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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: Cluster bomb opponents agree to seek ban by next year OSLO (AFP) - Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday have pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on. "Forty-six of 49 countries agreed on this declaration. It is a huge achievement and we are very satisfied," Norway's state secretary for foreign affairs Raymond Johansen told AFP. Japan, Poland and Romania refused to sign the accord, while key nations such as Israel and the United States did not take part in the conference. But, said Johansen, "countries like the UK came on board and that was more than we were expecting." The 46 countries agreed to "commit themselves to ... conclude by 2008 a legally binding international instrument that will prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians," according to the declaration. A number of leading countries, including Britain and France, had previously said they wanted a ban to be part of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), a process which Norway and a number of other nations consider to be a failure. A cluster bomb is a container holding hundreds of smaller bomblets. It opens in mid-air and disperses the bomblets over a large area. The smaller bombs do not always explode on impact, which means they can continue to kill innocent civilians years later. A recent report by Handicap International claimed that 98 percent of casualties from cluster munitions are non-combatants. "We have given ourselves a strict deadline for concluding our efforts. This is ambitious, but we have to respond to the urgency of this humanitarian problem," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. Aid organisations hailed Friday's declaration. "This was an extraordinarily successful conference which exceeded our expectations. The level of participation was very high, 49 countries, all of whom recognized that cluster munitions must be dealt with urgently," Steve Goose, the co-chair of the umbrella group Cluster Munition Coalition, told AFP. "We were very nervous that some of the bigger users and stockpilers would not sign it but in the end the UK, France, Italy, Germany all did come on board," he said. Forty-eight countries took part in the meeting on Thursday. They were joined by Colombia on Friday. Commenting on the refusal by Japan, Poland and Romania to sign the agreement, Goose said all three "recognised the need to work on this but they primarily want to do it through the CCW." Norway and other fierce advocates had wanted to press ahead with a ban even without the support of major users and stockpilers, such as Israel and the United States. Three countries said they would be hosting follow-up meetings. Peru will organise a meeting in Lima May 25-27, Austria in Vienna in November or December 2007, and Ireland in Dublin in early 2008. On Thursday, Austria gave the conference a boost when it announced that it was introducing a unilateral moratorium on cluster bombs by its army. Bosnia-Hercegovina also announced a national ban, the Norwegian foreign ministry said. Cluster munitions are stockpiled by most countries' armies and have often been used in the past 40 years, most recently during the war in Lebanon between Israel and the Hezbollah guerrilla movement. Military commanders view them as an efficient weapon that allows them to target a wide area with a single strike. Aid groups say it is difficult to estimate the number of people injured or killed by cluster bombs, but most agree that tens of thousands of people have lost their limbs or lives
Poster Comment: Something must be wrong here. America nad Israel are bringing democracy to the Mideast and they did not even attend the convention to ban cluster bombs. I am beginning to doubt President Stupid's commitment to democracy and fair play. I am even beginning to doubt his commitment to Christianity. I thought Jesus was opposed to killing children. In fact I think he would oppose the use of Depleted Uranium which has increased childhood cancer 600% in Iraq.
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#2. To: Horse (#0)
...key nations such as Israel and the United States did not take part in the conference. "We were very nervous that some of the bigger users and stockpilers would not sign it but in the end the UK, France, Italy, Germany all did come on board," he said. So here we are once again choosing to isolate ourselves from other civilized nations on a ban which should be common sense.
Yep.
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