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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2009
8:40 AM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Tel: +1-212-216-1832
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

Russia/Georgia: Cluster Bombs’ Harm Shows Need to Join Ban

GENEVA - April 14 - The loss of lives and livelihoods from cluster munitions used by Russia and Georgia during the August 2008 armed conflict reinforces the importance of the new treaty banning the weapon, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
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Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Links:
Posted in cluster bombs, Russia

Mine-Filled Iraq to Accelerate Clearance

Iraqi incendiary experts walk in line as they survey the ground for mines in the Rumayiah oil fields (AFP)

BAGHDAD - Mine-filled Iraq plans to accelerate the clearance of anti-personnel mines that threaten to kill up to five percent of the country's population, officials announced on Monday.

"Iraq has one of the world's largest contamination problems of landmines, unexploded ordnance and other explosive remnants of war," Iraq's environment minister Narmin Othman said in a statement.

"Clearing these mines is essential and urgent. We intend to increase coordination within the government on this is important issue," she said.

Posted in cluster bombs, landmines, Iraq

Landmine Victims Defeat Diplomats in Soccer Match

A team made up of Lebanese victims of land mine explosions, gather as they prepare for a soccer game against a team of foreign embassies of Australia, Britain and Norway in the village of Ansar, south of Lebanon, on Saturday April 4, 2009, as part of events marking the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The U.N. says unexploded ordnance and cluster munitions leftover in south Lebanon from the 2006 war with Israel claim an average of two civilian casualties a month in south Lebanon. Landmines and explosive remnants of war affect at least 78 countries and injure or kill between 15,000 and 20,000 people every year. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

ANSAR - A football team made up entirely of the victims of landmines and cluster bombs defeated a combined diplomatic team from Beirut in a special event held to mark International Mine Awareness Day on Saturday. The event drew large crowds and media coverage as a side boasting three ambassadors went down 2-1 to team determined to prove that their
disabilities would not put them at a disadvantage on the football field.

Posted in cluster bombs, landmines

Progress on Cluster Bombs

Good news is in short supply. The economy remains bleak. The war in Iraq entered its seventh year last week, and violence reaches new pinnacles in Afghanistan. But there is one bright light amid all this gloom. Real progress is being made to ban cluster munitions. These are canisters of different sizes that release hundreds of bomblets on detonation, scattering deadly devices over an area as large as several football fields.

Posted in cluster bombs

Ban Cluster Bombs? Yes, We Can!

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are getting big praise around the world for their new Charm Offensive. As far as I'm concerned, the praise is justified. I heard our Secretary of State interviewed on the BBC a few weeks ago about our diplomatic outreach to Iran on Afghanistan. And the BBC was all, what makes you think Iran is going to help you on Afghanistan? And Hillary was all, you know, actually Iran helped us tremendously in Afghanistan after 2001. Our Ambassador in Afghanistan and the Iranian Ambassador were meeting practically every day.

Posted in cluster bombs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2009
9:00 AM

CONTACT: US Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs
Laura Chirot, US Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs,
202-903-2523, laura@fcnl.org

Tell the Senate to Give Cluster Bombs the Boot!

US Campaign organizes national call-in day Monday, March 30

WASHINGTON - March 24 - Congress passed and President Obama signed into law a permanent ban on exports of nearly all types of U.S. cluster bombs in mid-March, moving the U.S. one step closer to the position of the nearly 100 nations-including Britain, France, and Canada-that signed a treaty banning these weapons in December. Cluster munitions, which leave behind large numbers of dud submunitions that continue to threaten civilians long after the fighting ends, are known as the "bombs that keep on killing".

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The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines & Cluster Bombs is one of 70 national campaigns comprising the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). It includes dozens of national organizations and thousands of individual members.
Posted in cluster bombs

Obama Takes US Closer to Total Ban on Cluster Bombs

A peacekeeper holds a cluster bomblet. The United States banned exports of most kinds of controversial cluster bombs under spending legislation signed this week by US President Barack Obama, two US Senators said Thursday. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)

The United States has stepped closer to a total ban on the use and export of cluster bombs with the signing by Barack Obama of a new permanent law that would make it almost impossible for the US to sell the controversial weapons.

The decision was hailed by opponents of the weapons as a "major turnaround in US policy" that overrode Pentagon calls to permit their continued export.

Posted in cluster bombs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2009
11:31 AM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Tel: +1-212-216-1832
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

US: Cluster Bomb Exports Banned

Obama Should Initiate Review of US Stance on Treaty

WASHINGTON - March 12 - Legislation signed into law on March 11, 2009 by President Obama will make permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States should review its stance on joining the international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions in light of this action, Human Rights Watch said.

"This permanent export ban is a major turnaround in US policy," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. "It brings Washington into closer alignment with international opinion on this terrible weapon."

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Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Links:
Posted in cluster bombs

NATO Cluster Bombs Still Threaten Thousands in Serbia: Report

An unexploded cluster bomb (REUTERS/Ruben Sprich)

BELGRADE - Unexploded cluster bombs still threaten thousands of Serbian civilians almost 10 years after they were dropped during NATO's air war over Kosovo, an independent report said Tuesday.

"During the 1999 NATO bombing campaign, U.S., British and Dutch forces dropped at least 37,000 sub-munitions on Serbian territory," the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in a statement.

Posted in cluster bombs, War/Empire

New Bid to Ban Indiscriminate Weapons

A cluster bomb in the yard of a house in the southern Lebanese village of Sultaniyeh (THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  - Leaders of a wide variety of national organisations and Congress are putting pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to reconsider his predecessor's policies of allowing the use, transfer and production of weapons that have been shown to indiscriminately maim and kill civilians.

Posted in cluster bombs
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