Move by US, Others to Support Cluster Munitions Fails

GENEVA --- An effort by some countries to legitimize the ongoing use, production, trade, and stockpiling of cluster munitions failed today, in the lead-up to a comprehensive legal ban on the weapon that more than 100 other nations plan to sign in Oslo, Norway on December 3.>> The United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and Finland were among the countries pushing for a new protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) that would allow the use of all existing cluster munitions, including the oldest, most inaccurate, and unreliable varieties, for a period of up to 20 years.>> This draft CCW text would have given a sheen of legitimacy to nations that want to continue to use cluster munitions, said Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch. The nations that rejected it were right.>> A group of 25 states issued a joint statement saying the draft text was not acceptable because it did not achieve humanitarian objectives. Among the 25 were Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, and South Africa. Other states that expressed strong opposition to at least parts of the text were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.>> The objecting countries have supported a separate treaty process that resulted in the successful negotiation and adoption by 107 nations in May 2008 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the weapon. The convention opens for signature in Oslo on December 3, and more than 100 nations are expected to sign, many at the foreign minister level. The treaty will probably enter into force and become binding international law in late 2009 or early 2010 six months after 30 states have ratified it.