Canadian activists who helped lead a campaign to ban landmines a decade ago have a new target - cluster munitions.

Mines Action Canada is urging the federal government to take a leading role in international efforts to ban the weapons, which the group says kill and main civilians every day around the world.

Cluster munitions come as bombs or artillery shells. They spray dozens or even hundreds of deadly armour-piercing bomblets across a target. Those that don't explode can sit for years waiting to kill or maim unsuspecting civilians.

In effect, said Paul Hannon, executive director of the group, the dud bomblets become a minefield.

The weapons are inaccurate, he said, because they are scattered over a wide area and because anywhere from five to 30 per cent of the bomblets don't explode on impact, posing a lethal threat long after the conflict is over.

Hannon said Israel and Hezbollah both used cluster munitions during the conflict in Lebanon last summer and the duds are still killing and wounding civilians.

Habbouba Aoun of the Landmine Resource Centre in Beirut said it's a terrible legacy.

"In Lebanon, it will take us an unknown number of years to alleviate the burden resulting from the over one million lethal cluster-munition 'duds' found in fields of tobacco and olives, gardens, roofs of houses and roads," she said.

An international conference in Geneva earlier this month agreed only to keep talking about the issue, although Norway has offered to lead a separate effort to control or ban the weapons.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the world needs concrete measures "that will put an end to the untold human suffering caused by cluster munitions."

"We are pleased to note the increasing calls for an international ban," he added. "Norway is ready to work closely with others to establish such a ban."

Hannon said the Norwegian effort follows the path pioneered by the Canadian government in the 1990s, when it sidestepped deadlocked international bodies to negotiate the Ottawa treaty, which banned anti-personnel mines.

Officially, Canada prefers to keep working with a UN group known as the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which wound up its latest meeting in Geneva last week.

At Geneva, Canadian delegate Earl Turcotte, spoke only of the need to continue talks.

"Canada would be pleased to participate in constructive discussion of cluster munitions and other such weapons," he told the conference.

Hannon said the Canadian military has disposed of its older Rockeye cluster bombs, notorious for the number of dud bomblets they produced, but still maintains a small stockpile of artillery shells that hold bomblets. The Forces have never used cluster weapons, he said.

Activists met Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay before the Geneva conference and Hannon said the minister expressed interest in taking further steps.

"We interpreted our meeting with him as an indication that he was willing to make this a priority of the government and move this forward," Hannon said.

Dan Dugas, a spokesman for MacKay, said the minister is ready to look at the whole issue.

"The minister is prepared to engage in focused discussions on cluster munitions - he wants to limit the needless suffering of civilians in conflicts.

"Canada will review the results of the conference and will also consider other countries' initiatives to figure out the best approach to be taken."

Hannon said activists have been pressing governments to act since 2000.

"The previous government did not," he said. "We were hoping that our new government would take action on this.

"We think it's consistent with what they have said about increasing Canada's role on the international stage, particularly in the areas of diplomacy and development."

© The Canadian Press 2006

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