Home | Friday 16th May 2008 | Issue 632

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CLUSTER'S LAST STAND

The Oslo Process has been quietly ticking away in the Norwegian capital, aiming to ban cluster munitions. 85 countries have attended, including several that make and use cluster munitions (such as our own dear government). But the biggest users, Israel and the US, have steered well clear of the conference. Israel saturated southern Lebanon with bomblets after it was clear that they’d lost their war against Hizballah and they're still killing and maiming nearly two years later.

The UK government, along with Germany, Denmark, France and Holland have been described as the ‘foxes in the chickenhouse’ by anti-arms trade groups, and their presence at the talks aimed at watering down any resolutions to limit states from continuing to commit mass murder without breaking international law. For example, Britain would like the M85 cluster bomb (which they bulk bought from Israel to use against Iraq in 2003) to be exempt as it contains high tech fuses ensuring it detonates on impact (although they didn’t work in Lebanon). Additionally, the British say that the CRV-7 Hydra can’t be considered a cluster munition because it contains only nine bomblets - the ministry does not consider a weapon with less than ten worthy of labelling a cluster.

With tactics like this it’s little wonder it looks like the conference will die a death. But of course as we all know, relying on states to police themselves is a recipe for tragedy.

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