotting the anti-cluster bomb effort ...

http://newstandardnews.net/content/ion/index.cfm/bulletin/6377

[struggle4progress]

8. Cluster Bombs: -- The Realpolitik of U.S. Foreign Policy

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 4:20pm. Guest Contribution

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Robert Weitzel

... That a government exports and expends munitions that continue to kill civilians long after "mission accomplished" has been declared is also hardly ever newsworthy. But in the case of cluster bombs it is the reality on the ground.

Cluster bombs are dropped from planes or fired as rockets and contain up to 644 bomblets that disperse mid-air, scattering "steel rain" over a 20,000 square meter area (roughly the size of two football fields). The bomblets, which look like a soft-drink can or a D battery, explode on contact and spray deadly razor-sharp shrapnel up to ten meters.

Other than the obvious danger at the time of impact, up to a quarter of the bomblets fail to explode, creating a minefield for civilians long after the fighting has moved on. Young children are especially vulnerable because they are attracted to the shape and color of the bomblets as playthings.

The U.S. military released 297 million cluster bomblets over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Thirty years later these bomblets continue to kill farmers in their fields and children unfortunate enough to find a "plaything." The signature of the U.S. government is on each and every fragment as it enters their bodies, finally accomplishing its deadly mission ...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/797

[struggle4progress]

9. Senators Introduce Bill Banning Cluster Munitions in Civilian Areas

By: Friends Committee on National Legislation
Published: Feb 15, 2007 at 08:19

Senators Diane Feinstein (CA) and Patrick Leahy (VT) today introduced important new legislation that would ban the use of U.S.-made cluster bombs in civilian areas. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) welcomes the introduction of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007.

This landmark legislation bans the United States from using cluster bombs in civilian areas and exporting cluster bombs to countries that would use these weapons on civilians. The legislation would also ban U.S. funding for the use, sale, or transfer of cluster munitions that might drop explosive "duds" that later explode, killing innocent civilians.

U.S. cluster munitions have reportedly been used in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, and Laos. The U.S. has transferred cluster munitions to over twenty countries, including countries with poor human rights records such as Pakistan and Indonesia. In addition to limited U.S. use of these indiscriminate weapons, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 would require any country that buys U.S.-made cluster munitions to agree to not use such weapons in civilian areas

"The United States should not be in the business of using or selling indiscriminate weapons that have proved in conflict after conflict to have a disproportionate effect of civilians," said Joe Volk, FCNL's Executive Secretary. "Passage of this vital legislation will help the U.S. Senate reassert itself as a global leader in humanitarian affairs." ...

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_51284.shtml

[maddezmom]

11. Britain supports call for ban on cluster bombs

Britain has signed up to a new arms control declaration calling for an international ban on cluster bombs to protect civilians, despite having used the weapon in conflicts in Kosovo and Iraq and still stockpiling so-called "smart" versions of the munition.

Its position, praised by humanitarian groups, puts it at odds with the US, Russia, China and Israel, which did not attend the Oslo conference where the declaration was agreed by 46 countries yesterday.

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2020342,00.html

[truthisfreedom]

12. Someone needs to get those detonators to work.

Every bomblet should explode on impact.

If not, the manufacturers should be sued.

These bomblets are paid for using sacred US Treasury money, and any failures should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Bomblet manufacturers who are found to be manufacturing crap bomblets should be blacklisted from any further military contracts, forever.

Bad bomblets make America look bad.