Post by Yaw on Nov 13, 2003 0:49:20 GMT -5
I hope I won't be the only person starting threads in here...
At any rate, the BBC is reporting a launch to an international campaign to ban cluster bombs. This follows a successful campaign (leading to a Nobel Peace Prize) to create the UN's treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. The article is copied in, for preservation from backlog purging, below:
______________________________________________
NGOs launch cluster bomb campaign
By Geraldine Coughlan
BBC correspondent at The Hague
Non-governmental organisations from around the world are launching a campaign against cluster bombs.
NGOs estimate that at least 92 countries are threatened by the presence of unexploded bombs.
Thursday's campaign launch at The Hague takes place ahead of negotiations in Geneva on a new protocol to the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Eighty groups are involved in the Cluster Munition Coalition, including Landmine Action and Human Rights Watch.
'Indefinite ban'
The groups are calling on governments to deal with the problem of unexploded bombs.
They say abandoned mortars, rockets and cluster bomblets claim thousands of lives during and long after armed conflict.
Afghanistan, northern Iraq and Sudan are among the most affected regions.
The CMC wants an indefinite ban on cluster bombs.
The coalition sees a draft protocol on conventional weapons as unacceptably weak.
They say they will lobby for a strong, legally binding protocol to tackle the humanitarian problems caused by unexploded bombs.
The Dutch and Canadian governments are seriously backing the new campaign.
The Dutch took the lead in putting the protocol on unexploded bombs on the agenda in Geneva.
They are also lobbying for international legal obligations on restrictions on the use of cluster bombs.
At any rate, the BBC is reporting a launch to an international campaign to ban cluster bombs. This follows a successful campaign (leading to a Nobel Peace Prize) to create the UN's treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. The article is copied in, for preservation from backlog purging, below:
______________________________________________
NGOs launch cluster bomb campaign
By Geraldine Coughlan
BBC correspondent at The Hague
Non-governmental organisations from around the world are launching a campaign against cluster bombs.
NGOs estimate that at least 92 countries are threatened by the presence of unexploded bombs.
Thursday's campaign launch at The Hague takes place ahead of negotiations in Geneva on a new protocol to the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Eighty groups are involved in the Cluster Munition Coalition, including Landmine Action and Human Rights Watch.
'Indefinite ban'
The groups are calling on governments to deal with the problem of unexploded bombs.
They say abandoned mortars, rockets and cluster bomblets claim thousands of lives during and long after armed conflict.
Afghanistan, northern Iraq and Sudan are among the most affected regions.
The CMC wants an indefinite ban on cluster bombs.
The coalition sees a draft protocol on conventional weapons as unacceptably weak.
They say they will lobby for a strong, legally binding protocol to tackle the humanitarian problems caused by unexploded bombs.
The Dutch and Canadian governments are seriously backing the new campaign.
The Dutch took the lead in putting the protocol on unexploded bombs on the agenda in Geneva.
They are also lobbying for international legal obligations on restrictions on the use of cluster bombs.