UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday
praised the adoption of an anti-cluster bomb agreement, saying it would stop
harming civilians caught in conflict zones.
Ban said he was "delighted that the strong calls to address the
humanitarian impact of cluster ammunitions has been answered with the adoption
of the new convention."
"A broad-based coalition of states, international organizations and civil
society has brought about a new international standard that will enhance the
protection of civilians, strengthen human rights and improve prospects for
development," Ban said in a statement.
He pledged UN support for the implementation of the convention, which enters
into force once a sufficient number of the countries that will sign it will have
ratified. The convention was adopted by 111 countries at the conclusion of the
two-week-long session in Dublin on Friday.
The convention will be opened for signatures in Oslo in December.
The convention calls for removing cluster ammunitions from national arsenals
within eight years. Signatories and countries producing the weapons must pledge
to stop selling, storing and producing the weapons.
The world's major producers of cluster bombs - the United States, Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan - stayed away from the conference and said they would not
support the convention.
Britain already pledged it will scrap the weapons from its arsenal.
Under pressure from NATO countries, the text of the anti-cluster- bomb
convention contains a concession to the US and other countries which want to
continue to use and produce such munitions, by allowing military cooperation
between signatories and non-signatories.
Cluster bombs drop hundreds of tennis-ball-sized smaller explosives known as
"bomblets," which then scatter and detonate across the battlefield.
Many bomblets fail to explode for years after a conflict, posing a threat to
civilians, especially children who often mistake the munitions for toys.
The death toll ranges into the tens of thousands of civilians killed, often
blinded or maimed by the weapons.
According to UN estimates, they continue to present a lethal threat in more
than 30 countries, dpa reported.
...