Laos places hope in cluster bomb ban at Berlin talks

Jun 26, 2009, 13:22 GMT

   Berlin - The Deputy Foreign Minister of Laos, Bounkeut Sangsomsak, said his country had high hopes for a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs as nations concluded a conference on the subject in Berlin on Friday.

'Laos, the most affected nation by cluster munitions, has high expectations from the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitons,' Sangsomsak said at the end of the two-day meeting.

Once active, the convention will prohibit the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs. The document, drawn up in Oslo last December, is undergoing ratification by 98 signatory states.

The Berlin conference, organized by the German Foreign Office, focused on ways of destroying military stockpiles of the weapon. A total of 275 people attended from 89 countries.

Mingling amongst the statesmen were also a handful of cluster bomb survivors who had lost limbs, suffered serious injury or lost family members to the weapon.

One of these was Aynalem Zenebe, an Ethiopian teenager who was hit by a cluster bomb ten years ago, at the age of seven. A slight limp was the only visible sign that, under her flowing white dress, one of her limbs is artificial.

'I lost my leg,' Zenebe said, talking about the cluster bomb which was dropped from a plane over her school as she was walking home one day, and which killed many of her friends.

'I could not realize at the time what had happened to me and how it would be,' the teenager added.

Her own experience motivated Zenebe to join the group of Ban Advocates, victims of cluster bombs campaigning for the weapon's abolishment.

   Cluster weapons - criticized for their high risk of maiming or killing civilians - can be launched from the air or via artillery shells and can disperse hundreds of bomblets over a target area.

'When I go back to the time and remember it, I don't feel good because of what happened to me,' Zenebe said. 'But when I see people experiencing the same as me, I feel more than just my own pain.'

'This has of course to be stopped, and this is why I am here,' Zenebe said, adding that it was crucial to keep lobbying for the cluster bomb treaty to be signed and implemented.

Thomas Nash of the Cluster Munition Coalition, an umbrella group representing 300 non-governmental organisations, said the Berlin talks continued the momentum from Oslo, where the convention was approved six months ago.

On Thursday, Germany announced it would soon join the 10 countries that had already ratified the treaty, with a host of other states, including Japan, Slovenia and Croatia, expected to follow soon.

'It's really shown that the political will is there and is very strongly behind this process,' Nash said, adding that it was encouraging to see such initiative to destroy stockpiles before the treaty was even in place.

The convention will come into effect six months after 30 states have ratified the document, giving countries an 8-year deadline to destroy any stockpiles of the weapon.

   While the destruction of current stockpiles is an important goal, it is arguably far more urgent to remove cluster munitions from former conflict zones.

In Laos, the deadly munitions are embedded in the land as a lasting legacy of the Vietnam War.

Unexploded submunitions not only make farming dangerous but also tend to harm children, since they sometimes mistake the bomblets for toys.

During the Berlin talks, Laos offered to host the first meeting of state parties in November 2010, by which stage the convention is expected to be active.

'By attending this conference in Laos, participants will be able to witness the magnitude of destruction caused by cluster munitions,' Sangsomsak said, stressing the urgency of clearing the land so people could enjoy a safe livelihood.