U.S. Permanently Bans Cluster Bomb Exports, But Now Must Ban Use & Production

U.S. permanently bans cluster bomb exports, now must ban use and production

Although the U.S. will sign into law the permanent ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports, it still enables the U.S. to use and produce these deadly weapons. Ongoing efforts push for the U.S. to also agree on banning their production and use.

Related Announcement and Articles Below:

March 2 0 0 9
Source: US Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions (www.banminesusa.org)

Breaking news: President Obama will sign a law today that will make permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports from the United States. Congress included the export ban in an omnibus budget bill that passed the Senate last night. This provision will move the U.S. one step closer to the position of the nearly 100 nations—including its closest NATO allies—that signed a treaty banning cluster munitions in December.

The legislation states that cluster munitions can only be exported if they leave behind less than one percent of their submunitions as duds, and if the receiving country agrees that cluster munitions “will not be used where civilians are known to be present.” Only a very tiny fraction of the cluster munitions in the U.S. arsenal meet the one percent standard. This export ban was first enacted in a similar budget bill in December 2007, but that law mandated it for only one year.

U.S.-exported cluster bombs were most recently used by Israel in Southern Lebanon, where dud rates were reportedly as high as 40 percent; hundreds of civilians and deminers have been killed or maimed since the fighting ended in 2006.

Now Congress needs to take the next step and ban U.S. use of these deadly weapons. Nearly one in four senators have already cosponsored the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 416), introduced one month ago, which would stop the military from using virtually all of the cluster bombs in its vast arsenal by applying this same one percent standard to U.S. use. Do your senators support this bill? If not, urge them to cosponsor today. If it’s unacceptable to export high dud-rate cluster bombs, then it’s unacceptable to use them. Growing Senate support for S. 416 will show President Obama that the U.S. public stands with the rest of the world in supporting a ban on cluster bombs.

As 17 year old Soraj Ghulam Habib from Herat, Afghanistan, who lost both legs to a U.S. cluster submunition in 2001 observes, “You’d ban them for sure, if you had them here.” Click here to see what a cluster bomb would do to your neighborhood.

_______________________________________________________________

CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION – DEFENSE
March 11, 2009 – 10:35 p.m.
Ban on Exports of Most Cluster Bombs Becomes Law as Part of Omnibus
By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff

President Obama enacted on Wednesday a permanent ban on U.S. exports of most cluster bombs, which scatter small submunitions that often explode only long after a battle has subsided, harming innocent people.

The provision was a tiny element of the $410 billion omnibus spending bill (HR 1105) that will fund most of the government for the rest of fiscal 2009. It would outlaw exports of cluster bombs unless they leave behind 1 percent or less of their submunitions as duds and the receiving country agrees the weapons “will not be used where civilians are known to be present.”

The qualified ban comes as Obama confronts whether to support an international treaty barring the use of cluster bombs that could threaten civilians. Meanwhile, numerous members of Congress in both chambers have cosponsored legislation to enact a ban on most cluster bombs.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, worked to insert in the omnibus bill the ban on exporting all but the least dangerous cluster bombs. He also joined with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in writing a bill (S 416) to prohibit the U.S. military from using cluster bombs that do not meet the same standard.
Leahy believes the debate over cluster munitions may be entering a critical phase. “This is an important step for the United States,” he said of the newly enacted law. “It reinforces the efforts of other countries to stop the carnage caused by cluster munitions.”

A one-year ban on exports of most cluster bombs was enacted in the fiscal 2008 omnibus spending bill (PL 110-161) in December 2007, but the new law makes the ban permanent.

The issue heated up in 2006 after Israel’s widespread use of cluster munitions in its war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Since December, 95 countries have signed and four have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which outlaws all cluster bombs that could harm civilians. The signatories include some of the closest U.S. allies, including Britain.

The Bush administration did not support the treaty, however. In June, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued a new Pentagon policy on cluster munitions affirming their military utility and opposing an outright ban, even as he acknowledged their toll. The policy says that after 2018 the U.S. military will not use cluster bombs that leave more than 1 percent of their submunitions unexploded. Until that time, Gates wrote, the use of bombs that do not meet this standard can be sanctioned only by a combatant commander, such as Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command.

Critics of cluster bombs acknowledge that the U.S. military has not employed these weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.

Obama must decide whether to continue the Bush policy or strike out on his own. As a senator in 2006, Obama voted for an amendment to the fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations bill (HR 5631) that would have restricted the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas, but the amendment was defeated.

In 2008, after the cluster munitions treaty was signed, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition team said the incoming administration would study the issue. In February, 67 human rights groups wrote Obama urging him to begin the review and complete it within six months. The groups also would like the United States to sign the global ban on antipersonnel land mines.

With the enactment of the export ban, critics of cluster bombs are turning their attention to outlawing the use of the weapons. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., has introduced a companion (HR 981) to the Leahy and Feinstein bill in the House.

Leahy expressed hope that the enactment of the export ban would be “a catalyst to prompt a review by the Pentagon of U.S. policy, with a view to rapidly ending the use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to innocent civilians.”

“If they’re not fit for others to use, they are not fit for us to use,” said Lora Lumpe, coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines. “The next step is to ban these weapons.”