The National Front Friends for National Legislation (the Quakers who are also our friends) and the Cluster Munition Coalition have been working hard, and it shows.
“Is this about S. 594?”
This was the question that dozens of callers were asked by receptionists in Senators’ offices when they called to urge co- sponsorship of the Cluster Munition Civilian Protection Act. Turns out they had already received some calls about it…over 2,400 in all. And FCNL reports that the calls worked.
Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) all joined as co-sponsors because of civic action. The bill would restrict federal funds for the use, sale or transfer of cluster bombs unless specified that they will be used only against clearly defined military targets and not where civilians are known to be present. It will also restrict cluster bombs with failure rates of 1 percent or greater. It now has sixteen cosponsors.
These U.S. successes are being mirrored (magnified, really) in the international work.
The International Front Two-thirds of the world is now united to ban cluster bombs. Meetings in Vienna, Austria wrapped up on December 7th. More than 135 countries attended the three-day conference, which is part of the “Oslo Process” launched in February to build a treaty to ban the use and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians by 2008.
Major cluster weapons manufacturers and exporters like Russia, China and the United States did not attend the meeting. The next meeting will be held in February in Wellington, New Zealand followed by a May meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
The Vienna meeting took place against the backdrop of November’s U.N. weapons conference in Geneva that called for new rules on when cluster bombs can be used. The meeting stopped short of launching talks on a legally binding treaty.
RESOURCES
The Oslo Process: http://www.clusterprocess.org
Cluster Munition Coalition: http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
Handicap International: http://www.handicap-international.org.uk/
Friends Committee on National Legislation has put together a “holiday action” site to drum up more support for the cluster bomb ban http://www.fcnl.org/weapons/holiday2007.htm
