Ban Cluster Bombs

The nablopomo image stream is interrupted today to allow me to make a point about cluster bombs.

Cluster bombs are large weapons that are dropped from bombers. Upon landing (or just before) they open up and scatter tiny bomblets around an area. Large numbers of these bomblets are dangerous duds that fail to go off — until they are disturbed.

These bomblets can lie dormant for years until they are discovered by children. Their bright colours, meant to serve as warnings, make them look like toys.

This pattern has been repeated over and over around the world, but perhaps the most notorious bomblet fields are in Northern Laos, where more bombs were dropped by the US between 1964 and 1973 than were dropped on Germany and Japan combined during world war II. An estimated 90 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos. 12 000 civilians have died in Laos since the end of this so-called “secret war”. Thirty years later 2-3 Laotians are killed every month, and 6-7 are maimed.

These appalingly bad munitions are still in active use today in Iraq & Afghanistan. In Lebanon, the UN estimates up to 1 million are left unexploded. The cluster bombs dropped upon Afghanistan are yellow packets. The first 100000 food rations dropped by the Americans were also yellow packets.

One of the reasons I have such little respect for militaries around the world is the existence and apparently wide use of these weapons. When will we realize that wars end and we shouldn’t mine every available square inch of land within an inch of returning residents’ lives?

A UN official has today called for the banning of cluster bombs and a Canadian NGO has suggested that Canada should repeat the mine-ban treaty with cluster bombs.

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