Clogs cram cluster bomb ban
Reservations over pact: Iraqi men walk by cluster bombs in Najaf, in Iraq, in this file photo. A landmark agreement on a treaty to ban cluster bombs was welcomed by politicians and campaigners yesterday, but some question how effective it can be without the backing from key powers like the US and China.Picture: AFP
Friday, May 30, 2008
AN AGREEMENT banning cluster bombs has cheered human rights campaigners, but powerful military states are refusing to join it and experts say the treaty is riddled with holes and could prove unworkable.
The agreement, to be formalised in Dublin yesterday, commits 111 countries to banning the use of cluster munitions — "bomblets", usually scattered from the air, that detonate like mines.
But the United States, China and Russia have side-stepped the deal, and while Britain and other Nato states champion the ban, the treaty has loopholes that would allow British troops to benefit if an ally like Washington uses the weapons.
"This is an absolutely rock-solid treaty that's going to outlaw a lethal munition," said Mark Garlasco, an analyst at Human Rights Watch, pleased with what he saw as the fruitful outcome of 10 days of talks in the Irish capital.
"This is going to outlaw 99.9 per cent of the cluster munitions out there ... which will stigmatise the weapon even for those countries that aren't signatories to the ban."
Despite that confidence, however, Garlasco and other campaigners acknowledge that the treaty, due to be signed in Oslo in December, has clauses that soften its impact, leaving it with significant moral weight but arguably less substance.
"There are a number of countries that are important military powers that have not signed this treaty," conceded Thomas Nash of umbrella group Cluster Munition Coalition. But he added:
"What you will see is a very profound stigmatisation of this weapon ... Countries like the United States are not going to be able to use cluster munitions in the future without facing a huge public backlash."
The United States, the world's largest military power, has made clear it intends to go on using the bombs when it sees fit. "While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said last Wednesday, adding that to join the ban would put US soldiers' lives at risk. Israel, which made widespread use of cluster bombs during its 2006 war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, has reiterated its intention to go on using them, and India and Pakistan are also notable non-signatories of the treaty. Article 21 of the agreement would let British troops call in US air support that might include planes dropping cluster bombs.Reuters
The agreement, to be formalised in Dublin yesterday, commits 111 countries to banning the use of cluster munitions — "bomblets", usually scattered from the air, that detonate like mines.
But the United States, China and Russia have side-stepped the deal, and while Britain and other Nato states champion the ban, the treaty has loopholes that would allow British troops to benefit if an ally like Washington uses the weapons.
"This is an absolutely rock-solid treaty that's going to outlaw a lethal munition," said Mark Garlasco, an analyst at Human Rights Watch, pleased with what he saw as the fruitful outcome of 10 days of talks in the Irish capital.
"This is going to outlaw 99.9 per cent of the cluster munitions out there ... which will stigmatise the weapon even for those countries that aren't signatories to the ban."
Despite that confidence, however, Garlasco and other campaigners acknowledge that the treaty, due to be signed in Oslo in December, has clauses that soften its impact, leaving it with significant moral weight but arguably less substance.
"There are a number of countries that are important military powers that have not signed this treaty," conceded Thomas Nash of umbrella group Cluster Munition Coalition. But he added:
"What you will see is a very profound stigmatisation of this weapon ... Countries like the United States are not going to be able to use cluster munitions in the future without facing a huge public backlash."
The United States, the world's largest military power, has made clear it intends to go on using the bombs when it sees fit. "While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said last Wednesday, adding that to join the ban would put US soldiers' lives at risk. Israel, which made widespread use of cluster bombs during its 2006 war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, has reiterated its intention to go on using them, and India and Pakistan are also notable non-signatories of the treaty. Article 21 of the agreement would let British troops call in US air support that might include planes dropping cluster bombs.Reuters
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