Britain May Opt Out Of Cluster Bomb Ban
More than a hundred countries are expected to ban cluster bombs this month - but Britain may not be one of them.
The UK says it wants to keep at least two types of so called ’smart’ cluster bomb in its arsenal, claiming they minimise the risk of civilian casualties.
But Sky News has unearthed powerful evidence they can cause far more civilian deaths and injuries than is being claimed.
Cluster bombs scatter a shower of lethal sub-munitions over huge areas.
Many do not explode, posing a risk to civilians for years to come in the same way as landmines do.
The M85 cluster bomb has an extra mechanism ensuring it nearly always self-destructs on impact according to its Israeli makers and Britain’s Ministry of Defence, which wants it exempted from the cluster bomb ban.
But the UN in southern Lebanon has told Sky News that mechanism repeatedly fails.
UN sponsored teams are still clearing the area of hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs dropped by Israel during its war with Hizbollah almost two years ago.
UN spokesman Dalya Farran told Sky News: “It was established that the failure rate for the M85 with self-destruct mechanism was around 10%.
“Many people were injured and killed by the M85 with self-destruct mechanism.”
For Wairde Suleiman, who lost her 20-year-old son to an M85 cluster bomb, there is nothing ’smart’ about them.
“When I hold his photograph my heart fills with darkness,” she said.
“I get more upset than you can imagine. He’s my son. I brought him up for 20 years until he became a man and then I lost him.”
In another village, Naemeh Ghazi lost her leg when she stepped on an M85 in her garden.
Asked what she thought about British and Israeli claims the M85 is safer than other cluster bombs, she responded angrily: “It injured me and it destroyed me. What more could it do?
“It’s not safe, the cluster bomb is not safe. None of them are safe. Just look at me.”
(Sky News)
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Then let’s go back to napalm
May 6th, 2008 at 10:28 pmWe gave up using napalm only when cluster bombs came into service because they’re more effective than napalm
We’ll give up cluster bombs when something better comes along.
I’ll wager the countries signing the ban on cluster bombs either don’t have them or can’t afford them.
PS, and how many of those countries are run by Dictators, Thugs and Tyrants?
May 6th, 2008 at 10:39 pmI’ll bet other countries don’t have this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua3nLmE7Kow
I don’t expect us to give these up any time soon
May 6th, 2008 at 10:54 pmSo these people who want to wage war in a more humane manner want to do so using inferior munitions that don’t do the job as well which makes the conflict take longer greatly increasing the risk of collateral damage since the fight will go on that much longer because you’d have to use weaker weapons.
My head hurts now.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:19 am“But the UN in southern Lebanon has told Sky News that mechanism repeatedly fails”
right, one of our legionnaires has been killed while “cleaning the ground”, also a few peacekeepers were wounded
wasn’t also the Lady Di’s project before she conveniently died ?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:15 am:Smart munitions is the way to go. You don’t cut out an entire munitions package because of politics.
As far as Lady D’s idea…it’s a waste of time since China, Russia, Italy and others continue to make dumb mines. The vast majority of “dumb munitions” on the battlefied today are either old Soviet, Russian or Chinese made munitions.
Without their cooperation, you ain’t going to have an effective ban.
In the west, the idea of “smart” munitions has come a long way. Smart munitions have mechanisms that allow them to disarm themselves after a period of non-useage or can be set off remotely.
In sum, smart munitions are taking the place of dumb bombs and mines…and are the way to. All this PC political shit only helps our enemies, and does nothing to stop two biggest proliferators of dumb munitions: Russia and China.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:23 amI have an idea. Why don’t we ban bombs all together? Then we could be happy and frolic in the flowers.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:46 amBan war, free Tibet with yoga.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:37 amExactly!
Which, on the other hand, is why the damn Kyoto Treaty was D.U.M.B. …
It only hurt the Western countries, mainly the U.S.A., and NOT the countries that polute far worse than we do …
These world protection schemes are always one-sided … and always against us.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am