Congress Restricts Cluster Bomb Sales

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Inter Press Service | December 26, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Congress approved a major appropriations bill this week that bans the export of most U.S.-made cluster bombs.

The provision, tucked into a mammoth 2008 omnibus spending bill worth $560 billion, marked an important victory for human rights groups, which have made the issue a major legislative priority.

The bill also includes a provision to restrict military aid to countries that use child soldiers.

As for cluster bombs, the bill bans their transfer to any foreign nation unless the cluster bombs have at least a 99-percent reliability rate and the importing country has pledged in writing that it will not use the weapon in civilian areas.

This ban was prompted by Israel's planting of hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions in populated areas of southern Lebanon in the last days of its 2006 war against Hezbollah. The U.N. denounced Israel's action -- which has reportedly caused more than 200 civilian casualties since the end of the war -- as "completely immoral."

"An export moratorium is a good first step," said Lora Lumpe, coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and a lobbyist at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. "We will work in the coming year to make the export ban permanent and to prohibit the U.S. military's use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians."

The omnibus bill, which covered everything from bridge repair to financing U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, was approved by both houses of Congress earlier this week and is expected to be signed by President George W. Bush within the next few days.

The bill, which extended a 1992 ban on the export of anti-personnel landmines through 2014, also provided nearly $80 million for humanitarian de-mining programs around the world and another $4 million for projects to protect the rights of persons with disabilities resulting from exposure to landmines, cluster munitions and other weapons.

The ban on U.S. military aid to governments that use child soldiers could have its greatest impact on Colombia, which receives far more U.S. military aid than any other Latin American country. Worldwide, it is currently Washington's sixth biggest recipient of military aid, behind Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Afghanistan.

With such a large investment, the administration is likely to resist cutting off military aid to its closest ally in the Andean region. The provision's wording offers two major loopholes.

Under its terms, the aid could go forward if the secretary of state certifies to Congress that the government "has implemented effective measures" to demobilize child soldiers from its ranks or from those of government-supported militias, as well as to prevent their future recruitment. In addition, the secretary of state may waive the ban if she determines that it is in the U.S. "national interest" to do so.

In the case of Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe, who has sought to demobilize all right-wing paramilitary groups, has vowed to eliminate the use of child soldiers. But, the problem persists, according to human-rights monitors.

Despite the loopholes, rights advocates say they see passage of the ban as an important step forward. "It certainly gives the U.S. another tool to fight the use of child soldiers around the world, and it also gives the Pentagon and the State Department a greater stake in doing so," said Tom Malinowski, the head of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch.

Malinowski also praised the provision on exporting cluster munitions, saying its language "reflects the growing consensus around the world that this weapon needs to be banned."

Indeed, passage of the legislation came just two weeks after representatives of 138 governments gathered in Vienna to work out a global treaty that -- like a similar 1997 agreement, the Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel land mines -- would prohibit the production, stockpiling, export and use of cluster munitions.

The Bush administration has so far boycotted those negotiations, which are called the "Oslo Process" after the capital of Norway where the initiative was launched earlier this year.

"With this law, Congress helps move the U.S. closer to the position of most of its NATO partners and other U.S. allies," said Ken Rutherford, co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network.

The U.S. exports cluster bombs -- munitions that, when exploded, saturate a specific target area with hundreds of submunitions or "bomblets" -- to 28 countries, including Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Washington has a stockpile of nearly 1 billion submunitions, according to Human Rights Watch. One system widely used and exported by the U.S. is the M26 rocket, which is fired by the Multiple Launch Rocket System. One volley launches 12 M26 rockets, which eject nearly 8,000 sub-munitions over an area of 200 by 400 meters. Any living thing exposed at the time of the explosions is almost certainly killed or gravely wounded.

Moreover, the M26 rocket, like many other kinds of cluster munitions, has a failure rate of 16 percent. Thus, one volley could result in more than 1,000 "duds" or unexploded submunitions, which litter the area long after the volley has been fired or hostilities have ceased.

Due to their size and bright coloring, these unexploded bombs often draw the attention of small children. Such unexploded munitions have caused thousands of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Laos, Lebanon and Vietnam, as well as in southern Lebanon.

"This law recognizes the need to prevent cluster bombs from being used in civilian-populated areas," said Colby Goodman, who directs the Child Soldiers and Arms Transfers program at the U.S. section of Amnesty International. Goodman's group praised the legislation, saying, "Congress has taken an important step to protect innocent lives and to demonstrate respect for international humanitarian law." (Editing by Alana Y. Price)

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