A new bill to prohibit the use of cluster munitions will have its second reading in the House of Lords Today.

Lord Dubs (Labour) introduced the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill on 23 November 2006 in response to the humanitarian impact of excessive harm to civilians caused by cluster munitions both during and after conflict; the lack of evidence to support military justification for the use of the weapons; and the UK government's unconvincing distinction between smart and dumb cluster munitions.

The Bill was further prompted by the failure of international talks in Geneva last month to launch negotiations on a new treaty banning cluster munitions. Following this failure Norway announced a breakaway process to negotiate a ban along the lines of the process to ban landmines in the 1990s and the UK has been invited to participate at the first meeting of the new process in Oslo in February 2007.

The UK has opposed the Norwegian process stating that it would exclude many key producers and users of cluster munitions. However, many producer, stockpiler and affected states were among those supporting the negotiations rejected by the UK at the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva.

Reflecting increasing concern over cluster munitions within parliament and civil society, at least sixteen Peers are set to speak during the second reading on Friday.

As outlined below, recent statements by government spokespeople have demonstrated a lack of consistency within government on three key aspects of this issue.

1. A disingenuous distinction between so-called "dumb" and other cluster munitions

On 23 November 2006 Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Adam Ingram described so-called "dumb" cluster munitions as those that: "either do not have a target discriminatory capability or they do not have a self-destruct… capability …"

But on 5 December 2006 Minister for Europe Geoff Hoon stated that: "A smart cluster bomb ought to be guided and should self-destruct after a period of time."

2. The need for new international rules on cluster munitions

On 23 November 2006 Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Adam Ingram stated that: "cluster munitions are lawful weapons that provide a unique capability against certain types of legitimate military target."

Conversely, on 5 December Minister for Europe Geoff Hoon stated that: "What is important is that we secure an international agreement in precisely the way that we did in relation to land mines …"

3. Cluster munitions: military utility or humanitarian concern

On 23 November 2006 Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Adam Ingram stated that: "were the UK to cease using [cluster munitions], our armed forces would be put at greater risk."

But, on 11 December, the Secretary of State for International Development stated that cluster munitions: "represent a threat to aid workers, peace-keepers, medical services, internally displaced persons and anyone else entering an area immediately after the cessation of hostilities."

-ends-

Notes for Editors:

The UK used 530 cluster bombs containing 78,000 cluster submunitions in Kosovo but according to General Sir Hugh Beach in "Cluster bombs: a case for banning?" (Briefing Paper No. 79, February 2001, International Security Information Service) "the delivery of some 530 cluster bombs in the course of the campaign may have resulted in the destruction of as few as 30 major items of military equipment."

The UK used over 100,000 in Iraq in 2003 where they have killed and injured thousand of civilians both during and after conflict.

The UK has long refused to give up these weapons, arguing that existing international humanitarian law "is a sufficiently adequate body of law" to deal with the problem of cluster munitions however in recent weeks, the UK has said that a new legally-binding instrument is now required to address the problems these weapons pose.

The UK considers cluster munitions with self-destruct mechanisms, such as the Israeli manufactured M85 which is stock-piled by the UK, to be acceptable and is determined to keep them in its stocks.

M85 cluster munitions are manufactured in Israel and were used by Israeli ground forces during the recent conflict in Lebanon and by UK forces in Iraq in March 2003. The UK argues that the self-destruct mechanism means they leave very small numbers of unexploded ordnance, stating the failure rate to be as low as 1%. However, there appears to be no evidence to back these claims and little consistency in the government's statements on the issue. In 2003, Secretary of State for Defence, Adam Ingram cited a 2% failure rate for the M85 (Hansard 16 Jun 2003: Column 52W) but by November 2006 his statements indicate a failure rate of 5% (Hansard 8 Nov 2006: Column 1548W).

The UK's statements of low failure rates of the M85 are not supported by evidence gathered in the field. UN officials in southern Lebanon stated in November 2006: "We can state categorically that we are finding large numbers of unexploded M85 submunitions that have failed to detonate as designed and failed to self-destruct afterwards. In effect these submunitions have failed twice. These M85 submunitions are even more dangerous than other types because the self-destruct mechanism makes them more problematic to deal with and where ever possible they are destroyed in situ."

Cluster munitions have been used in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Russia (Chechnya), Saudi Arabia, Serbia & Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Western Sahara.

Landmine Action has been a member of the steering committee for the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) since it was established in 2003. www.stopclustermuntions.org.

For more information on Product Recall, the UK campaign to ban cluster munitions visit www.spreadingourvalues.com.

The second reading of the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill will take place at 11am on Friday 15 December 2006.

For further information, please contact:

Alf Dubs, House of Lords - dubsa@parliament.uk +44 (0)7960 411 990

Therese Lyras, Campaigns Manager, Landmine Action - tlyras@landmineaction.org +44 (0)20 7820 0222

Simon Conway, Director, Landmine Action - sconway@landmineaction.org +44 (0)7843 387 149

Thomas Nash, Coordinator, CMC - thomas@stopclustermunitions.org +44 (0)7711 926 730

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