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FROM THE FIELD

The need for urgent international action on cluster munitions

15 Nov 2006 10:45:00 GMT
Source: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - Switzerland
Dr Philip Spoerri, Director of International Law and Cooperation within in the Movement, ICRC

Website: Website: http://www.icrc.org

As a new treaty comes into force requiring parties to an armed conflict to clear all unexploded and abandoned ordnance that threatens civilians once the fighting is over, States are meeting in Geneva this week to review the use of conventional weapons, including cluster munitions. The International Committee of the Red Cross is at the forefront of efforts to urge States to regulate the use of cluster munitions and address their often-horrific humanitarian consequences.

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For nearly 40 years, cluster munitions have been known to cause high levels of death and injury to civilians during and after armed conflicts. Much of this suffering might have been avoided had other more accurate and reliable weapons been chosen. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) believes that the time has come for strong international action to end the predicable pattern of human tragedy associated with cluster munitions.

States are meeting in Geneva between 7-17 November for the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. This meeting involves all major States which produce, stockpile or use cluster munitions. They should decide that more needs to be done to limit the humanitarian consequences of these weapons.

Indeed, because of their severe and long-term impact on civilian populations, the ICRC has called for a new international humanitarian law agreement to address the humanitarian consequences of cluster munitions. It has also called upon States to immediately end the use of inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions, to eliminate their stocks of such munitions and to not transfer them to other countries. We have reiterated our call that States prohibit the targeting of cluster munitions against any military objective located in a populated area.

History has shown that a large proportion of cluster munitions have problems of accuracy and reliability. Cluster munitions canisters can contain up to 644 individual submunitions generally designed to explode on impact. In reality many of them fail to do so. Large scale employment of these weapons has therefore resulted in the countries or regions concerned being infested with tens of thousands, and sometimes millions, of unexploded and highly unstable submunitions.

Laos and Afghanistan are two countries where cluster munitions used in the 1970s and 1980s continue to kill and injure civilians today. Their presence has made farming a dangerous activity and hindered development. Their clearance consumes scarce national and international resources. After decades of cluster munitions use, both the civilian suffering and the burden of clearing these weapons continue to grow relentlessly, with additional States added to the list of affected countries almost every year or so. These include Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998, Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and this year Lebanon - where there is increasing evidence that the density of cluster submunition contamination may be unprecedented. Reports also indicate that armed non-State actors have begun to have access to these weapons - raising concerns about the implications of their proliferation.

Because cluster munitions are "area weapons", the ICRC is also concerned about their use in populated areas. Once deployed against a target, a cluster munition will release its submunitions over an area of up to several thousand square metres. The accuracy of some models is highly dependent on wind, weather conditions, and complex delivery systems, often hitting areas other than the military objective targeted. These characteristics raise serious questions as to whether such weapons can be used in populated areas in accordance with the general rules of international humanitarian law, such as the rules of distinction, proportionality and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.

After the Kosovo conflict in 2000, the ICRC called for a ban on the use of cluster munitions in populated areas. It also launched an initiative for an international treaty on explosive remnants of war, which was concluded by States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 2003. The Protocol on Explosive Remnants of WarÂwhich came into force on 12 November 2006Â provides an important framework for reducing the post-conflict threats to civilians caused by unexploded or abandoned ordnance. However, it does not contain restrictions on the use of cluster munitions or specific requirements to reduce their failure rate.

The ICRC does not take lightly its decision to call for regulation of a specific weapon. However, history has shown that the severe and disproportionate human costs of some weapons, and the inconsistent application of general rules to those weapons, produces a need for weapon-specific rules. The international community has had four decades to address the specific problems of cluster munitions through corrective action. Yet the familiar pattern of civilian suffering from their use continues to repeat itself. It is time for decisive action to address this situation.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Wed Nov 15 11:38:58 2006