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Making the land safe: Should Cluster Bombs be banned?

 

Nyia Nying, a grandmother in Nong Oh Village, Laos, lost two grandchildren to a cluster bomb accident in1999. A third grandchild remains severely disabled as a result of the accident.

Nyia Nying, a grandmother in Nong Oh Village, Laos, lost two grandchildren to a cluster bomb accident in 1999. A third grandchild remains severely disabled as a result of the accident.

Little did MCC realize when it began working in Laos in 1975, that cluster bombs would become a significant program focus. However, MCC Laos program history includes hundreds of references to bombies, the small tennis-ball sized bombs which still litter the soil throughout Laos. The result of a major US air war between 1964 and 1973, millions of unexploded bombs still wait to injure and kill Lao villagers as they prepare the soil for planting, collect firewood, or engage in countless other tasks necessary to sustain life.

The MCC-initiated Bomb Removal Project in Laos has a 25 year history. Thanks to the technical leadership of the Mines Advisory Group in 1994, this project developed into a major undertaking during the next several years. Now a Lao government effort which has expanded throughout the country, ordnance clearance work employs more than 1,000 people.

While MCC is no longer involved in bomb removal, this field experience and the devastating use of cluster munitions during recent wars (the Gulf War, Yugoslavia/Kosovo, Chechnya) provide the foundation for MCC’s growing conviction that cluster munitions must be banned. In recent years, MCC has taken this growing conviction and religious commitment to peace into the arena of international law, participating in informal discussions at gatherings such as the Convention on Conventional Weapons Review Conference.

Will cluster munitions be banned? Will there be a moratorium on use? Will there be technical “solutions” to the problem of unexploded bombs? These questions will likely be decided over the next two years. We invite you to join the discussion.

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© 2003 Mennonite Central Committee
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