Cluster bombs: 'go slow, aim low'

For some years I have supported campaigns to ban cluster bombs - see for example here a news release from four years ago - as some will know the Oslo Process has been quietly ticking away aiming to ban cluster munitions.... some have described the approach by some key players at the conference as 'go slow, aim low' as they attempt to sabotage plans for any agreement.

Update: See here Monbiot on Cluster bombs and how Labour Government have blocked attempts to ban them.

Some 85 countries have attended, including several that make and use cluster munitions (such as the UK)- but the biggest users, Israel and the US, have not appeared. Israel were responsible for saturating southern Lebanon with bomblets after it was clear that they'd lost their war against Hizballah and they're still killing and maiming nearly two years later.

The UK government, along with Germany, Denmark, France and Holland have been described as the 'foxes in the chickenhouse' by anti-arms trade groups, as they seem to be seeking to water down any resolutions to limit states from continuing to use these dire weapons. Britain, for example, would like the M85 cluster bomb (which they bulk bought from Israel to use against Iraq in 2003) to be exempt as it contains high tech fuses ensuring it detonates on impact (although they didn't work in Lebanon). Additionally, the British say that the CRV-7 Hydra can't be considered a cluster munition because it contains only nine bomblets - the ministry does not consider a weapon with less than ten worthy of labelling a cluster.

Cluster-munitions leave a deadly legacy for years because once dropped, they can scatter many hundreds of unguided bomblets randomly over a wide area - and then many fail to explode. In effect, they turn into landmines. More about the conference opening in Dublin here and sign petition here. Let us hope they can make progress and ban these bombs.