UN calls for freeze on use of cluster bombs
Foreign Desk Report

GENEVA—United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has called for an immediate global freeze on cluster bombs following their intensive use during the recent conflict in Lebanon, adding to a growing chorus to outlaw the weapons.
The United Nations said in a statement that hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon were at risk due to unexploded cluster munitions, marking only the most recent example of the “devastating” and lingering impact of such weaponry.
“As a matter of urgency, I call on all states to implement an immediate freeze on the use of cluster munitions,” Egeland, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement Tuesday.
“This freeze is essential until the international community puts in place effective legal instruments to address urgent humanitarian concerns about their use,” he added.
The appeal came at the beginning of a review conference on a global arms treaty that restricts some types of conventional munitions, which has been ratified by about 100 countries. The International Committee of the Red Cross made a similar appeal on Monday, calling for stocks to be destroyed and for a freeze on the trade of cluster bombs.
A US official speaking on condition of anonymity said Monday that Washington did not believe that new rules were necessary. Egeland said Tuesday: “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.”
“The states gathered for the Review Conference should commit to immediately freeze the use of cluster munitions and strengthen existing international humanitarian law.”
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans or restricts the use of chosen types of weapons that cause “unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants” or that indiscriminately affect civilians. The countries involved have so far failed to agree on including cluster munitions.
The United Nations said the density of unexploded cluster munitions in Lebanon was higher than those found after conflicts in Kosovo and Iraq — which had already caused alarm among humanitarian agencies.
Unexploded cluster munitions are a “constant threat” to 200,000 refugees and internally displaced people in Lebanon as well as for hundreds of thousands of people returning to their homes and for humanitarian and reconstruction workers, it added. “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.”
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are still suffering from the burden of unexploded cluster munitions some 30 years after the end of conflicts there, hampering farming and key building projects.
“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,” the UN added.
The ICRC says that 95 to 98 percent of cluster munitions are neither reliable nor accurate. Its staff have found that about 10 to 40 percent of the bomblets scattered by a mother bomb fail to explode, leaving a long-term legacy of contamination which continues to kill and maim civilians years later.
An additional protocol to the Convention, which obliges signatories of the protocol to help clean up any unexploded munitions after conflicts, is due to enter into force next Sunday. Only 25 nations have signed up to the pledge so far.
“I call upon all States to ratify and implement it in order to help us in the humanitarian community address the challenges posed by cluster munitions in post-conflict settings,” Egeland said.