Nations Consider Limits on Cluster Bombs

By ELIANE ENGELER
Associated Press
14th November

GENEVA (AP) — Delegates to a U.N. weapons conference agreed Tuesday to negotiate a new accord regulating the use of cluster bombs — but stopped short of pursuing a legally binding treaty

The use of cluster bombs — which typically scatter hundreds of small bomblets over a wide area — has come under growing criticism from Canada, the European Union and others.

However, the United States, Russia and China insist the weapon has a legitimate military purpose and have resisted a legally binding treaty on cluster bombs, which are not explicitly regulated by the U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons, the CCW.

On Tuesday, 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."

European delegates said the outcome fell short of their expectations but expressed hope for an eventual international ban the most dangerous cluster bombs.

"We see this as a wholly inadequate outcome," said Stephen Goose, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch and the London-based Cluster Munition Coalition said the only way to forward now is outside the U.N. framework.

Cluster bombs — produced in 34 countries around the world — are only banned in Austria, Belgium and Norway.

The weapon is used to cover an area the size of a football field with hundreds of bomblets, some as small as a flashlight battery. They are intended to destroy airfields or make terrain impassable for tanks and soldiers.

Experts say unexploded bomblets can detonate later at the slightest disturbance, and children are attracted to the often brightly colored munitions, some with small parachutes attached.

In June, the United States said it was willing to resume negotiations on the use of cluster bombs, reversing its previous position that no new agreement on the weapon was necessary. However, the U.S. said it was unwilling to negotiate a formal ban.