Together We Can Ban Cluster Bombs

November 13, 2008, BBC

Movement to Ban Cluster Bombs Gains Momentum

November 4, 2008 by Voice of America

by Lisa Schlein

Activists are urging governments to sign an international treaty to ban the use, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs one month from now in Oslo. The Cluster Munition Coalition says global momentum is growing to put an end to these weapons, which the group says mainly maim and kill civilians. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

[Cbu97 Cluster Bomb]Cbu97 Cluster Bomb A Group of Governmental Experts is meeting at the United Nations to negotiate a treaty on cluster munitions. The agreement aims at striking, what it calls, a balance between military and humanitarian considerations.

The Cluster Munition Coalition calls the process flawed. It says the draft text being discussed will do nothing to stop the death and destruction from cluster bombs. It says the text proposes a 13 to 20-year transition period in which States would be able to continue to use, produce, stock pile and trade these weapons.

On the other hand, Coordinator of the Coalition, Thomas Nash, says the Oslo treaty offers a holistic solution because it will ban an entire category of weaponry before it gets out of control.

“It has been largely preventive in nature,” he said. “Unlike the landmine problem, which spread to around 80, 90 countries before an international treaty was agreed to prohibit that weapon. So far, cluster munitions have only affected-I say only, it is already too much of a problem, but, only around 32 States or territories have been affected. So, in many ways, we are acting before the problem gets to the scale of landmines. Far too many people have been killed or injured by this weapon. ”

The Coalition says about 76 countries have stockpiled cluster bombs. It says it is the billions of sub-munitions contained within these weapons that create all the damage. It says the U.S., with nearly one billion sub-munitions, possesses the biggest arsenal in the world.

It says 34 countries produce cluster bombs. The biggest producers are the United States, Russia and China. Others include Britain, Germany, France, Israel and Brazil. It says the number of victims is unknown, but may be in the hundreds of thousands.

About 100 countries are expected to sign the Oslo Treaty next month. The U.S., Russia and China are major holdouts. Co-Chair of the Coalition, Steve Goose, agrees this is problematic. But, says it will not lessen the impact of the agreement.

“We believe in the power of the stigma against the weapon,” said Steve Goose. “We have seen this very clearly with anti-personnel landmines. That same litany of States that we just ran through-U.S., Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel-none of those States are part of the landmine treaty either 10 years later. And, yet, we see that the stigma of the weapon has had a very powerful deterrent affect on those States.”

Goose says the United States has not used, produced and traded in landmines since the treaty was signed. And, it has destroyed millions of its stockpiles.

He says almost none of the 39 countries that did not join the agreement have used this weapon. He says Burma was the only State that used landmines in any significant way last year.

He says even those States that stay outside the treaty have to bend to the new standard of behavior that is being established internationally.

(UK) August 14 2008
http://tinyurl.com/6lqc9c

This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression

War in the Caucasus is as much the product of an American imperial drive as local conflicts. It’s likely to be a taste of things to come.

By Seumas Milne
The Guardian

The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered”. George Bush denounced Russia for having “invaded a sovereign neighbouring state” and threatening “a democratic government”. Such an action, he insisted, “is unacceptable in the 21st century”.

Could these by any chance be the leaders of the same governments that in 2003 invaded and occupied — along with Georgia, as luck would have it — the sovereign state of Iraq on a false pretext at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives? Or even the two governments that blocked a ceasefire in the summer of 2006 as Israel pulverised Lebanon’s infrastructure and killed more than a thousand civilians in retaliation for the capture or killing of five soldiers?

You’d be hard put to recall after all the fury over Russian aggression that it was actually Georgia that began the war last Thursday with an all-out attack on South Ossetia to “restore constitutional order” — in other words, rule over an area it has never controlled since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nor, amid the outrage at Russian bombardments, have there been much more than the briefest references to the atrocities committed by Georgian forces against citizens it claims as its own in South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali. Several hundred civilians were killed there by Georgian troops last week, along with Russian soldiers operating under a 1990s peace agreement: “I saw a Georgian soldier throw a grenade into a basement full of women and children,” one Tskhinvali resident, Saramat Tskhovredov, told reporters on Tuesday.

Might it be because Georgia is what Jim Murphy, Britain’s minister for Europe, called a “small beautiful democracy”. Well it’s certainly small and beautiful, but both the current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and his predecessor came to power in western-backed coups, the most recent prettified as a “Rose revolution”. Saakashvili was then initially rubber-stamped into office with 96% of the vote before establishing what the International Crisis Group recently described as an “increasingly authoritarian” government, violently cracking down on opposition dissent and independent media last November. “Democratic” simply seems to mean “pro-western” in these cases.

The long-running dispute over South Ossetia — as well as Abkhazia, the other contested region of Georgia — is the inevitable consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union. As in the case of Yugoslavia, minorities who were happy enough to live on either side of an internal boundary that made little difference to their lives feel quite differently when they find themselves on the wrong side of an international state border.

