More than 110 countries met in Wellington, New Zealand, last week at a conference to draw up a treaty banning cluster munitions.
Among cluster bomb survivors who demonstrated outside the meeting were Branislav Kapetanovic (right), a Serbian who was hurt while clearing mines, and Ahmed Yassin Najem (left), an Iraqi civilian who was hurt in Basra in 1991.
The demonstrators who carried placards saying, “Shame on UK, France, Japan, Germany and Denmark,” claimed that these countries were at the core of a group of 14 countries that had tried to water down the provisions in various ways—such as limiting the definition of cluster munitions or allowing for a 10 year transition period, so that countries could continue to use their existing arsenals.
Participants said that 10-40% of the bomblets released by cluster bombs fail to detonate, posing a threat to civilians.
Several major producers and buyers of cluster bombs failed to attend the conference, however. They included the United States, Israel, Russia, and China.
Jody Williams, professor of social work and global justice at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, USA, who received the 1997 Nobel peace prize for her work towards the landmine ban, addressed both the meeting and the cluster bomb survivors demonstrating outside. She told the BMJ, “With this important meeting the world is one step closer to an international treaty banning cluster munitions.”
Final diplomatic negotiations on the proposed convention are scheduled for May 2008 in Ireland.
See www.banadvocates.org.