Europe News
Treaty on banning cluster bombs formally adopted
May 30, 2008, 15:20 GMT
Dublin - An international treaty banning cluster munitions was formally adopted by 111 countries in Dublin on Friday, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported.
The agreement, which entails a commitment to remove the weapons from national arsenals within eight years, ended nearly two weeks of diplomatic wrangling in the Irish capital.
The text of the treaty was agreed late Wednesday, with Britain making a surprise pledge to scrap its arsenal of cluster bombs.
The countries will sign the treaty in Oslo in December.
In the agreement, signatories will pledge to not only to stop using cluster bombs but also to stop selling, storing or producing them.
The main producers of the weapons - the United States, Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan - stayed away from the conference and said they would not support the convention.
Under pressure from NATO countries, the text of the anti-cluster- bomb convention contains a concession to the US and other countries which want to continue to use and produce such munitions, by allowing military cooperation between signatories and non-signatories.
Cluster bombs drop hundreds of tennis-ball-sized smaller explosives known as 'bomblets,' which then scatter and detonate across the battlefield.
Many bomblets fail to explode for years after a conflict, posing a threat to civilians, especially children who often mistake the munitions for toys.
The death toll ranges into the tens of thousands of civilians killed, often blinded or maimed by the weapons.
According to UN estimates, they continue to present a lethal threat in more than 30 countries.
© Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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Gee, great rant, except for the glaring fact that:
1)Cluster munitions were first used by the nazi's on London.
2) no one kills more muslims than muslims.
So, Mohammad, I think we can conclude that your thesis can be filed under that all important heading 'you-are-just-a-little-more-than-full-of crap!'
A little boy in Thedevilusurpedmylandistan sees a colorful Cluster Bomb on the ground thinking it is a toy, he picks it up...
It is ironic that America can deliver death in somany ways; but victory is very elusive.
Hey SP4, I hear suicide is the bomb! Have you tried it yet or is that scar on your forehead from your lobotomy? I hear a lot of U.S. soldiers and former soldiers taking the easy way out by killing themselves. These soldiers are probably upset about the many horrible war crimes they committed while killing innocent Muslims and raping their female comrades.
Be te idiotic logic of SP4 we are left with only one conclusion.As most americans are killed by americans (compare to the logic of muslim killled by muslims and the stupid conclusion made by SP4 )we are now left with a conclusion that likewise makes no sense .What a moron that guy ....
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X-Slave U.S.A.May 31st, 2008 - 04:49:43
The treaty will be worthless because the U.S.A., Israel, Russia, China and Pakistan (at the behest of the U.S.A.) will still use these inhumane bombs. With the immoral bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the devilish Occidental nations saw that America was their White Knight. In on a Biblical Pale Horse rode the United Snakes of AmeriKKKa to unleash savagery and violence unlike the world had ever known. U.S. military might is meant to incite fear and terror in the hearts of people. The ban is no good as long as the U.S.A. and the minions of Satan are free to unleash their ungodly arsenals of terror worldwide with impunity. Interestingly enough the #1 enemy of all of the nations which did not sign ban is Islam. Hundreds of millions of Muslims live under oppression and virtual occupation in China and Russia. The Zionists have stolen and usurped the land of the Palestinians and force them to live in conditions worse than Apartheid. Islamists threaten Pakistan’s secular government and the U.S.A. is at war with Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Philippines and elsewhere. The Cluster Bomb evidently is only to be used against Muslims.
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