1st meeting of cluster bomb treaty opens in Laos
Nov. 10, 2010
The first formal meeting of states that have ratified an international treaty banning cluster munitions opened here Tuesday.
The four-day First Meeting of State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions will lay the foundation for future engagement on the convention by bringing together for the first time ratifying countries, U.N. agencies, international organizations, civil society, and cluster bomb survivors.
States will share progress and plans for implementation, with the aim of drawing up a blueprint to translate the treaty into action and meet the obligations they have consented to be bound by.
A Vientiane Declaration reaffirming states parties' commitment to comprehensively banning cluster munitions and a Vientiane Action Plan on how the treaty should be implemented are expected be adopted on Friday.
Japan, which is the vice chair of the meeting, will lead a working group for increasing the number of ratifying countries.
''This is the most important step for global conventional disarmament since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. Cluster munitions have limited military usefulness and cause terrible humanitarian and socio-economic damage,'' Max Kerley, director of the U.N. Mine Action Service, the U.N. focal point for mine action, said recently.
The convention bans the use, production, and trade in cluster munitions, and obliges states to compensate victims. It is binding only on countries that have signed and ratified it.
The convention was negotiated in Dublin in May 2008 and opened for signature in Oslo in December 2008. To date, 108 governments have signed the convention, of which 46 have ratified. However, some of the biggest stockpilers -- including the United States, Russia, China and Israel -- are not among the signatories.
It is symbolic that Laos, the most heavily bombed country in the world, is hosting the first meeting. Some 300 people are still hit every year by cluster bombs dating to the Vietnam war, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition.
Although the two countries were not at war, the United States dropped millions of cluster munitions over Laos to stem the flow of supplies along the Ho-Chi-Minh road to the south of Laos.
First used in the World War II, cluster munitions contain dozens of smaller explosives designed to disperse over an area the size of a football field, but often fail to detonate upon impact, creating large de facto minefields.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov. 9, 2010)
The four-day First Meeting of State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions will lay the foundation for future engagement on the convention by bringing together for the first time ratifying countries, U.N. agencies, international organizations, civil society, and cluster bomb survivors.
States will share progress and plans for implementation, with the aim of drawing up a blueprint to translate the treaty into action and meet the obligations they have consented to be bound by.
A Vientiane Declaration reaffirming states parties' commitment to comprehensively banning cluster munitions and a Vientiane Action Plan on how the treaty should be implemented are expected be adopted on Friday.
Japan, which is the vice chair of the meeting, will lead a working group for increasing the number of ratifying countries.
''This is the most important step for global conventional disarmament since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. Cluster munitions have limited military usefulness and cause terrible humanitarian and socio-economic damage,'' Max Kerley, director of the U.N. Mine Action Service, the U.N. focal point for mine action, said recently.
The convention bans the use, production, and trade in cluster munitions, and obliges states to compensate victims. It is binding only on countries that have signed and ratified it.
The convention was negotiated in Dublin in May 2008 and opened for signature in Oslo in December 2008. To date, 108 governments have signed the convention, of which 46 have ratified. However, some of the biggest stockpilers -- including the United States, Russia, China and Israel -- are not among the signatories.
It is symbolic that Laos, the most heavily bombed country in the world, is hosting the first meeting. Some 300 people are still hit every year by cluster bombs dating to the Vietnam war, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition.
Although the two countries were not at war, the United States dropped millions of cluster munitions over Laos to stem the flow of supplies along the Ho-Chi-Minh road to the south of Laos.
First used in the World War II, cluster munitions contain dozens of smaller explosives designed to disperse over an area the size of a football field, but often fail to detonate upon impact, creating large de facto minefields.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov. 9, 2010)
