PLEASE URGE YOUR GOVT. TO RATIFY -CLUSTER BOMBS

Tom, please remove if you feel it's not appropriate to have on our site. It's a bit out of our topics but it is about children being maimed and killed and wish America would ratify it.
NZ celebrates global cluster bombs ban
By Laura McQuillan
9:06 AM Sunday Aug 1, 2010


An unexploded BLU 97 cluster bomblet used in the Tomahawk BGM-109D cruise missile, found in Yemen. Photo / AP
A Wellington woman who led the push for an international ban on cluster bombs is celebrating today as her dream is realised.
The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions came into force today, two
years after being adopted internationally, and six months after it
received its 30th ratification.
Human Rights Watch arms division adviser Mary Wareham said today the ban
was "a victory for the campaign", in which New Zealand was "involved
from the get-go".
But there was still work to be done on ridding the world of the bombs
which had a massive impact on civilians -- especially children -- with
states like the USA and Israel yet to sign up to the convention, she
said.
Cluster bombs, which can contain hundreds of "bomblets", pose risks to
civiians both during and after attacks. Unexploded bomblets can kill or
maim civilians, many of them children, long after a conflict is over. The
bombs have been in use since the 1960s, dropped on countries across
Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with a lasting legacy in
places including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The US and Britain also dropped the bombs over Iraq in 2003.
But it was Israel's use of cluster bombs against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 that was the catalyst for talks to ban the bombs.
In the final 72 hours of the war, when it was clear a resolution would
be reached, the bombings by Israel left more than one million unexploded
cluster munitions, which were still affecting the Lebanese people
today.
More recently still, both Russia and Georgia dropped cluster munitions during their 2008 conflict.
New Zealand was involved in the idea of a ban from the beginning - part
of "the core group", alongside Austria, Ireland, Mexico, Norway and
Peru, Ms Wareham said.
One round of talks was held in Wellington in February 2008, followed by
the negotiations of the final convention in May 2008, and the first
signing in December that year.
The New Zealand Parliament passed the Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act in 2009, and the Government quickly ratified the treaty.
In February this year, the treaty finally received its 30th ratification, making it a binding international law fronm today.
Though 108 countries had now signed up to the ban, only 38 governments
had ratified the convention, which banned them from using or producing
cluster munitions.
UN Security Council permanent members USA, China and Russia, along with
Israel and India, were among the states yet to sign the treaty.
The five states were also yet to sign the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning landmines -- another convention led by New Zealanders.
But the Obama administration was currently reviewing the landmines ban,
and it was hoped they would make swift steps on both treaties, Ms
Wareham said.
Disarmament Minister Georgina te Heuheu said the convention coming into force made today "a landmark day".
"New Zealanders should be proud of the leading role their country has
had in bringing this ban about," she said, calling on states which had
not yet signed it to do so as soon as possible.
"Many thousands of civilians are injured or killed in the course of
normal daily activities by these weapons. Particularly tragic is the
fact that around one third of cluster munitions casualties are
children," Mrs te Heuheu said.
New Zealand kicks off global celebrations of the ban at Wellington's
Civic Square at midday today, followed by a screening of Ms Wareham's
short documentary, Cluster Bombs: Banned in New Zealand.
- NZPA