A 48-nation meeting called by Norway in a drive to ban cluster bombs opened in Oslo yesterday, despite being snubbed by the US, Russia and China.
Norway hopes to initiate a worldwide drive against cluster bombs similar to the one banning anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called the Oslo meeting of governments and activist groups because arms talks in Geneva in November failed to move towards banning the weapons.
PHOTO: AP
Activists say key powers, including the US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Japan oppose separate negotiations and claim the weapons are covered under the 1980 UN Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
At a forum of non-governmental organizations ahead of the main conference, Steve Goose, executive Director of the Human Rights Watch Group, said the Oslo meetings must lead to a new path outside the stalled CCW.
"This meeting is mainly about consolidating political will. It is not about drafting a treaty," Goose said on Wednesday.
"It is about establishing a momentum ... The best outcome is agreement on a declaration," he said.
Simon Conway, of 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 next year.
Cluster bomblets are packed into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter hundreds of the mini-explosives over vast areas, with some failing to explode and endangering civilians years after conflicts end.
The Cluster Munition Coalition, a campaign group co-hosting Wednesday's civilian forum, said as many as 60 percent of the victims in Southeast Asia are children. It said the weapons have recently been used in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon, and that billions are stockpiled worldwide.
"It is about human suffering ... People are killed long after a conflict," said Thomas Nash, coordinator for the coalition.
"What we have here in Oslo is a historical process that could lead to a treaty," he said.
The UN has estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million of the bomblets in southern Lebanon during the recent armed conflict there.
Children can be attracted to the unexploded weapons by their small size, shape and bright colors, the groups said.
Goose drew parallels to the 1997 drive to ban anti-personnel mines, saying: "There are a lot of similarities. We have a committed group of small and medium sized nations working with non-governmental groups. They are willing to move forward on the issue."
The US, Russia and China still refuse to sign the pact on the use of landmines.
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