Cautious steps at U.N. weapons conference to limit use of cluster bombs

International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
November 13, 2007

GENEVA: A U.N. weapons conference adopted a cautious approach on the use of cluster bombs Tuesday, calling for new rules on when the weapon can be used but stopping short of launching talks on a legally binding treaty.

The use of the bombs has come under growing criticism from Canada, the European Union and others, as well as from campaign groups which argue that the weapon inflicts severe suffering on civilians.

But the United States, Russia and China have repeatedly insisted that the weapon has a legitimate military purpose, even if they have signaled a readiness to discuss nonbinding recommendations on usage.

Diplomats from 102 nations agreed to "negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, while striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations."

The bombs — which typically scatter hundreds of small bomblets over a wide area — are not explicitly regulated by the 1980 U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons, known as CCW.

Washington said it was pleased with the result.

"The language of the decision taken today is clear and direct," said Ronald Bettauer, who headed the U.S. delegation. "Humanitarian and military considerations are both important."

But Stephen Goose, executive director of Human Rights Watch, disagreed.

"We see this as a wholly inadequate outcome," Goose said. "The room does not have a clue as to what is being negotiated."

European countries said the weeklong meeting ended below their expectations, but expressed hope that an international ban on the use and production of the cluster bombs most dangerous to civilians can still be achieved, highlighting the various interpretations of the watered-down agreement.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch and the London-based Cluster Munition Coalition both said the only way to move forward on the issue now was through a separate forum for negotiations initiated in Oslo, Norway, in which more than 80 countries are involved in an effort outside the U.N. framework to hammer out a global ban on cluster bombs.

The U.S. rejects the so-called Oslo process.

Goose said the U.S. was working with India, Japan, Pakistan and South Korea at the CCW in Geneva because they were fearful of more stringent regulations being agreed on elsewhere.

"Any country that is at least a bit serious about trying to deal with the cluster munition issue urgently and effectively will focus on the Oslo process and not on the CCW," Goose said. He said the U.N. conference would not produce any meaningful result.

So far, cluster bombs, which are produced in 34 countries around the world, are only banned in neutral Austria and NATO members Belgium and Norway.

Upon explosion, the weapon often covers an area the size of a football field with hundreds of bomblets, which can be as small as a flashlight battery. They are intended to destroy airfields, or make terrain impassable for tanks and soldiers, but can stay unexploded on the ground long after armies leave, killing or maiming children upon detonation at the slightest disturbance.

The United Nations estimates that Israel dropped as many as 4 million bomblets in southern Lebanon during its campaign against Hezbollah last summer, with perhaps 40 percent of the submunitions failing to explode on impact.

The issue of cluster bombs gained new momentum within the CCW in June when the United States said it was willing to resume talks on their use, reversing its previous position, but maintaining that it would block any outright ban of the weapon.