THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY CLUSTER MUNITIONS

Cluster munitions kill and injure civilians at the time of use because they indiscriminately scatter explosives over such a wide area.

As so many of the submunitions fail to work properly, cluster munitions leave huge quantities of lethal contamination.

This contamination kills and injures people trying to rebuild their lives after conflict. It can stop people from being able to use their land and the contamination will remain for decades.

The small size and curious shapes of submunitions make them particularly appealing to children and in many countries they make up the majority of casualties caused by this contamination.

Billions of submunitions are now in the stockpiles of some 73 countries. Unregulated trade has resulted in UK manufactured cluster munitions being used against civilians and with no regard for international law.

Cluster munitions have caused excessive harm to civilians in every conflict in which they have been used during the last 40 years. Such locations include Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Vietnam and the Western Sahara.

The use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in 2006 once again illustrated the horrific impact of these weapons. On witnessing the effects of the cluster munition contamination, the United Nation’s most senior official for humanitarian affairs described the use of these weapons as “shocking and immoral.” They killed and injured civilians at the time of attacks and also people returning home immediately after the ceasefire. The threat posed by unexploded cluster munitions has caused serious problems for organisations trying provide humanitarian assistance and these lethal bombs will continue to pose a threat in the future.

Attachments

Coinciding with the launch of Product Recall, “Foreseeable Harm” was published in October 2006. The report details the devastating impact on civilians of the use of cluster munitions in Lebanon, and the failure of the international community to prevent this foreseeable harm. Click on the image to download a pdf of the full report.