An agreement to ban cluster bombs which will be signed today in the Irish capital Dublin by 111 countries will, hopefully, see the end of what is a particularly vile weapon. Unreliable, inaccurate and indiscriminate in whom they kill, they are a blind, blanket weapon, relying purely on mass wipeout for their military appeal. Over the past few years, thousands of people have been killed and many, many more maimed by these bombs, each of which can devastate an area the size of two football pitches. And it is civilians who are so often the victims — especially from unexploded bombs. Worse, quite often they have been used specifically against civilians.
Needless to say, there are opponents to a ban. The US, Russia, China, Israel and, more surprisingly, both Pakistan and India have held themselves aloof from the negotiation process, viewing cluster bombs as valuable tools in their arsenals, despite the fact that the day of mass battles, for which these weapons were invented by the Nazis in World War II have long gone. But it is not wholly surprising that they should be so reluctant. They constitute the bulk of the world’s military nuclear powers, countries for whom right too often means might. Significantly, however, the UK and France, the world’s two other nuclear powers, have backed the treaty and intend to destroy their not inconsiderable stockpiles of cluster bombs. Their endorsement show a more thoughtful and balanced approach to the issue. Apart from the US, they are the two most active military powers in the world in terms of presence elsewhere. Their willingness to ditch cluster bombs is proof that the weapons are completely surplus to requirements.
Many Arab states have held back from the process that has resulted in Dublin treaty and many — Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Lebanon among them — signed the pre-treaty convention on cluster bombs, known as the Wellington Convention, which allowed them to negotiate the treaty. The Kingdom attended the Dublin negotiations as an observer. Arab and Muslim countries have in recent years been the prime theaters of cluster bomb use. They have been used to deadly effect in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and Chechnya. There were more civilian casualties in Kosovo in 1999 and in Iraq in 2003 as a result of cluster bomb use than any other cause. So, it is not an issue that the Arab and Muslim governments can ignore.
The agreement will be officially signed in Oslo on Dec. 2. Moreover, whatever the Americans, Russians, Chinese, Israelis and others who have remained aloof from the process think, cluster bombs — and their users — will be stigmatized by this treaty in the same way that land mines — and their users — were by the 1997 land mine treaty. There again the US, Russia, China and Israel were among the notable nonsignatories. But none of them have deployed land mines since — because they know that they will be condemned worldwide. It will be the same with cluster bombs.
