Vatican signs convention banning cluster bombs

The Vatican has signed and ratified a new treaty to end the production and use of cluster bombs, and appealed to the international community to ban "this inhumane type of weapon".

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secretary for relations with states, was one of more than 100 diplomats who signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway, on December 3.

In a speech during the signing ceremony, the archbishop said the Vatican chose to sign and ratify the convention the same day in order to send "a strong political signal" to the rest of the world.

The US and other major countries that produce cluster weapons – including Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan – have not signed the convention. The US has expressed concern that a ban would restrict what it sees as the legitimate use of such weapons and has said that cluster bombs were essential to US military operations.

Archbishop Mamberti urged nations who continue to produce, export or use these deadly munitions to heed the numerous civilian victims' call for disarmament and to sign the convention.

Cluster bombs scatter hundreds of submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Most casualties of these weapons are civilians, and a high percentage of those killed or maimed are children.

The international agreement to ban cluster bombs was first reached May 30 by diplomats from 111 countries attending a conference in Dublin.

The treaty, which will take effect in mid-2009, specifies that participating countries cannot use cluster bombs and requires participants to destroy existing stockpiles within eight years and fund programs to clear bombs from old battlefields.
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(Source: TC)