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Steve Goose from the Human Rights Watch Cluster Monition Coalition, participates in the opening of a conference on cluster bombs in Oslo Thursday Feb. 22, 2007. A 48-nation meeting on cluster bombs opened in Oslo on Thursday with Austria pledging to ban the weapons and organizers saying an international treaty outlawing the munitions could be achieved by 2008. (AP Photo/Stian Lysberg Solum, SCANPIX)
A draft declaration, obtained by The Associated Press, said these weapons - which can linger on former battlefields for years - cause "unacceptable harm." It calls for a treaty banning them by 2008, despite concerns that some countries would not agree to act that quickly.
Norway hopes the treaty would be similar to one outlawing anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said advocates should push for a treaty by the end of 2008, despite concerns. "I believe any other target will be a wrong signal," he said.
The U.S., China and Russia oppose the ban and did not send representatives to the meeting. Australia, Israel, India and Pakistan also did not attend.
Cluster bombs are small devices packed with high explosives and loaded into artillery shells, bombs or missiles. When the larger munition explodes, it scatters hundreds of the mini-explosives - called bomblets - over large areas.
A percentage of these bomblets typically fail to explode immediately, but may still detonate if they are picked up or struck - endangering civilians, often children, years after conflicts end.
The draft declaration calls for a treaty that would "prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of those cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians."
The treaty, the declaration said, should also create a framework for helping victims of cluster bombs, clearing the munitions and "destruction of stockpiles of prohibited cluster munitions," the document said.
It also urged countries to consider banning such weapons before the treaty takes effect. Norway, which is spearheading the initiative, has already done so. Austria announced a moratorium on cluster bombs at the start of the conference.
"This is a critical juncture," Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch told delegates. "Let us hope this meeting will be remembered as the meeting where a large number of countries decided that cluster munitions are not just another weapon."
Goose called cluster bombs "a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen" since they continue to kill long after a conflict has ended.
The Cluster Munition Coalition, an advocacy group co-hosting Wednesday's civilian forum, said the weapons have recently been used in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
The U.N. has estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million of the bomblets in southern Lebanon during last year's war with Hezbollah, with as many 40 percent failing to explode on impact.
Activists say children can be attracted to the unexploded weapons by their small size, shape and bright colors or shiny metal surfaces. As many as 60 percent of cluster bomb victims in Southeast Asia are children, the Cluster Munition Coalition said.
The U.S., Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Japan say the weapons can be dealt with under the 1980 U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons.
However, treaty advocates say those talks are stalled, and a new avenue is needed.
Gahr Stoere said advocates should push for a treaty even without the support of big countries like the U.S. and China.
"I think we learned from the experience from the anti-personnel mine campaign in the '90s that if we were to wait for those countries to take the lead it will be a long wait," he said at a news conference.
"What we do here hopefully will engage those countries and that they will see merit to create rules and regulations to handle this issue. I'm not pessimistic in that regard."
On Wednesday, Simon Conway, of the Britain's Landmine Action group, said some countries attending the conference may seek to weaken the one-page draft declaration by demanding postponement of its treaty target date of 2008.
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On the Net: http://www2.norway.or.jp/policy/news
