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Introduction
Clusters of Death This report on the production and use of cluster munitions, along with the legal and humanitarian issues which surround these munitions, is neither comprehensive in its scope or complete in its analysis. The production of cluster munitions in many countries throughout the world, coupled with delivery systems which include bombs, artillery projectiles, and rockets, make the tracking of production, use, and sales/transfers a monumental task. Further work by various researchers in the months to come will include a more complete accounting of worldwide cluster bomb production and use, and analysis of the legality and military utility of cluster munitions. This first installment of the report focuses on production and use of cluster munitions by the United States, Russia, and the Sudan. With each war, there is a growing number of victims, many of them children, who suffer injury or death from cluster munitions. There are persistent and predictable patterns resulting from cluster munitions use, now demonstrable over a 30+ year period from the Indochina War until the present. Cluster bombs are small, and very difficult to track, map, or find. With dud rates ranging from an estimated 2% to 30%, they create large, unmapped minefields in areas where people live or will return to live. Many of the submunitions bury themselves, gradually coming to the surface over time, or as a result of agricultural activity. Cluster munitions are sensitive to the touch even when they do not function as designed. Children find them almost irresistible, and often play with them even after they have been warned of the danger. Cluster munitions continue to maim and kill long after a war has ended. Despite these predictable effects, there are no international conventions which explicitly restrict or ban the use of cluster munitions. However, in recent years, government leaders restricted or halted the use of cluster munitions during several times of conflict, because of concerns about their indiscriminate effects. In the context of the Campaign to Ban Landmines, the issue of cluster munitions has surfaced frequently, due to the similarity in effect between landmines and cluster munitions. While the Ottawa Treaty uses a design-based definition for landmines which likely excludes cluster munitions from the Treaty’s provisions, the wars in Kosova/Serbia and Chechnya have once again placed cluster munitions squarely on the arms control agenda. In that light, we call upon nations of the world to immediately halt their use of cluster munitions. We also call upon the nations of the world in international fora to consider a ban on the use, production, and transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. We trust that this report will contribute to an informed discussion about the future of cluster munitions. |
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