Cluster Bombs - an arms control paradox


CLUSTER BOMBS An Arms Control Paradox	Northern Friends Peace Board Challenging Militarism Project Signpost leaflet - November 2002 (click here for PDF version, 26KB)

“...cluster bombs provide us with an essential military capability that it would not be in the UK's interest for us to forgo. Calls for a moratorium on the use of cluster bombs do not place adequate weight on their military utility...”

MoD Proliferation & Arms Control Secretariat

“There were three of us going to school. We saw small yellow things on the ground. I picked one up and it exploded. It looked like a biscuit.”

Samim Ahsanullah. 8-year-old cluster bomb victim, Afghanistan ⁽¹⁾

“I went with my cousins to see the place where NATO bombed. As we walked I saw something yellow - someone told me it was a cluster bomb. One of us took it and put it into a well. Nothing happened. Later I went back to the bomb and put it in this position [vertical]. We began talking about taking the bomb to play with and then I just put it somewhere and it exploded. The boy near me died and I was thrown a metre in the air. The boy who died was 14 - he had his head cut off.”

13-year-old boy in Pristina Hospital, after double leg amputation ⁽²⁾

CLUSTER WEAPONS: IMPACT ON CIVILIANS

The use of cluster bombs in Kosovo and Afganistan focussed world attention on the danger posed to civilians by these weapons. Cluster bombs are one type of unexploded weapons, or Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) which can be left behind after a conflict. ERW causes death and injury to civilians and wrecks communities by preventing access to land and pursuit of normal life and livelihood. Landmine Action and other NGOs identify cluster weapons as a particularly severe cause of these dangers and difficulties.

The UK Government is currently participating in discussions under the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) to explore new ways of tackling the hazards of ERW, including cluster bombs.

A CONFLICT OF POLICIES ?

Through its role in the CCW talks, the Government states that it is
"committed to minimising post-conflict risk to civilians." However, despite calls from the European Parliament and NGOs for a moratorium on cluster bombs, the UK continues to deploy these weapons and related delivery systems.

DESERT STORM, STEEL RAIN

In particular, the British Army has acquired the land-based Multiple Launch Rocket System which fires M77 fragmentation bomblets. This US developed system was first used in Operation 'Desert Storm' in 1991, where, it is reported, these weapons were highly effective in destroying military targets, and came to be known by demoralised Iraqi soldiers as "steel rain". ⁽³⁾

Having been "combat proven", MLRS is now manufactured by a European consortium which includes BAE Systems (Lancashire), and has been ordered by at least thirteen other countries, including Turkey, Israel and South Korea. BAE Systems is also producing what has been described as a "poor man's" version of the system in collaboration with Chile's defence industry.

CONTROL OR PROLIFERATION?

Cluster bombs typically distribute hundreds of 'bomblets', each exploding into hundreds or even thousands of high velocity shrapnel fragments. A standard British cluster bomb produces nearly 300,000 shrapnel shards over an acre and a half, shredding anything exposed to it...a single salvo of a modern multiple-launch rocket system can destroy a small town in less than a minute. ⁽⁴⁾

Cluster weapons are controversial in terms of their use as a weapon. In certain cases, their use in battle may be classified as indiscriminate and therefore potentially illegal under existing international law. As unexploded ordnance, cluster bombs are a threat to innocent civilians and a disaster for post-conflict communities.

While the UK Government is in talks at the UN to find ways to mitigate the post-conflict hazards of unexploded ordnance, the UK arms industry, supported by the Government, is working hard to proliferate the weapons which are indicted as a prime cause of the problem.

References:

1. Michael Steen, US Cluster Bombs Add to Afghan Land Min^ Tragedy. Reuters, 4.12.01.
2. Quoted in: Rae McGrath, Cluster Bombs. UK Working Group on Landmines, August 2000.
3. General Sir Hugh Beach, Cluster Bombs: the Case for New Controls. International Security Information Service, May 2001.
4. Paul Rogers, Losing Control. Pluto Press 2000.

RESOURCES AND ACTION

In the UK, the campaign on cluster weapons and ERW is led by Landmine Action calling for:

an obligation on the users of explosive weapons to clear unexploded ordnance, or fund its clearance, and to provide warnings to civilians
a moratorium on the manufacture and use of cluster weapons until this new international humanitarian law is in place.

For further information and ideas for action contact:

Landmine Action

1st floor

89 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7TP

Tel: 020 7820 0222

Website: www.landmineaction.org

(Landmine Action is a coalition of UK-based charities and agencies which include Quaker Peace and Social Witness).