UK EXCEPTIONS UNDERMINE CLUSTER BOMB AGREEMENT

2.48.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 4th Jun 2008

A Liberal Democrat MEP and anti-cluster bomb campaigner has expressed her frustration that Gordon Brown sought a loophole for new cluster munitions despite his moral arguments for outlawing existing stocks.

Over 100 countries were in Dublin to agree the text of a treaty on cluster bombs last week, the majority of which, including the UK, agreed to ban the weapons. However it has since emerged that some of Europe's users and producers: the UK, France, Germany and Sweden, pushed through amendments which changed the definition of cluster munitions, thereby excluding a new generation of weapons from the treaty.

Liz Lynne MEP sits on the European Parliament's Human Rights Subcommittee and has long campaigned against the weapons. Speaking today she said:

"Last week we thought we had some welcome news from Gordon Brown, but it was too good to be true. Now he has condemned a new generation of civilians to horrific injury and death by cluster bomb.

"To cynically stop calling the new GIWS anti-tank shell a cluster weapon, so it could press ahead with a £83m contract to replace the bombs he outlawed only last week, is a disgrace.

"The fact that these new weapons contain fewer bomblets makes no difference, there is still a suspected high 'failure' rate which could leave them live on the ground until a child picks them up or a car drives over them, killing and maiming like existing cluster bombs are still doing in places like Iraq and Lebanon.

"The new treaty is definitely a positive move forward, but it is tragically much less positive because of the UK government's manoeuvres."

ENDS

Notes:

Liz Lynne co-authored a European Parliamentary resolution on banning cluster bombs in October 2007 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/028-12353-295-10-43-903-20071024IPR12335-22-10-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm

She also launched a Written Declaration on the subject in March 2007, 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.

She also 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.