| Follow-up. |
Some 110 countries unanimously endorsed on Friday an international pact that puts a de facto total and immediate ban on cluster bombs that cause damage to civilians. The Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions approved the draft pact, presented by disarmament ambassador Daithi O'Ceally from host Ireland, on the final day of its session that began March 19 in the Irish capital.
The convention calls for banning the use, production, development, export and import of cluster bombs immediately, and requiring parties to the convention to abandon their cluster munitions in eight years, and to remove and destroy used bombs in their territories in 10 years.
The response :
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But its effectiveness is in question because some major powers that hold a large amount of cluster munitions, such as the United States and Russia, have failed to join the anti-cluster bomb conference.
| Sorta like the ban on land mines. |
The anti-cluster bomb convention sets some exceptions for the ban. Among the exceptions are those with nine or fewer bomblets and the most advanced type of cluster bomb that is equipped with instruments to correctly guide and identify only military targets or to destroy or disable themselves to prevent them from turning into dud bombs.
The convention is the result of more than 15 months of talks under the Oslo Process initiative, an international arms control framework spearheaded by Norway, Ireland and some other nations, U.N. organizations, the International Red Cross and
It was the second international disarmament pact concluded under such a framework, following the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known as the Ottawa Treaty, which was signed in 1997.
Under the Oslo Process initiative, participants committed themselves to conclude by 2008 a legally binding international instrument that will prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. They also aimed at establishing a framework for cooperation and assistance that ensures adequate provision of care and rehabilitation to survivors and their communities, clearance of contaminated areas, risk education and destruction of stockpiles of prohibited cluster munitions.
Japan, which has joined the Oslo Process initiative from its start, earlier advocated a partial ban on cluster bombs but changed its stance and declared it will join the convention. In Tokyo, a Japanese government spokesman said Friday that Japan "sooner or later" would have to dispose of the cluster bombs possessed by the Self-Defense Forces.
| You could dump them in the Korean DMZ ... |