Ban Cluster Bombs: Mother of Dead Marine, Nobel Laureate Call for Ban on U.S. Cluster Bombs; You Call your Senator!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 2, 2007
2:28 PM
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CONTACT: Ban Cluster Bombs
Lora Lumpe, 202-361-3028, lora@fcnl.org or
Maureen Brookes, 202-903-2530, maureen@fcnl.org
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Mother of Dead Marine, Nobel Laureate Call for Ban on U.S. Cluster
Bombs;
You Call your Senator!
Activities Part of Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs
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NEW YORK - November 2 -Lynn Bradach, the mother of a
Marine killed by a U.S. cluster bomb in Iraq, will join Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate Jody Williams, World Vision's Serge Duss, former de-miner
Simon Conway and Rep. Jim Moran outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday to
call for a congressional ban on cluster bombs at a noon press
conference. The speakers, standing in front of 100 black silhouettes
representing civilian victims of cluster bombs, are part of a Global Day
of Action that includes activities in 20 countries.
The press conference will coincide with a National Call-In Day to urge
Senators to co-sponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S.
594), legislation that would ban the use of cluster bombs in
civilian-populated areas. Call your senators on Monday, November 5,
using a toll free number: (800) 352-1897. For more information:
www.banclusterbombs.org
Cluster munitions open in mid-air and disperse smaller submunitions or
bomblets over a wide area, often as large as several football fields.
The smaller cluster bomblets are supposed to explode upon impact, but as
many as one in four fail to do so. These unexploded "duds" then become
de facto landmines that can explode and kill civilians years after a
conflict has ended.
In the last 10 years, the U.S. has used cluster bombs in
civilian-populated areas of the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The U.S. arsenal includes nearly 1 billion bomblets.
Monday's activities are sponsored by the USA Campaign to Ban Landmines
(USCBL), which includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
Adopt-A-Minefield, UNA-USA, Handicap International, and the Friends
Committee on National Legislation, among others.
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