A landmark international treaty banning the use and stockpiling of the highly controversial cluster bombs has been adopted, Tamam Ahmed Jama reports Hailed as a "big step forward to make the world a safer place" by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a treaty banning cluster bombs was agreed in Dublin last week. Following 12 days of talks in the Irish capital, a total of 111 nations signed the treaty which bans the manufacture, use, transfer and stockpiling of all current designs of the deadly munitions. "Rarely have we seen such single-minded determination to conclude a convention with such high humanitarian goals in such a concentrated period of time," said Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin in his closing remarks to the conference. Notable absentees from the international delegation that gathered in Dublin include some of the world's leading producers of the controversial munitions, chief among them the United States, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. Cluster bombs, which are generally dropped from planes but also fired from artillery, are made of large containers which open in mid-air, releasing hundreds of smaller individual mini-bombs or bomblets that scatter across wide areas. First used during World War II and now a critical component of US air and artillery power, cluster bombs have been responsible for killing and maiming countless civilians in conflict zones around the world. The bomblets have a high rate, up to 40 per cent, of failure to explode upon contact with the ground -- leaving behind a lasting deadly legacy which continues to be felt long after they are dropped. In Vietnam, more than three decades after the cessation of hostilities, an estimated 300 people die each year and many more are injured as a result of unexploded cluster bombs used during the conflict. UN experts estimate that the Israeli air raids in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 left behind one million unexploded cluster bombs. Children, who pick up the lethal weapons and try to play with them, thinking that they are toys, are often the victims. Proponents of the use of cluster bombs, including the US, argue that the controversial weapons have an overriding military value. Explaining America's absence from the talks, the Pentagon released this statement: "While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster bombs have demonstrated military utility and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk." A decade ago, the Ottawa Treaty, signed in the Canadian capital, banned the use of anti-personnel landmines. Although cluster bombs also result in staggering civilian casualties, both in deaths and in serious injuries, they are not covered by any legally binding international norms. The Norwegian government launched negotiations in February 2007 for a global ban on cluster bombs. In February this year, 120 nations met in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, in what was seen as a pivotal step in the Oslo Process to put cluster bombs beyond use. In that meeting, New Zealand disarmament ambassador Don Mackay described the impact of cluster bombs as an "unacceptable harm to civilians." Campaigners are dismayed that major producers and stockpilers boycotted the talks, but hope that there will be sufficient international pressure to stigmatise the use of cluster bombs as much as landmines and lead to their effective obsolescence, even among nations which decide to hang on to their stockpiles. "We're certain that those nations thinking of using the munitions won't want to face the international condemnation that will rain down upon them because the weapons have now been stigmatised," said Steve Goose, spokesman for Cluster Munitions Coalition. Norwegian Deputy Minister of Defence Epsen Barth Eide echoed Goose's sentiments regarding the potential deterrence impact of the treaty: "Any military nation [thinking of] using cluster bombs tomorrow or next week or next month, should think twice now because of what has happened in Dublin today," he said. The draft treaty will be signed in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in December and ratifications by individual states will follow. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon welcomed the adoption of the treaty, which he said set a "new international standard", and urged all nations to sign and ratify it. The treaty requires signatories that have cluster bombs to destroy their stocks in eight years. Brown announced that the UK was going to scrap all cluster bombs in its arsenal. Of concern to the UK are cluster munitions in American stockpiles housed in bases in Britain. The concern is equally valid for a number of other European nations, including Germany, that have signed the treaty but have American military bases on their soil. The treaty opens the road to the possibility of European allies requiring that America remove cluster bombs from stocks in US bases in their countries. It was not immediately clear whether the treaty would stop nations like Australia and Britain from fighting alongside America if the US intends to use cluster bombs in the future. The treaty contains provisions aimed at mobilising international efforts to assist victims and clear areas contaminated by unexploded cluster munitions, including southern Lebanon. Delegates at the conference heard from victims, many of them missing limbs, who gave emotional testimonies of their experiences. Soraj Ghulam Habib, an Afghani teen who lost both legs when he was just 10, reacted to the adoption of the treaty with relief. "I hope that cluster munitions will never again be used by any state."
