Britain Accused Of Being 'Barrier' To Bomb Treaty

An on-going cluster bomb conference in Dublin has today heard Britain accused of being the main barrier to an international treaty to ban the notorious weapons.

The bombs, which are composed of small 'bomblets' used to carpet-bomb wide areas are known to have killed thousands of civilians, and are often left undetonated after deployment posing a major threat if picked up.

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."

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."

The weapons killed 300 civilians when used in the Lebanon by Israel in 2006, and US helicopters in the 2003 invasion of Iraq also used a similar type.

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

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

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

(DW)