| CLUSTER BOMB OVERVIEW What are cluster bombs? Cluster bombs (cluster munitions) are large weapons which are deployed from the air by aircraft including fighters, bombers and helicopters. These bombs open in mid-air and release dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions. Submunitions released by air-dropped cluster bombs are most often called "bomblets,” while those delivered from the ground are usually referred to as "grenades.". First, their wide-area effect virtually guarantees civilian casualties when they are used in populated areas. Second, many of the submunitions do not explode on impact as designed, causing civilian casualties for months or years to come. What are the problems with this weapon? First, their widespread deployment means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme when the weapon is used in or near populated areas.
Many bomblets also fail to detonate on impact and become de facto landmines, killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended. These duds are more lethal than antipersonnel mines; incidents involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury. Who has used cluster munitions? At least 14 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, UK, US, and FR Yugoslavia. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon (such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006). Billions of submunitions are stockpiled by some 76 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have produced over 210 different types cluster munitions. At least 24 countries have been affected by the use of cluster munitions including Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uganda, and Vietnam. Why is a ban on cluster munitions necessary? Cluster munitions kill and injure too many civilians. The weapon caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system.
Cluster munitions stand out as the weapon that poses the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Yet there is currently no provision in international law to specifically address problems caused by cluster munitions. Israel's massive use of the weapon in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as the catalyst that has propelled governments to attempt to secure a legally-binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions in 2008. What is the Oslo Process? In February 2007, forty-six governments met in Oslo to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude a new legally binding instrument in 2008 that prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm TO CIVILIANS and provides adequate resources to assist survivors and clear contaminated areas.
Subsequent International Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007), Austria (December 2007), New Zealand (February 2008), and Ireland (May 2008). The treaty text was adopted in Dublin by 107 countries and opened for signature in Oslo on December 3, 2008. What is the Cluster Munition Coalition? The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is a global network of over 250 civil society organisations working in 70 countries to end the harm caused by cluster bombs. Launched in November 2003, the CMC is campaigning for the diplomatic Oslo Process to result in a strong international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions. UNA-USA, through its Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign, and in its role as Chair of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs, is a member of the CMC and has attended the Oslo Process conferences as a delegate of the CMC. CLUSTER BOMB FACTS - Cluster munitions severely disrupt the lives and livelihoods of 400 million people worldwide
- 85 percent of cluster bomb casualties are civilians and 23 percent are children
One cluster bomb contains hundreds of bomblets (or submunitions) and typically scatters them across an area the size of 2-4 football fields
- Bomblets are small, often the size of a 'D' battery or a tennis ball and have a failure rate of up to 30 percent; unexploded bomblets become de facto landmines
- At least 75 countries around the world stockpile cluster munitions and 34 are known to have produced more than 210 types of cluster munitions
- Cluster bombs impede economic development, restrict access to water and deprive children of safe access to education
- Cluster munitions have been used in at least 30 countries and territories
- The global stockpile of cluster bomb submunitions totals approximately 4 billion, with a quarter of these in U.S. hands
- Unexploded bomblets were responsible for the death of nearly 10% of the U.S. fatalities in the Gulf War
- The United States dropped 19 million in Cambodia, 70 million in Vietnam and 208 million in Laos
- The U.S. executed over 580,000 bombing missions over Laos, dropping, on average, an entire planeload of bombs every eight minutes, around the clock, for nine years.
- The most cluster contaminated areas are in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Kosovo and Vietnam.
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