Such problems would be hard enough to settle through negotiation in any circumstances. But add in the tireless US promotion of Georgia as a pro-western, anti-Russian forward base in the region, its efforts to bring Georgia into Nato, the routing of a key Caspian oil pipeline through its territory aimed at weakening Russia’s control of energy supplies, and the US-sponsored recognition of the independence of Kosovo — whose status Russia had explicitly linked to that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia — and conflict was only a matter of time.

The CIA has in fact been closely involved in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. But under the Bush administration, Georgia has become a fully fledged US satellite. Georgia’s forces are armed and trained by the US and Israel. It has the third-largest military contingent in Iraq — hence the US need to airlift 800 of them back to fight the Russians at the weekend. Saakashvili’s links with the neoconservatives in Washington are particularly close: the lobbying firm headed by US Republican candidate John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has been paid nearly $900,000 by the Georgian government since 2004.

But underlying the conflict of the past week has also been the Bush administration’s wider, explicit determination to enforce US global hegemony and prevent any regional challenge, particularly from a resurgent Russia. That aim was first spelled out when Cheney was defence secretary under Bush’s father, but its full impact has only been felt as Russia has begun to recover from the disintegration of the 1990s.

Over the past decade, Nato’s relentless eastward expansion has brought the western military alliance hard up against Russia’s borders and deep into former Soviet territory. American military bases have spread across eastern Europe and central Asia, as the US has helped install one anti-Russian client government after another through a series of colour-coded revolutions. Now the Bush administration is preparing to site a missile defence system in eastern Europe transparently targeted at Russia.

By any sensible reckoning, this is not a story of Russian aggression, but of US imperial expansion and ever tighter encirclement of Russia by a potentially hostile power. That a stronger Russia has now used the South Ossetian imbroglio to put a check on that expansion should hardly come as a surprise. What is harder to work out is why Saakashvili launched last week’s attack and whether he was given any encouragement by his friends in Washington.

If so, it has spectacularly backfired, at savage human cost. And despite Bush’s attempts to talk tough yesterday, the war has also exposed the limits of US power in the region. As long as Georgia proper’s independence is respected — best protected by opting for neutrality — that should be no bad thing. Unipolar domination of the world has squeezed the space for genuine self-determination and the return of some counterweight has to be welcome. But the process of adjustment also brings huge dangers. If Georgia had been a member of Nato, this week’s conflict would have risked a far sharper escalation. That would be even more obvious in the case of Ukraine — which yesterday gave a warning of the potential for future confrontation when its pro-western president threatened to restrict the movement of Russian ships in and out of their Crimean base in Sevastopol. As great power conflict returns, South Ossetia is likely to be only a taste of things to come.

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As Maine Goes, So Goes The Nation!

Maine is the 1st State in the US to Have its Entire Congressional and Senatorial Representatives Sign on to The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act.

July 19, 2008

Senator Susan Collins signed on top S.594, uniting Maine in its opposition to the use of cluster bombs. We would like to thank her staff and all of the participants of the Maine Campaign who have supported our work.

Visit Peace Action Maine during July at The Meg Perry Center, 644 Congress St, and View the Art Exhibit Calling for a Ban of Cluster Bombs by Portland Artist Alana Saleeby.

July 7, 2008

Senator Susan Collins met with representatives of The Maine Campaign to Ban Cluster Bombs in Washington DC today. She said that she will be taking a hard look at the bill this week with her staff and will give us a clear, definitive answer soon.

Sign the [Ban Cluster Bombs Signature Ad Today!]

June 13, 2008

Statement of Congressman Mike Michaud

Cluster munitions employ small explosive sub munitions the size of Coke cans, which can send hundreds of shards of steel at ballistic speeds over a wide area. They can pose a serious danger to civilians.

The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, which applies to both U.S. forces and any force to which the United States transfers cluster munitions, requires that these munitions only be used against military targets and not in areas where civilians are known to be present. The legislation also requires the president to develop a plan for cleaning up cluster munitions and sub-munitions which fail to explode and continue to pose a hazard to civilians.

It is critical that the United States maintain its international moral authority, and uphold the highest standards. The responsible and judicious use of our munitions is an important step towards achieving this goal. As a cosponsor of this legislation, I will do all that I can to ensure that this bill moves forward.

June 11,2008

Read A Cluster of Fallacies By Daniel Allen.

June, 8, 2008

This week, Rep. Tom Allen joined Rep Mike Michaud and Senator Olympia Snowe (the 1st Republican Senator to sign) in signing on to S.594 The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594 and H.R. 1755)- a common-sense bill which prevents the U.S. military from using cluster bombs in areas where civilians are known to be present.

Tom Allen was also an original cosponsor to the House version of the Declaration of Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, H. J. Res. 91 Rep Allen stated, “Because their remnants, scattered over a wide area, are lethal even years after a conflict has ended, cluster bombs are especially deadly to civilian populations. Like landmines, they are responsible for alarming numbers of deaths and crippling injuries among women and children scavenging on former battlegrounds. I believe that the U.S. has a moral responsibility to lead the international movement to eliminate them from arsenals around the globe.”

