CMC Press Release: Support for Ban on Cluster Munitions Grows in Latin America

San Jose, Costa Rica
Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Support for Ban on Cluster Munitions Grows in Latin America 

At the first regional Latin American Conference on Cluster Munitions, four additional countries pledged their support for the Oslo Process aimed at a new international treaty banning cluster munitions in 2008. With the new commitments from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Uruguay, a total of 80 countries are participating in the Oslo Process.

Eighteen Latin American governments gathered in San Jose, Costa Rica on 4-5 September in a regional meeting designed to build support for the movement to conclude a new treaty next year prohibiting the use, production, trade and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. Only Cuba declined the invitation to participate.

“This meeting demonstrated that the governments of Latin America are prepared to act as a unified force to bring about the strongest possible treaty banning cluster munitions in the shortest possible time,” said Steve Goose, co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) and director of the Human Rights Watch Arms Division. 

Just prior to the meeting, Argentina officially informed the CMC that it had destroyed all of its stockpiles of cluster munitions. During the meeting, Chile stated that it had halted production, and that it had no intention of doing so in the future.

Brazil was the only country that did not express its support for the Oslo Process, leaving it isolated in the region. Brazil has been a significant producer and exporter of cluster munitions in the past, and is thought to hold a sizeable stockpile.  

Nearly all of the Latin American governments endorsed a proposal from Peru and Costa Rica to create a regional Cluster Munition Free Zone, invoking the leadership and vision shown by the region in establishing the Treaty of Tlatelolco in the 1960s prohibiting acquisition of nuclear weapons. 

The CMC was pleased that participants emphasized that a future treaty must have a comprehensive approach, with requirements for stockpile destruction, clearance of contaminated areas, and assistance to victims and affected communities. The CMC was also pleased that governments stressed that a so-called technical solution to the cluster munition problem, through self-destruct devices or required reliability rates, was not feasible, and that few cited the Convention on Conventional Weapons as another viable forum for addressing cluster munitions. 

“Latin American governments understand that any treaty on cluster munitions must above all be driven by humanitarian concerns and be responsive to the needs of those who have suffered from horrendous and long-lasting effects of the weapons,” said Gisela Lujan Andrade, CMC representative in Peru. 

The UN Development Programme provided extensive support for the conference, and UN agencies attending the conference emphasized UN support for the Oslo Process and a new international instrument on cluster munitions as an urgent priority, and reiterated the UN call for a freeze on use of cluster munitions until a new instrument is in place.

Notes to editors:

o     A total of 25 representatives of non-governmental organizations from 14 countries (including 10 in the region) participated in the conference.  The Cluster Munition Coalition held a civil society forum on the day before the conference started. 

o     Norway launched the process aimed at new treaty prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians in February 2007.  Peru hosted a follow-on conference in May 2007, during which a draft treaty text was discussed.  Serbia will host a conference for states affected by cluster munitions on 3-4 October 2007.  Discussions on the treaty text will take place in Vienna, Austria in December 2007 and Wellington, New Zealand in February 2008, with formal negotiations slated for Dublin, Ireland in May 2008.

o     Cluster munitions are weapons that can disperse up to several hundreds of smaller submunitions – sometimes referred to as “bomblets” - over wide areas. They have indiscriminate wide area effects that kill and injure civilians during attacks and they leave severe and lasting humanitarian and development consequences from large quantities of post-conflict unexploded ordnance.

o     Following the meeting in Latin America Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela are participating in the Oslo Process.

o     At least 75 countries stockpile cluster munitions and 34 are known to have produced more than 210 types of cluster munitions. 14 states have used cluster munitions in at least 29 countries and territories.

o     The CMC is an international network of over 200 civil society organisations in 50 countries committed to protecting civilians from the effects of cluster munitions. Members of the CMC network work together on an international campaign calling on governments to conclude a new international treaty banning cluster munitions by 2008.  More information on the CMC is available online at http://www.stopclustermunitions.org.

For additional information, contact:

Steve Goose, CMC co-chair, +1-540-630-3011 (cell) (English)

Gisela Lujan Andrade, CMC representative in Peru, + (506) 363 7142 (cell) (Spanish, English)

Maria Pia Devoto, CMC representative in Argentina, + (506) 363 7142 (cell) (Spanish, English)