WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-08-02 Time: 05:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
Over 100 countries will never again use cluster bombs, blamed for millions of civilian deaths and casualties. The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has so far been signed by 107 states, entered into force Sunday. But China, Russia, the US and Israel are not on board.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised the treaty banning cluster munitions as a major advance in efforts to rid the world of the “abhorrent weapons.”
“This new instrument is a major advance for the global disarmament and humanitarian agendas, and will help us to counter the widespread insecurity and suffering caused by these terrible weapons, particularly among civilians and children,” the UN Secretary General said.
Cluster bombs contain a number of smaller devices, which may carry explosives or chemical or biological weapons. They often explode long after being dropped, causing injuries to civilians and even children who mistake them for toys.
China, Russia, the United States and Israel are among the countries that have rejected the deal, which prohibits the use, production and transfer of cluster munitions and obliges those that have ratified it to destroy stockpiles.
The treaty is result of five years lobbying by human rights groups and non-governmental organisations, who have praised the treaty as historic.
“It’s the first time in history that conventional weapons have been banned as a result of pressure from civil society, ” said Jean-Marc Boivin, Director General of Handicap International, a group lobbying against the use of landmines.
The group estimates that a billion cluster bombs may be in stock around the world.
But some analysts doubt that the treaty will be effective.
“Most of the countries that have signed up to it either don’t use cluster weapons or were already on their way to abolishing cluster weapons,” said Siemon Wezeman, an arms trade specialist at of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told RFI.
“Practically, it won’t make too much of a difference,” he says. “But it remains a landmark decision, as it happens very rarely that conventional weapon is prohibited.”
Original date published: 1 August 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201008020108.html?viewall=1