Clearing of cluster bomblet

© Bonnie Docherty/HRW/afrol News

afrol News, 22 February - At the Oslo launch of a global initiative to ban cluster munitions today, only four out of 48 participating nations were African. The Oslo conference, which follows the successful line of the outlawing of anti-personnel mines in the 1990s, only finds outspoken support in South Africa. It is uncertain whether Angola, Egypt and Mozambique - present in Oslo - will support the drive.

Governments meeting in Oslo to launch a historic initiative to ban cluster munitions that cause great harm to civilians aim at concluding a new treaty by 2008, the Norwegian government said today. Almost 50 countries are attending the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions - most of them are believed to support the ban.

So far, the only African country that has clearly stated its support for a treaty banning these munitions and bombs is South Africa. "South Africa supports this initiative," Sten Anders Berge of the Norwegian embassy in Pretoria told the South African press earlier this month.

While the Pretoria government still has made no public announcement on its stand towards cluster munitions and bombs, officials at least had assured the Norwegian hosts that their presence at the Oslo conference would be to lend support to the global initiative. This was praised by Mr Berge.

It still remains unclear what the two other Southern African nations represented at the Oslo conference - Angola and Mozambique - think about a ban. Neither country has even ratified the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), despite the fact that both experienced long-lasting civil wars with a heavy toll on the civilian population until recently.

But observers hold that Angola and Mozambique - both having strong ties with Norway - will probably support the ban on cluster munitions. Both have ratified and strongly benefit from the treaty banning landmines, with international donors assisting in clearing the many million mines still present here. Even in Mozambique, still around 20 persons - mostly children - are killed annually by landmines.

Egypt is the only North African country attending the conference, and the hosts are still left out in the blue on Cairo's position. As a US ally, Egyptian may want to assist Washington in watering out the draft declaration. On the other hand, several Middle East countries - including cluster bomb victims Lebanon and Afghanistan - have voiced their support for a ban.

Cluster bombs are small devices packed with high explosives and loaded into artillery shells, bombs or missiles. When the bomb explodes, it scatters hundreds of small explosives, or bomblets, over a vast area. As around 30-40 percent of the bomblets typically fail to explode at impact, they endanger civilians' lives for years after the conflict. Typically, the coloured or metallic bomblets are picked up by children.

Norway has proposed a prohibition on cluster munitions that cause unacceptable humanitarian harm. What weapons fall inside or outside the prohibition ist to be determined during the Oslo negotiations. There are currently billions of sub-munitions in the arsenals of more than 70 countries.

Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, today opened the Oslo conference, saying that he believed a ban could be enforced despite the opposition from the US, China, Russia and the UK. "I think we learned from the experience from the anti-personnel mine campaign in the 1990s that if we were to wait for those countries to take the lead it will be a long wait," he told the press in Oslo.

For the ban to take place, governments first need to agree on a treaty text - which Mr Støre expects to happen in Oslo tomorrow. Then, a large number of states have to sign and ratify the treaty, becoming international law after a certain threshold. For that to happen soon, also a large number of African countries will have to show their interest.

Until now, cluster bombs have not been used or stockpiled in great quantities in Africa. Known customers include Libya and Uganda. Cluster bombs further are known to have been used by several of the countries engaged in the Congo war only a few years ago and by Eritrea in its border war with Ethiopia. Finally, the US has been accused of using cluster bombs in its latest attacks on Somalia - something that has not been confirmed.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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