Laos hosts meeting on cluster bomb ban
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
COUNTRIES from across Southeast Asia gathered yesterday in Laos for the start of a conference on cluster bombs ahead of a ban due to be signed by over 100 nations in Oslo in December.
The United Nations welcomed the South East Asia Regional Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, saying the weapons "cause human suffering both during conflicts and long after they have ended".
International campaigners and regional officials were meeting in the country that during the Vietnam war became the most heavily bombed nation on earth per head of population and remains littered with so-called "bombies".
The convention would prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
The United Nations said in a statement that, "The Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic), with the unenviable experience of being the most bombed country per capita in the world, is consequently the most cluster munitions affected country in the world."
Cluster bombs, dropped from aeroplanes or fired from artillery, explode in mid-air to randomly scatter hundreds of tennis ball-sized bomblets over areas the size of football fields.
US bombers targeting communist forces flew about 80,000 missions over Laos in the 1960s and 70s and dropped over two million tonnes of explosives, more than were dropped in Europe during World War II, according to UN.
Many of the bombs and bombies failed to explode, leaving the poverty-stricken country littered with countless de-facto landmines.
The UN said the munitions have "continued to injure and kill an average of 300 Lao people every year over the last decade".AFP
The United Nations welcomed the South East Asia Regional Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, saying the weapons "cause human suffering both during conflicts and long after they have ended".
International campaigners and regional officials were meeting in the country that during the Vietnam war became the most heavily bombed nation on earth per head of population and remains littered with so-called "bombies".
The convention would prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
The United Nations said in a statement that, "The Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic), with the unenviable experience of being the most bombed country per capita in the world, is consequently the most cluster munitions affected country in the world."
Cluster bombs, dropped from aeroplanes or fired from artillery, explode in mid-air to randomly scatter hundreds of tennis ball-sized bomblets over areas the size of football fields.
US bombers targeting communist forces flew about 80,000 missions over Laos in the 1960s and 70s and dropped over two million tonnes of explosives, more than were dropped in Europe during World War II, according to UN.
Many of the bombs and bombies failed to explode, leaving the poverty-stricken country littered with countless de-facto landmines.
The UN said the munitions have "continued to injure and kill an average of 300 Lao people every year over the last decade".AFP
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