Taking action against cluster bombs

“The BL 755 [cluster munitions] is a system that was designed to cope with some of the very large area targets that might have been encountered on the Central Front, especially large Warsaw Pact armoured formations of Regimental strength (90+ tanks) or more”.

Ariel view of corner of 5 th Avenue and Central Park, New York

The delivery of 78,000 UK cluster bombs in the course of the Kosovo conflict: “may have resulted in the destruction of as few as 30 major items of military equipment (tanks, AP carriers, Artillery).” General Sir Hugh Beech, Institute of Strategic Studies

A US manufactured air-dropped cluster munition container and bomblet at a watering hole in Budib, Western Sahara.

“Everyday when we come to pick the little tobacco that is left we find new cluster munitions. This stops us from harvesting. We have lost our season”, Fatima Hussein, farmer, Touline in Southern Lebanon.

An artillery-delivered cluster bomblet with a failed self destruct mechanism in Southern Lebanon.

Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) can fire 12 x M26 rockets containing 7,768 submunitions from its rocket pods at the press of a button.

The UK fired 98,000 Israeli manufactured M85 submunitons in and around Basra, Iraq in March Six year old Abdullah was injured during a cluster munition strike on a residential area of Basra. Shrapnel smashed through the window of his home, cut off his arm and tore open his abdomen.

In May 2008 the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), was negotiated and adopted by 107 countries

Zambia’s Foreign Minister signing the Treaty in the signing ceremony in Oslo

“Only a few years ago, many people said it was an impossible dream to ban cluster bombs,” said Branislav Kapetanovic a CMC spokesperson who lost all four limbs to a cluster submunition during a clearance operation in Serbia. “What this treaty shows is that ordinary people, including cluster bomb survivors like me, can be a part of extraordinary changes that bring real improvements to people’s lives all over the world.” On 1 August 2010, the Convention on Cluster Munitions formally entered into force and all of its provisions became fully and legally binding for the countries that had signed and ratified it.

In joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions, states increase the stigmatization of use and production, helping to prevent possible harm to their own, and other citizens, by this weapon. Cluster bombs earmarked for destruction in Lao PDR, the most cluster bomb contaminated country in the world

Current status of the CCM Globally, more than half the world has joined the Convention. The number of new cluster munition casualties has reduced annually since the Convention came into force and significant progress has been made in preventing further tragedies through the destruction of cluster munition stockpiles and clearance of affected areas, as well as support for cluster munition victims.

Take Action! Has your government joined the treaty? Spread the word against cluster bombs. Don’t let another life or limb be lost.