Cluster bombs

 

What are cluster bombs?

Cluster bombs, or cluster munitions, are weapons consisting of a container with dozens or hundreds of smaller bombs inside, which are called submunitions or bomblets. These containers are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground and are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the bomblets and saturating an area that can be the size of several football fields.

What’s the problem with this weapon?

Air-dropped or ground-launched, cluster bombs cause two major humanitarian problems and risk to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas.

Secondly, many bomblets also fail to work properly, and huge quantities are therefore left on the ground as unstable duds. Like landmines, they remain a fatal threat to anyone in the area long after a conflict ends. Thus, these weapons continue to kill and injure people trying to rebuild their lives after conflict. They stop people from being able to use their land and access hospital and schools. They can remain a threat for decades.

Simply put, cluster bombs kill and injure too many civilians. Cluster bombs have posed a deadly threat in every conflict in which they have been used and have repeatedly caused excessive harm to civilians.

Statistics on how many people have been killed and injured by cluster munitions are highly insufficient, since victims of cluster bombs typically are among the poorest and live in countries and areas with poorly developed systems for data gathering. Through tedious work however, Handicap International has found 13,306 registered and confirmed casualties. The actual number could be as high as 100,000 casualties.

Of all the weapons that the US led coalition forces used in Iraq in 2003, none caused more civilian casualties than cluster bombs. The long term consequences of cluster bombs are obvious in countries like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where the population is still struggling with duds from cluster bombs that were dropped by the US between 1964 and 1973.

Where have cluster bombs been used?

Cluster bombs were first used in World War II by German and Soviet forces. During the 1960s and 1970s, the USA used massive numbers of cluster bombs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. More recently, cluster bombs were used extensively in the Gulf War, in Chechnya, in the former Yugoslavia, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon in 2006 and in Georgia in 2008.

At least 32 countries and territories are affected by cluster munitions used in armed conflict. These are: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Chechnya, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falklands/Malvinas, Georgia, Grenada, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Montenegro, Nagorno-Karabakh, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uganda, Vietnam, Western Sahara.

In addition, unconfirmed reports cite use of cluster munitions in Colombia, Kashmir, Pakistan, Slovenia, Turkey, and Yemen.

Rumours about use of cluster bombs in Sri Lanka and in Gaza are not correct.

Since 1964 cluster bombs with at least 440 million bomblets have been used in the abovementioned 32 countries and territories, according to the Handicap International report ”Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities”. However, this is undoubtedly a very conservative estimate. Since the average failure rate for cluster munitions is between 5% and 30%, this means though, that at least between 22 million and 132 million bomblets have become duds that continue to kill and maim. 

Who are the users?

At least 15 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Israel, Libya, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Former Yugoslavia (Serbia), Sudan, United Kingdom and United States. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon (such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006).

Cluster bombs with billions of bomblets have been stockpiled by some 85 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have produced over 210 different types cluster munitions.

Why a ban?

While Norwegian People’s Aid  and other organizations were working intensively to clear the world of mines, the cluster bombs problem was continuing to build up in the 90s and in the beginning of the 2000s. Cluster munitions stood out as the weapon that posed the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Israel’s massive use of cluster bombs in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as the catalyst that propelled governments to attempt to secure a legally binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions. Governments knew that the majority of this crisis was still in stock. If the billions of bomblets in the stockpiles of some 85 countries had been used, they would have caused millions of lethal duds.

What is the Oslo Process?

In order to prevent a future disaster caused by cluster bombs the Norwegian government initiated an international process to ban this weapon. The so-called “Oslo Process” was launched at a conference in Oslo in February 2007 and it quickly gained momentum and international support. Subsequent international Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007), Austria (December 2007), and New Zealand (February 2008). In May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, 107 countries then finally negotiated and adopted the groundbreaking convention that bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) also obliges the countries that sign it to destroy their stockpiles of cluster munitions within eight years, to clear areas with duds from cluster munitions within 10 years, and to provide assistance to victims.

On 3 and 4 December 2008, the CCM was opened for signature during a ceremony in Oslo, where 92 countries signed. Among them were many major producer and user countries, like for instance Great Britain and France. The CCM is now open for all countries to sign at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. So far, 104 countries have signed the convention, and 30 have ratified. The convention will enter into force on 1 August 2010.

For the full list of signatures and ratifications, check out the Treaty Status page on the CMC website: http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/treatystatus/

What is the Cluster Munition Coalition?

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is a global network of around 300 civil society organizations working in more than 80 countries to end the harm caused by cluster bombs. The CMC was launched in November 2003 and founding members included Human Rights Watch, Handicap International and other leaders from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines which secured the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Norwegian People’s Aid has been a member of the Steering Committee of the CMC since 2006.

Find out more about the work of the CMC here: www.stopclustermunitions.org