92 Nations, Including Lebanon, Sign Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs
Some 100 nations, including Lebanon, put their names Wednesday to a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs, amid calls for major arms producers such as China, Russia and the United States to join them.
Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months ago, was the first to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons. Britain, formerly a major stockpiler of cluster munitions, also signed the treaty.
"This is a historic day when a majority of states are committing to ban cluster munitions, making a new international norm that will make a considerable difference for thousands and thousands of people all over the world," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after signing the treaty in Oslo.
The anti-cluster bomb campaign gathered momentum after Israel”s monthlong war against Hizbullah in 2006, when it scattered up to 4 million bomblets across Lebanon, according to U.N. figures.
"In southern Lebanon, for more than two years, children and the elderly have been victimized (by cluster munitions)," Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said.
Norway called a conference to ban cluster bombs in February 2007. In May, more than 100 countries agreed in Ireland to ban cluster bombs within eight years.
Dropped from warplanes or fired from artillery guns, cluster bombs explode in mid-air to randomly scatter hundreds of bomblets, which can be just eight centimeters big.
Many bomblets fail to explode, littering war zones with de facto landmines that can kill and maim long after a conflict ends.
Worldwide, about 100,000 people have been killed or maimed by cluster bombs since 1965, 98 percent of them civilians, according to campaign group Handicap International.
More than a quarter of the victims are children who mistake the bomblets for toys or tin cans.
Stoere said 92 countries signed the treaty on Wednesday. Organizers hoped more than 100 of the 125 countries represented would have signed by the end of the conference on Thursday.
Thomas Nash, coordinator of The Cluster Bomb Coalition, noted that 18 of 26 NATO countries are signing it, including Britain.
"We hope to see more states signing in the coming weeks, the coming months, the coming years," Stoere said, lamenting that the world”s biggest producers and users of cluster bombs have refused to sign the ban.
"Of course, (the treaty) would have been a stronger instrument if we had the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan and India onboard. No doubt about it," he said.
"We have to put friendly pressure on them to sign," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters, adding "I have no doubt they will do it someday."
Despite the absence of key countries, opponents of cluster bombs say the treaty — also known as the Oslo Convention — should help stigmatize the use of such weapons even by non-signatory countries.
"The treaty places moral obligations on all states not to use cluster munitions," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.
In a surprise turnaround, Afghanistan said Wednesday it would sign the Oslo Convention after it had been seen as bowing to U.S. pressure to refrain.
Before it can go into effect, the treaty must be ratified by the parliaments of at least 30 countries.