Forty-six nations adopted a declaration on Friday calling for a 2008 treaty banning cluster bombs, saying the weapons, which kill and maim long after conflicts end, inflict “unacceptable harm” on civilians.
Some key arms makers — including the United States, Russia, Israel and China — snubbed the conference of 49 nations. Of those attending, Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final text.
But organisers said the declaration was needed despite the absence of key nations to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster posed by unexploded cluster munitions.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the conference surpassed expectations. “We are now ready to move ahead towards an international ban on cluster munitions,” he said.
Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas, with some failing to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years after conflicts end until they are disturbed, often by civilians.
Activists say children can be attracted to the unexploded bombs by their small size, shape and bright colours. As many as 60% of the victims in South-East Asia are children, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition campaign group.
The weapons have recently been used in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the campaign group said. The United Nations estimated that Israel dropped as many as four million bomblets in southern Lebanon during last year’s war with Hezbollah, with as many as 40% failing to explode on impact.
“Israel used no munitions that were outlawed by international treaties or international law” in the Lebanon conflict, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev. He said that if the declaration ever evolved into a treaty, then Israel would examine it and decide how to respond.
Norway hopes the treaty would be similar to one outlawing anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.
While the document is non-binding, organisers and activists hope it will pressure nations into halting the use of cluster bombs by stigmatising the weapons.
Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen said countries such as Japan, Poland and Romania — like the key arms makers — question the need for talks outside the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons process. He said it was not the intent of the Oslo meeting to undermine that effort, but to push the process forward.
The US, China and Russia have refused to sign the landmine treaty and oppose the Norwegian initiative on cluster bombs. They did not send representatives to the meeting. Australia, Israel, India and Pakistan also did not attend.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said cluster bombs “do have a place and a use in military inventories”, and that the US had spent about $-billion over the past decade or so to help clean up unexploded munitions in East Asia, south-east Europe and the Middle East.
“We have taken very seriously the international discussion with respect to the threat posed by unexploded ordnance to innocent civilians,” McCormack said.
Nevertheless, activists said they were pleased by the outcome of the Oslo meeting, especially with sceptical countries such as Germany, Britain and Canada accepting the declaration.
“Countries that we thought would walk away from these proceedings have decided to support them,” said Simon Conway, of Britain’s Landmine Action group.
American activist Jody Williams, who shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for the campaign to ban landmines, urged nations supporting a cluster-bomb treaty to move ahead even without the support of the major powers.
“They should do it the same way, with countries that realise that there are 191 countries in the world, and not just three,” she said.
The declaration urged nations to “conclude by 2008 a legally binding international instrument” to ban cluster bombs. The treaty would “prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of those cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians”, the declaration said.
It urged countries to take steps at a national level before the treaty takes effect. Norway has already done so, while Austria announced a moratorium on cluster bombs at the start of the conference.
The declaration said work on the cluster-bomb treaty would be carried out in Lima, Peru, in May or June; in Vienna, Austria, in November or December; and in Dublin, Ireland, in early 2008. — Sapa-AP
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