8-7-2023 (PARIS) Humanitarian organizations have voiced their opposition to the United States’ plans to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions, citing the long-term danger posed by the weapons. These munitions leave behind unexploded bomblets, which can cause harm to civilians for decades to come.
Baptiste Chapuis of Handicap International – Humanity and Inclusion (HI) said that the use of cluster bombs is a “death sentence to civilians over the long term.” He added that people who have not even been born yet may fall victim to these weapons.
The US move comes ahead of a NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, next week. Allies are searching for ways to offer assistance to Kyiv as its counteroffensive against Russian invaders has been slow to make major advances.
Cluster bombs spread dozens of tiny bomblets over an area the size of several football pitches when they detonate. A large number of these bomblets bury themselves in the ground, rendering them unexploded. The weapons leave a large field of antipersonnel mines in their wake, prompting a wave of condemnations even before the American delivery was confirmed.
Amnesty International researcher Patrick Wilcken said that the US plan to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is a “retrograde step” and “undermines the considerable advances made by the international community in its attempts to protect civilians from such dangers.” He urged the US to reconsider their decision.
In military terms, cluster bombs allow a belligerent to strike a large enemy formation in a single blow, deny the use of an airfield’s runway, or halt an enemy’s advance with widespread mines. However, they do not differentiate between civilians and military personnel, and it is estimated that between 5 and 40 per cent of bomblets do not explode on impact, remaining present on the battlefield for decades.
Beyond the immediate physical danger posed to civilians, Chapuis said that there is also the question of physical access to affected areas for humanitarian organizations. The bombs’ use can “prevent a lifeline reaching affected populations,” he added.
Since their development during World War II, cluster bombs have been used by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by Israel in Lebanon during fighting against Hezbollah in 2006. The 2008 Oslo Convention banned the production, storage, sale, and use of cluster munitions, and 123 countries have signed it. However, major non-signatories include China, Iran, Israel, Russia, Syria and the United States.
“People are still clearing American cluster munitions in Laos” almost 50 years after the war in neighboring Vietnam ended, Chapuis said.
Shipping the weapons to Kyiv would be “escalatory, counterproductive, and only further increase the dangers to civilians caught in combat zones,” said Daryl Kimball, director of the US-based Arms Control Association. He added that “the effectiveness of cluster munitions is significantly oversold and the impact on non-combatants is widely acknowledged, but too often overlooked.”
The Cluster Munition Monitor, a grouping of several specialist humanitarian outfits, noted in August 2022 that Ukraine was the only theater where the weapons were actively being used, at the time by the Russian army. Civilians make up 97 per cent of people killed or wounded by cluster bombs, with two-thirds of those victims being children where age data is available.
Around the world, 29 countries or territories are known or believed to remain mined with undetonated bomblets, including 10 signatories to the Oslo Convention which are required by the text to de-mine affected areas.
