Serbia conference of anti-cluster bomb coalition confident of treaty in 2008

International Herald Tribune
Thursday, 4 October 2007
By AP

BELGRADE, Serbia: Officials at a conference of states affected by the use of deadly cluster bombs said Thursday they were confident a new treaty banning the weapon would be signed next year.

Representatives of affected nations, survivors and human rights groups said at the end of the gathering in Belgrade that the process leading to the deal was "unstoppable," even though some of the world's biggest producers had not yet joined.

"This conference has given us confidence that we will have a strong treaty," which would "have an impact far beyond those who sign," Steve Goose, a co-chairman of the Cluster Munition Coalition said.

Fired by artillery or dropped by aircraft, cluster bombs are canisters that open in flight and eject dozens or hundreds of small bomblets across a wide area. They were first used in Laos in the 1970s.

So far, attempts to work out an international treaty regulating the use of cluster bombs has met opposition from China and Russia, and received only lukewarm support from the United States.

The U.S. has said there were sufficient controls on the weapon in existing treaties. And it has said cluster bombs, if used carefully, have important military uses, such as attacking artillery positions, armored columns and missile installations.

Another co-chairman of the group, Thomas Nash, explained that the organization's goal was "clear prohibition," but also an obligation to clear up millions of bomblets left over from the use of cluster bombs throughout the world.

The Belgrade conference also called for "safe and secure destruction of stockpiles of these weapons as soon as possible" and assistance to its victims.

The meeting in Belgrade was part of the so-called Oslo Process, which was launched in February and aims to conclude the treaty in 2008.

Branislav Kapetanovic, a former Yugoslav army explosives expert who lost both his hands and legs while trying to defuse a U.S.-made cluster bomb after the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, said his life was dedicated to the struggle to ban cluster bombs.

"All I ever did is fight against this monstrous weapon," he said. "I was doing it when I lost my arms and legs, and I am doing it now."