UN official urges states to ban use of cluster bombs

The UN's top humanitarian official on Tuesday urged all countries to immediately ban the use of cluster bombs, which have had horrible impacts on civilians living in post-conflict areas.

"As a matter of urgency, I call on all states to implement an immediate freeze on the use of cluster munitions," said Jan Egeland, UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

"This freeze is essential until the international community puts in place effective legal instruments to address urgent humanitarian concerns about their use," Egeland said in a statement ahead of the convening of the Third Review Conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva on Tuesday.

He said a protocol to the Convention on explosive remnants of war would take effect during the 10-day conference.

"I call upon all states to ratify and implement it (the protocol) in order to help us in the humanitarian community address the challenges posed by cluster munitions in post-conflict settings," he said.

In November 2003, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which brings together UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Bank and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), called for an immediate freeze on the use of cluster munitions.

While some progress has been made in the intervening years, these weapons have continued to be used with devastating effect, most recently in Lebanon and Israel by both sides to the conflict, Egeland said.

According to UN reports, the density of cluster munitions in southern Lebanon is higher than in Kosovo and Iraq, and denser in built-up areas.

Unexploded cluster munitions pose a constant threat to the return of some 200,000 refugees and internally displaced persons, to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who have returned to or remained in their homes and villages, and to the lives of humanitarian and reconstruction workers and peacekeeping personnel.

Lebanon is only the most recent of countries to be challenged by the legacy of unexploded cluster munitions.

Countries like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam continue to bear the burden of unexploded cluster munitions some 30 years after the end of conflict, impeding the safe cultivation of land and the development of infrastructure.

"Ultimately, as long as there is no effective ban, these weapons will continue to disproportionately affect civilians, maiming and killing women, children, and other vulnerable groups," Egeland said.

The states gathered for the Geneva conference should commit to immediately freeze the use of cluster munitions and strengthen existing international humanitarian law, he added.

Source: Xinhua