Government must support cluster munitions ban

7.59.41pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 5th Dec 2006

The Government has been challenged in Parliament to come out in support of a ban on cluster munitions. Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Moore MP also accused ministers of adopting a 'disingenuous' stance on cluster munitions to avoid criticism for failing to call for an international ban on the weapons. He was speaking after the publication of a written ministerial statement on the issue by Kim Howells

Mr Moore said "There has been too much confusion and ambiguity over the Government's position, with different ministers from different departments all giving different responses. I therefore welcome the fact that the Foreign Secretary has responded to my challenge during the Queen's Speech debate to issue a statement on Government policy on cluster munitions.

"However, this statement does not fully explain the Government's stance on these weapons and the Foreign Office has further complicated the debate by inventing the categories of 'dumb' and 'smart' cluster munitions. This is a disingenuous categorisation because the so-called 'smart' munitions still have a significant failure rate.

"The Government admits that there is no international agreement on what defines a 'dumb' or 'smart' cluster munition, but is using this invented description as a smokescreen to disguise the fact that it is not calling for a full international ban on the use, production and stockpiling of these weapons.

"The Government has tried to assert that it led the way at the Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Geneva (CCW) but respected groups such as Landmine Action believe that it obstructed calls for a new treaty. The Government has also opposed the Norwegian initiative which mirrors the process that led to the adoption of the Land Mine Treaty in 1997.

"The use of cluster bombs continues to have serious humanitarian impacts long after the relevant conflicts have ended. In the recent conflict in Lebanon, approximately half of the one million cluster munitions fired in the last 72 hours of that conflict failed to detonate on impact, leaving around 500,000 unexploded bomblets littering civilian areas. These bomblets have since claimed the lives of over 20 civilians - including children - and injured hundreds more.

"Given their disastrous humanitarian consequences, there must be a full ban on these weapons and the UK Government should lead the international efforts in pursuit of such a ban."