AS SUMMIT APPROACHES, PUSH TO BAN CLUSTER BOMBS MUST BE KEPT UP, URGES MEP

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 23rd Nov 2007

Liz Lynne MEP at the European Parliament’s exhibition on cluster munitions and landmines.

If other countries are to be saved from the ongoing horror of cluster bombs which continues in southern Lebanon, the public must get behind the campaign for a worldwide ban in advance of the December Vienna summit, says a West Midlands LibDem Euro MP.

Liz Lynne MEP, Member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and a leading campaigner against cluster munitions, recently co-tabled a European Parliamentary resolution calling for European and global action on cluster munitions which was adopted with a large majority.

Ms Lynne feels that if politicians are brave and particularly European politicians can speak with a unified voice, real progress in the Oslo process, towards ending the manufacture and use of cluster bombs, can be made. Speaking at an exhibition on cluster munitions and landmines at the European Parliament she said:

"Every year thousands of civilians, many of them children, are indiscriminately killed or injured by cluster bombs. Dreams are shattered and lives are destroyed.

"The European Parliament has laid down the gauntlet but it is now up to national governments to take up the challenge of stopping the use of these horrific weapons. Anything less on the part of the governments that still use, stockpile or manufacture cluster bombs would be an act of cowardice.

"The shocking fact is that cluster munitions are stockpiled in over 15 EU Member States and at least 10 EU Member States are producing them - France, Spain , Greece , Italy , the Netherlands , Poland , Romania , Slovakia , Sweden and Bulgaria . It is my view that these countries, as well as of course those who have used them, including the UK, have blood on their hands.

"Diplomatic manoeuvres by the UK Government and others to suggest there are "dumb" and "smart" cluster munitions must be given short shrift. They all kill and maim. The word 'smart' could not be more misleading or more inappropriate.

"Over eight years since the Ottawa treaty banning landmines, unexploded cluster bomblets are having much the same effect as mines used to. We need an immediate moratorium on the use, investment, stockpiling, production, transfer or export of all cluster munitions. All states which have used them must accept responsibility for their clearance."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Photo caption: Liz Lynne MEP at the European Parliament's exhibition on cluster munitions and landmines.

The dates of the future Oslo Process conferences are: Vienna 4-7 December 2007; Wellington 18-22 February 2008; Dublin 19-30 May 2008.

To find out more and how you can help the campaign please visit www.stopclustermunitions.org. The Cluster Munitions Coalition is an international network of over 200 civil society organisations in 50 countries committed to protecting civilians from the effects of cluster munitions. Members of the CMC network work together on an international campaign calling on governments to conclude a new international treaty banning cluster munitions by 2008.

The UK government is in principle in favour of a global ban on cluster munitions but has sought to keep one bomb-type which has still proved indiscriminately lethal in Lebanon recently. A petition against exemption this can be found at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/M85submunitions/

On the 30th of October a major conference on cluster bombs took place in Brussels with 47 European countries in attendance. The US was an observer and reiterated its position that it is not in favour of a ban, however two new countries expressed support for the Oslo process - Bulgaria and Turkey .

The conclusion of the conference was stockpile destruction would be feasible, although expensive, if political will exists. In addition, it noted that this is already happening, with millions of weapons either destroyed or slated for destruction across the EU and NATO. However, the issues of stockpile retention for training and development as well as transition period for destruction are contentious.

Please find the European Parliament's statement on the resolution adopted on the 25th of October, with a link to the text itself here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/028-12353-295-10-43-903-20071024IPR12335-22-10-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm

On the 1st of March 2007 , Liz Lynne launched a Written Declaration at the European Parliament in order to trigger a debate on the subject in the European Parliament. This was in part to mark the 8th anniversary of the Ottawa treaty on landmines, because despite unexploded bomblets having much the same effect as landmines, they were not included in this treaty.

Liz Lynne MEP ran a petition in her West Midlands region constituency asking individuals to protest to the Prime Minister against the use of cluster munitions which received an encouraging response from her constituents.

In February 2007, 46 countries signed up to a declaration in Oslo, to 'work towards a ban on cluster munitions'. 83 countries are now participating.

It is estimated the 98% of cluster bomb casualties are civilians. The Israeli Military dropped four million bomblets on Lebanon in summer 2005. At least 300,000 of these failed to go off but are still live in the country. Cluster munitions have also been widely used in Iraq , Afghanistan and Serbia.