Cluster bombs

Anti-personnel land mines have been banned in many countries under specific legal instruments for several years, notably the Ottawa Treaty and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Yet cluster weapons -- which spew thousands of bomblets over a wide area, many of which remain unexploded for years and are therefore likely to kill and maim indiscriminately -- are not yet banned by any international treaty and are considered legitimate weapons by some governments.

The use of the bombs has come under growing criticism from Canada and the European Union, as well as from humanitarian groups who argue that the weapon inflicts severe suffering on civilians. Lebanon, South-east Asia -- especially Laos and central Vietnam's former demilitarised zone -- Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq are all areas peppered with unexploded ordnances.

Efforts are being made to bring about a moratorium on the use, production and transfer of cluster munitions. A flexible multilateral process, similar to the process that led to the Ottawa Treaty, was launched in Oslo in February this year. Some 70 countries support a total ban and are taking part in the parallel process aimed at negotiating a pact by the end of 2008. Their next meeting takes place in Vienna this week.

Yet the Oslo process lacks momentum, and meaningful negotiations for a ban on the weapons have not yet taken place. 

• Resistance to a ban comes from countries including the United States, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. But they have recently agreed to look at how the humanitarian impact of cluster bombs can be minimised.
• The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was regrettable that the mandate for the expert talks showed no commitment to working for a legally binding pact prohibiting cluster bombs.
• The US Campaign to Ban Landmines said nations who signed the CCW accord in 1981 had "failed to deliver on cluster weapons".

Individual countries may decide to ban the weapons in the absence of an international treaty or an agenda for UN-sponsored talks.

• Belgium, Austria and Hungary have announced moratoriums on cluster weapons
• Peru has launched an initiative to make Latin America a cluster munition free zone.