cluster bombs

UN Says Cluster Bombs Being Used in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO - At least 52 civilians were killed in the past day's fighting between Tamil rebels and government forces in northern Sri Lanka, and cluster bombs struck the war zone's last functioning hospital Wednesday, the UN said.

The strikes occurred as the country marked its 61st Independence Day with a grand military parade and a speech by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who declared that the military has nearly crushed the 25-year Tamil rebellion for a separate homeland.

Posted in cluster bombs, War/Empire, sri lanka

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2009
8:14 AM

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

Middle East and North Africa: Sign Treaty Banning Cluster Weapons

Lebanon and Tunisia Are Only Nations in Region to Sign

BEIRUT - January 26 - Governments of the Middle East and North Africa region should sign the new international treaty banning cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch said today. So far, Lebanon and Tunisia are the only two countries from the region to have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was opened for signature in December 2008. Lebanon signed the treaty in December 2008, and Tunisia signed on January 12, 2009.

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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, Human Rights

Cluster Bomb Treaty and The World's Unfinished Business

The United States, Russia and China are sending a terrible message to the rest of the world by refusing to take part in the historic signing of a treaty that bans the production and use of cluster bombs. In a world that is plagued by war, military occupation and terrorism, the involvement of the great military powers in signing and ratifying the agreement would have signaled - if even symbolically - the willingness of these countries to spare civilians' unjustifiable deaths and the lasting scars of war.

Posted in cluster bombs

Laos Reaps Deadly Harvest

The entrance to Craters restaurant is guarded by a phalanx of bombshells, each as big as a man. Opposite, the Dokkhoune hotel boasts an even finer warhead collection. For tourists who have not cottoned on, the Lao town of Phonsavanh lies at the heart of the most cluster-bombed province of the most bombed country on earth.

Posted in cluster bombs, laos

Ban These Pernicious Weapons

There were some noticeable absentees as 100 countries gathered in Oslo this week to sign a treaty banning cluster munitions. While 18 of the 26 Nato countries were on board, the world's superpowers - the US, Russia and China - were all no-shows.

Posted in beyond obama, cluster bombs

Drawing the Future From the Past

The bombing was relentless. From 1964 to 1973, the United States dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance on Laos. That's a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. Laos has the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in the history of the world.

"In the area of Xieng Khoang, the place of my birth, there was health, good earth, and fine weather," one survivor, a 33-year-old man, recalls of that period.

Posted in airstrikes, cluster bombs, landmines, War/Empire, laos

Forty Years on, Laos Reaps Bitter Harvest of The Secret War

$Part of a US bomber lies in a temple in Phanop village, Laos. \"We keep it here to remind the children of what happened,\" the monk said. \"If one day we badly need money we might sell it for the scrap value.\" (Photograph: Sean Sutton/Mines Advisory Group)$

Phonsavanh, Laos - The entrance to Craters restaurant is guarded by a phalanx of bombshells, each as big as a man. Opposite, the Dokkhoune hotel boasts an even finer warhead collection. For tourists who have not cottoned on, the Lao town of Phonsavanh lies at the heart of the most cluster-bombed province of the most bombed country on earth.

Posted in cluster bombs, laos

Cluster Bomb Treaty: Signing Begins to Bring Ban on Production

OSLO - Governments from around the world today began signing an international convention banning the production of cluster bombs - unexploded canisters that have killed and maimed thousands of civilians and remain scattered dozen of countries.

Posted in cluster bombs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2008
9:29 AM

CONTACT: US Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL)
Lora Lumpe, Oslo, 202.361.3028 or Laura Chirot, Washington, DC, 202.903.2523 or mobile 206.940.7851; laura@fcnl.org

World Nations Sign Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs, US Absent

Mother of Marine Urges US to Sign Treaty

OSLO - December 3 - More than 80 countries - including most U.S. allies in NATO – began signing a treaty banning cluster bombs in Oslo, Norway today. The U.S. government is not there and the Bush administration has refused to join the majority of the world's nations in stopping the use of these weapons, which kill or maim mostly civilians and children.

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The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL) is a coalition of thousands of organizations and individuals dedicated to a total ban on antipersonnel landmines. It is one of 90 country campaigns that form the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is the coordinating organization for the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Posted in cluster bombs

Ban The Cluster Bomb

More than half the world's nations are meeting in Oslo on Wednesday to sign a global treaty banning cluster bombs. Although my government won't be there, I will.

I have a personal stake in this treaty. My son, Travis, a corporal in the Marines, was killed by one of our own cluster bomblets in July 2003. He was clearing an Iraqi farmer's field near Karbala of unexploded ordnance when one of the men from his unit mishandled a cluster submunition. It exploded, killing Travis and taking an eye and an arm from the Marine who touched it.

Posted in cluster bombs