Maine is waiting for Sen Collins to join the rest of Maine in calling for an end to the use of cluster bombs. Call Senator Susan Collins today, (207) 945-0417, and ask her to join Senator Snowe in protecting civilians and Maine soldiers.

Lynn Bradach tells the story of her son, Travis Bradach -Nall, who was killed by a U.S. cluster submunition while serving in Iraq. Watch this video

March 20, 2008

As Cluster Bomb Ban Takes Effect, the View from Loas

Senator Snowe Signs On TO S.594, the First Republican in the Senate to Sign!

Hold-out Contries Should Join New Cluster Munitions Treaty

Statement to the Signing Conference on Cluster Munitions

New Treaty Should Prompt New Administration

Statement to the Signing Conference to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Poland Sees Nothing Wrong in Cluster Bombs

Irish Bill to Stop Pensions Investment in Cluster Bombs

Georgia Admits Dropping Cluster Bombs, Says Rights Group

Cluster Bomb Treaty’s Moral Force May Deter US

Opposition to Cluster Bombs Builds as US Policy Treads Water

National Call-in Day to Legislators in Advance of Global Cluster Bomb Negotiations

Nations Working to Ban Cluster Bombs

Children are Forty Percent of Cluster Bomb Casualties

What’s Good: Progress in the Work to Ban Cluster Bombs

Continuous War: Iraq and Lebanon

Sign on and circulate our Clergy Sign on letter

Holiday Postcard Campaign

Did you know that civilians, not soldiers, account for 98% of the casualties due to cluster bombs over the past 40 years?

In the last 15 years, U.S.-made cluster bombs have been used in civilian-populated areas in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Former Yugoslavia, and Lebanon. These deadly bombs disperse smaller bomblets that are designed to kill all living creatures within a specific area that is often as large as several football fields. Used in populated areas, they are an indiscriminate killer of civilians. Depending on the type of munitions and the delivery system, one cluster bomb can scatter dozens to hundreds of bomblets over an area a large area. Many of these bomblets, from 5 to 25%, fail to detonate and form de facto minefields with devastating and long lasting effect. The cluster bombs the U.S. dropped 40 years ago in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam are still killing people today. These deadly remnants of war continue to kill civilians long after the conflicts end and children are often the victims. In Southeast Asia at least 60% of the casualties of unexploded cluster munitions are children.

The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594 and H.R. 1755)_ is a common-sense bill which prevents the U.S. military from using cluster bombs in areas where civilians are known to be present. This bill will: Immediately prohibit the use of cluster bombs in or near populated or urban areas; prohibit the use, sale and transfer of U.S. made cluster bombs containing submunition failure rates of more then 1%?to ensure that a large minefield of bomblets is not left behind; requires the U.S. to clean up all of the unexploded bomblets. This bill represents a practical solution to a serious humanitarian threat, and it would bring the U.S. into line with the emerging international consensus against the misuse of these highly indiscriminate weapons. As the world community moves towards a treaty to ban cluster bombs in the next several months, the time for U.S. action is now.

November 5, 2007

Thousands of people around the country called their senators and asked them to co sponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594). Nationally, Mainers made the second highest number of calls: 129 calls to Senators Collins and Snowe. Only Pennsylvanians made more. This was a great state wide effort but we need to keep the pressure on. The toll free number is still available through this week and *your call will make a difference. *It takes less then 5 minutes. Call today and ask one friend or colleague do the same. Together we can ban cluster bombs.

This is an Ongoing Campaign!

Call Anytime and Ask Senators Collins to cosponsor S. 594
800-352-1897*

How to Make Your Calls Senator Susan Collins 202 Harlow St., #204 Bangor, ME 04402 Phone: (207) 945-0417 Fax: (207) 990-4604

*Call your senators using a special toll free number: (800) 352-1897 *
This number connects you to the Capitol Switchboard. You will need to ask for your senator by name.
Once you are directed to the office, ask to speak to the legislative assistant who deals with military and national security issues. For Senator Collins, this is Mark Winter.
After you call one senator’s office, call back and ask for your other senator.
If lines are busy, don?t give up it means that we are making it happen.

Resources

National Campaign to Ban Cluster Bombs at FCNL: http://www.banclusters.org

What would a cluster bomb do to your neighborhood? Interactive map: http://www.fcnl.org/weapons/cluster_attack2.htm

Send a Postcard

If you or your organization would like to join the Maine Campaign to Ban Cluster Bombs or for more information contact: Mary Trotochaud, mtrotochaud [at] earthlink [dot] net or 207-342-2251

The Washington Post published a multimedia presentation and a print article on cluster bombs in South Lebanon featuring teenager Rasha Zayoun who lost her leg. ATFL also sponsored a photo-shoot in Lebanon by photographer Kike Arnal including a narrative photo portrait of Ms. Zayoun.

Please take a moment to see these by clicking on the following links:

http://tinyurl.com/3x87wr multimedia presentation.

Continuous war: Cluster bombs in South Lebanon http://tinyurl.com/2wjbrz by Jahi Chikwend.

Photo-portrait of Rasha Zayoun http://tinyurl.com/2ll9tr by Kike Arnal (sponsored by ATFL).

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