Ban Cluster Munitions

cluster bomb victim

Israel cluster bomb, Lebanon, 2006

"Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi have been firing into residential neighborhoods in this embattled city with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to witnesses and survivors, as well as physical evidence.

Both of these indiscriminate weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature cannot be fired precisely. When fired into populated areas they place civilians at grave risk.

The United States has used cluster munitions itself, in battlefield situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in a strike on suspected militants in Yemen in 2009."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/world/africa/16libya.html?_r=1&hp

More than 50 international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Mennonite Central Committee, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Committee to Ban Landmines have called for a moratorium on cluster bomb use. 

The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions over an area. 

As of 14 March 2011, 56 states have ratified it and another 52 have signed but not yet ratified it. 

France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the UK are among the states that have ratified, whilst Brazil, China, India, Israel, Libya, Pakistan, Russia and the United States have not signed the Convention. 

They should move to do so immediately.