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WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (OneWorld.net) - U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a permanent ban on almost all cluster bomb exports by the United States, "[bringing] Washington into closer alignment with international opinion on this terrible weapon," according to rights advocates.

• Cluster bomb victims with missing limbs protest the use of the weapon in Dublin. © pxkls (flickr)The ban on the export of cluster munitions does not prohibit U.S. forces from using the indiscriminate weapons in battle. The international research and advocacy group Human Rights Watch has urged the Obama administration to reconsider this policy, as well as the U.S. government's reluctance to join the new treaty banning cluster munitions, which has been signed by 95 countries since December, including most NATO members and other close U.S. allies. (See full article below.)

• Last month, 67 humanitarian, religious, and medical groups sent Obama a letter pushing him to ban cluster bombs and landmines. "We write now to urge you to launch a thorough review within the next six months of past U.S. policy decisions to stand outside the treaty banning cluster munitions, as well as the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. We expect that such a review will give appropriate weight to humanitarian and diplomatic concerns, as well as to U.S. military interests," reads the letter, signed by groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Evangelicals for Social Action, aid organizations Mercy Corps and Oxfam America, and policy think tanks Citizens for Global Solutions and Council for a Livable World. "The use of weapons that disproportionately take the lives and limbs of civilians is wholly counterproductive in today's conflicts, where winning over the local population is essential to mission success." Click here to read the letter [pdf].

• Cluster munitions are large weapons that release up to hundreds of smaller submunitions. "Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians," writes the Cluster Munition Coalition. "First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians, so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas. [Second,] many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended." For these reasons, 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians and 27 percent are children, says a study by Handicap International highlighted by the British Independent newspaper.

US: Cluster Bomb Exports Banned

From: Human Rights Watch

March 12, 2009

(Washington, DC) - Legislation signed into law on March 11, 2009 by President Obama will make permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States should review its stance on joining the international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions in light of this action, Human Rights Watch said.

"This permanent export ban is a major turnaround in US policy," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. "It brings Washington into closer alignment with international opinion on this terrible weapon."

Congress included the export ban in an omnibus budget bill (HR 1105) that passed the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation states that cluster munitions can only be exported if they leave behind less than 1 percent of their submunitions as duds. Cluster submunitions often fail to explode on initial impact, leaving duds that act like landmines and pose danger to civilians. The legislation also requires the receiving country to agree that cluster munitions "will not be used where civilians are known to be present." Only a very tiny fraction of the cluster munitions in the US arsenal meet the 1-percent standard.

This export ban was first enacted in a similar budget bill in December 2007, but that law mandated it for only one year.

"The passage of this measure is yet another indication that the president should initiate a thorough review of US policy with respect to cluster munitions," said Goose. "If it is unacceptable for foreign militaries to use these weapons, why would it be acceptable for the US military to use them?"

US policy on cluster munitions was last articulated in a three-page policy directive issued by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in July 2008. The directive described cluster munitions as "legitimate weapons with clear military utility." Under the policy, the US will continue to use cluster munitions and, after 2018, will use only munitions with a tested failure rate of less than 1 percent.

In December 2008, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition team said that the next president would "carefully review" the new treaty banning cluster munitions and "work closely [with] our friends and allies to ensure that the United States is doing everything feasible to promote protection of civilians."

On February 10, Human Rights Watch joined leaders from 66 other national nongovernmental organizations in signing a joint letter calling on President Obama to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Human Rights Watch co-chairs the Cluster Munition Coalition, which it helped found in November 2003. It is also a founding member of the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs.

"The export ban moves the US one step closer to the position taken by nearly 100 nations - including its closest NATO allies - that have signed the treaty banning cluster munitions," said Goose. "A US decision to sign would certainly signal President Obama's commitment to multilateral diplomacy."

The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions was opened for signature in December. It prohibits the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions, and provides strict deadlines for clearance of affected areas and destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions. A total of 95 states have signed the convention, including most NATO members and other close US allies. The Bush administration chose not to participate in the development or negotiation of the convention, which was modeled on the 1997 treaty banning landmines.

While the historical record is incomplete, the United States has transferred hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions containing tens of millions of unreliable and inaccurate submunitions to at least 28 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Denmark, France, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Several of these states have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions and are in the process of destroying their stockpiled cluster munitions. Cluster munitions exported by the US have been used by other states in Lebanon, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, and Western Sahara.

Cluster munitions can be fired by artillery and rocket systems or dropped by aircraft and typically explode in the air and send dozens, even hundreds, of tiny bomblets over an area the size of a football field.

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