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UN praises ban on use of cluster bomb

Other News Materials 30 May 2008 22:22 (UTC +04:00)

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.

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