Will Cluster Bombs Be Banned?
Russia's military offensive to assert authority over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions is having profound internat
Thecampaign to ban cluster munitions is a descendant of the campaign toban landmines and includes many of the same people. As in their earliereffort with landmines, the cluster bomb campaigners want aninternational treaty banning their use. Steve Goosehelped found the Campaign to Ban Cluster Munitions, a coalition ofhuman rights and peace activists that is the prime non-governmentalorganization behind the anti-cluster bomb movement. He says these bombsare insidious weapons that indiscriminately kill or maim civilians. "When hundreds, sometimes thousand, ofsub-munitions are released from individual bombs, they spread out overan area that sometimes covers several football fields, and you cannottarget them precisely or even closely to your military objective," saysGoose. "So when they are used in areas where either civilians are orwhere civilians might return to in the future, you end up withpredictable and excessive numbers of civilian casualties." Why Oppose a Ban? But as was the case with the landminetreaty, major military powers like the United States, Russia, and China-- all of which make, sell and, in some cases, have used clustermunitions -- oppose a ban. Richard Kidd, Director of the U.S. StateDepartment's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, says clusterbombs are a necessary tool in a nation's military arsenal. "By the lawsof physics, chemistry and geometry, the cluster munition is the mostefficient way of delivering conventional munitions onto an areatarget," says Kidd. "Area targets will be a feature on all futurebattlefields. And so the military utility of the cluster munition isreally not in doubt. What the issue is, is can we preserve that utilitywhile making the munition safer for civilians? And the answer is,'Yes.'" Incoldly descriptive military prose, cluster bombs are air-dropped orground-launched munitions that eject hundreds of smaller sub-munitions,or "bomblets," over a wide area. The bomblets then spray the area withpellets or other anti-personnel or anti-tank munitions. Iraqi soldierswho were at the receiving end of U.S. cluster bombs in the 1991 PersianGulf War called them "steel rain." The United States used these weaponsextensively during the Vietnam War and in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.NATO dropped cluster bombs on the former Yugoslavia during the 1990sand U.S.-led forces used them in Afghanistan to help rout the rulingTaliban in 1991. Russia has been accused of using these weapons inChechnya and Israel dropped cluster bombs on Lebanon in 2006. Steve Goose, who also is Executive Directorof the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, says cluster bombs pose athreat even after they hit the ground. "It's related to the campaign to banlandmines, particularly in that one of the two major objectionablefeatures of cluster munitions is that if they don't work like they aresupposed to -- that is, if they don't explode on impact -- they, inessence, become little anti-personnel landmines because they areusually still armed, making them highly hazardous," says Goose. "If youtouch them, kick them, pick them up, do other things, they willexplode. But cluster munitions have not been used nearly as much aslandmines were. This campaign is in many respects a preventivecampaign." But the State Department's Richard Kidddismisses comparisons between landmines and cluster bombs. He sayscluster bombs are not bad if used responsibly, and that efforts areunderway to make them safer, so they explode when they are supposed to. "One,cluster munitions have nowhere near the humanitarian impact oflandmines. Two, cluster munitions have a demonstrated military utility.And with new technology, that military utility is actually going toincrease as we add guidance, redundant fuses, et cetera. And third,also, the prospect of this new technology will make the weapon evensafer than it is today," says Kidd. "Cleaning Up the Mess" The exact number of unexploded clusterbombs lying around is unknown. The Cluster Munitions Coalition saysthere are no verifiable figures on the number of civilians killed orinjured by cluster bombs, but that the casualties are substantial. The United States is creating a "quickreaction force" of explosives experts to handle threats from leftovermunitions around the world. According to the State Department, the U.S.spent $65 million last year to defuse landmines and cluster bombs, butonly $1.5 million went specifically for cleaning up unexploded clustermunitions -- mostly in Laos and Lebanon. U.S. officials say the small amount spentreflects the small danger posed by unexploded cluster bombs. RichardKidd says there are other, more pressing humanitarian issues thancluster munitions. "While wedon't want to be dismissive of any loss of life, because every loss istragic and every life is sacred, when we have to make resourcedecisions about where and how we apply funds to prevent humanitarianharm, there are a lot of other areas that are actually higher prioritythan cluster munitions," says Kidd. ButSteve Goose says the United States needs to not just treat the problem,but to find a solution. "Like with landmines, the U.S. has put a hugeamount of money into trying to clean up the mess," says Goose. "Butalso like landmines, cleaning up the mess is not enough. You've got togo after the cause and not just try to clean up after yourself." Dublin Prospects Kidd says the United States believes thatanother forum, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, is theproper place to discuss the issue. But Goose argues that process is fartoo slow, a charge that Kidd denies. Goose says that even though the UnitedStates is among several nations spurning the Dublin conference nextweek, it is at least willing to talk about restrictions on clustermunitions. He says that in the end, a treaty on cluster munitions canaffect international behavior, even among countries that do not signit. "Even ifthey stay away, we think that this process has been and will continueto establish a new standard of behavior, a new international normagainst this weapon that stigmatizes it, that makes even those who havenot joined the treaty act largely in accordance with it. This is one ofthe key lessons we've learned from the landmine treaty," says Goose. Organizers of the Dublin conference hope toend up with a treaty that bans the use, production, stockpiling andtransfer of cluster munitions that will be signed by participatinggovernments in Oslo in December. However, some participatinggovernments such as Britain have reservations about the draft languageand are looking to revise the treaty during negotiations.