Apr 02 2007
Countries Agree to Draft Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs
GUEST: Scott Stedjan is the National Coordinator of the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines and works on arms control and conflict prevention for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).
Earlier this year Norway hosted the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions where nearly 50 country representatives met to discuss the devastating effects of cluster munitions on humans. 46 of the countries represented agreed on a landmark declaration to come up with a comprehensive treaty against cluster bombs by the year 2008. Such a treaty would prohibit the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. Predictably, the United States was distinguished by its absence at the conference. The Oslo meeting will be followed up in Lima, Vienna, and Dublin over the next two years. Last summer, Israel dropped cluster bombs, mostly purchased from the US, in civilian areas of Lebanon. Between 2.6 to 4 million bomblets were estimated to have been left behind. Hundreds of civilians were killed. The US has most recently used cluster bombs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia.
Read Scott Stedjan’s article here: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4103.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation has a website at www.fcnl.org.
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