Britain 'is barrier to cluster bomb ban treaty'

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Britain has been accused of being the main barrier to an international treaty that would ban cluster bombs, weapons responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Humanitarian groups, countries that have borne the brunt of the bombs and former soldiers gathered on Monday to forge a treaty outlawing cluster bombs.

Representatives of more than 100 countries were in Dublin for a conference looking at the artillery-fired M85 and the rocket-based M73 munitions.

British officials have argued that they are "smart" weapons, which minimise the risk of collateral damage.

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Britain is said to be under pressure from America to retain the bombs


But Simon Conway, a former soldier and the Director of Landmine Action, said: "Every time these weapons are used, they have killed large numbers of civilians."

The M85 killed 300 civilians when used in the Lebanon by Israel in 2006, while M73s launched by US helicopters were used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Mr Conway said: "The Government needs to take a much harder line on these issues. We need to prevent these weapons from proliferating. We need to stop the arms race developing and the way to do that is if we come up with a strong treaty that stigmatises these weapons."

Britain is said to be under pressure from America, which is not attending the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, to retain the weapons.

The weapons have been criticised by the Pope and reservations have been expressed by some British ministers.

A MOD spokesman said UK policy recognised the "humanitarian" concerns, but had to balance them with military requirements.





By Tom Peterkin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1986494/Britain-'is-barrier-to-cluster-bomb-ban-treaty'.html
 
next we wont be allowed bullets that kill. we sign up to all these do good things but the people we fight against dont. just makes us more of a laughing stock really
 
We will need to design a bomb that says "excuse me" please and thank you next !! ffs
 
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