11 May 2007

Sveriges Radio, transcript of interview of Mikael Odenberg by Thomas Nash, CMC

Tough international criticism of Odenberg’s views on cluster bombs

The Swedish cluster bomb, the Bombkapsel 90, is harmful to civilians, despite contrary claims by the Swedish Defence Minister Mikael Odenberg on Thursday. This is what the international organisation CMC claims. CMC is campaigning for a prohibition on all cluster munitions.

Thomas Nash at the international organisation CMC is working for an international ban on all cluster munitions.

”It is absurd to claim to be working towards a ban on cluster munitions, but that it will not include the Swedish Bombkapsel 90” says Thomas Nash at the Cluster Munitions Coalition, a network that a number of respected organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are involved in.

”Bombkapsel 90 scatters explosives over a wide area without consideration of who will be hit and leaves an unacceptable amount of unexploded submunitions behind” says Nash.

”A safe weapon”

A cluster munition is a bomb that spreads a large amount of submunitions, and all of the parties in the Swedish parliament agreed on Thursday to work towards a ban on cluster bombs.

However Defence Minister Mikael Odenberg said immediately afterwards that it does not include Bombkapsel 90 since it is a safe weapon. 

”It is a type of cluster weapon with high reliability levels and does not leave behind unexploded submunitions that risk harming innocent civilians” said the Defence Minister Mikael Odenberg.

”I would like to challenge the Swedish Defence Minister to wander through the fields where the so-called safe cluster bombs have been dropped” says Thomas Nash, who has done just that in Lebanon. Even bombs with so-called self-destruct mechanisms leave behind far too many unexploded submunitions.

Act as landmines

Even with a failure rate of one percent – the figures that the Defence Manufacturers provide – after a large bombing campaign this could mean thousands of unexploded submunitions that remain. In practice they work like landmines” says Nash.

”A large number of civilians have been killed and injured even as a result of the so-called reliable cluster bombs” says Thomas Nash from the international organisation CMC.

He is deeply disappointed with the Swedish government and says that Sweden must now decide whether it is behind a ban or will remain outside, aligning itself with countries like the US, China and Russia.