Progress towards a UK ban on cluster munitions
Source: Handicap International (HI) - UK
Samantha Rennie
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Friday 15th December will see the second reading of a Bill in the House of Lords seeking a prohibition on cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are large canisters which, when dropped or fired, release up to several hundred smaller 'bomblets', over a wide area, which are intended to explode on impact. Their recent use in Lebanon attracted widespread attention. Three months after the ceasefire there, the UN estimates that approximately two people each day are being killed or injured as they seek to return to their homes and lead normal lives in the south of the country.
In November this year, Handicap International published Fatal Footprint, the first comprehensive study which systematically analyses the impact of cluster munitions on civilians. Across 24 countries and areas where the use of cluster munitions has been confirmed, 98% of 11,044 recorded casualties were civilians. Most were killed or injured while carrying out their daily livelihood activities and 27% of casualties were children.
Samantha Rennie, Director of Handicap International UK, says: "Our study indicates that cluster munitions cause disproportionate and long-term harm to civilians. For example, we are currently working with children in South East Asia who are being injured by bombs dropped before their parents were even born. We have therefore seen how cluster munitions become de facto landmines. Handicap International therefore supports this Bill and a ban on the manufacture, use, transfer and stockpiling of these weapons. We want to see the destruction of all stockpiles so that any future tragedy on the scale of landmines can be averted".
Notes for editors
Handicap International is the largest international organisation specialised in disability. We work alongside disabled people to provide long-term support and emergency relief. Since Handicap International's creation in 1982, our work has benefited several million people across 60 countries affected by poverty and conflict.
The organisation is co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions is downloadable online at http://www.handicap-international.org.uk/page_597.php
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
