750,000 cluster munitions have been destroyed by governments that have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, a report issued Thursday shows, highlighting the effectiveness of the treaty in destroying the deadly weapons.
The findings are included in the Cluster Munition Monitor 2012 from the Cluster Munition Coalition, a campaign dedicated to eradicating cluster munitions.
“The impressive number of stockpiled cluster bombs destroyed under the Convention on Cluster Munitions demonstrates just how committed governments are to rapidly implementing this treaty,” said Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, final editor of Cluster Munition Monitor 2012. “It is proving to be a milestone in humanitarian disarmament diplomacy, and the hold-out states that have not yet joined need to get on the right side of history,” Wareham said.
Among those countries that have not signed the treaty -- the United States.
Handicap International, a member of the Cluster Munition Coalition, issued these haunting words in their press release on the report: "The United States alone currently possesses between 800 million and 1 billion submunitions. If these weapons are ever used, it would cause a disaster on an unprecedented scale."