Cluster Munitions

By Devin Smith

During a walk home from a family picnic in Afghanistan, a young boy spots what he thinks is a can of food. He decides to pick it up to carry home for his family. Immediately, it explodes. The “bombie” mutilates the boy and instantly kills his cousin. Other members of the boy’s family carry him to a hospital where both of his legs must be amputated. His wounds are so bad that doctors consider euthanizing the child. The child’s name is Soraj Ghulam Habib, and now, seven years after the accident, he works with the Cluster Munition Coalition convincing governments to ban the weapons that forever crippled him - cluster bombs.

Cluster munitions, like the one that maimed Soraj, are comprised of metallic shells filled with smaller “bombies.” This class of weapon opens in the air, allowing the bomblets to be spread across the targeted area. Cluster munitions vary by model in the area that they cover and in the devastation that they cause. Some of these weapons have been filled with metal spikes, nerve gas or even napalm to assure maximum destruction.

The problems with using cluster munitions are widespread and the effects last indefinitely. Bullfrog Films, the group that filmed the documentary “Bombies,” lists the dud rate of the submunitions between 10 and 30 percent depending on the model. The United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center in Lebanon lists the average failure rate of bomblets as 40 percent in the south of that country. This means that 1 to 1.4 million unexploded submunitions still litter southern Lebanon from the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. These unexploded devices can sit for years before unsuspecting women and children trod upon them.

Innocent people are still being maimed and killed in Vietnam from the U.S. campaign in the 1970s, said Clear Path International. While the U.S. is the leading manufacturer, exporter and user of cluster munitions, many in the government would be quick to point out that we also give the most money to international non-governmental organizations (NGO) directed towards removing unexploded ordnances.

“It’s still not enough; we can’t just sit on our laurels and celebrate,” said Ed Kenny, the Advocacy and Administration Senior Program Officer for Handicap International. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, especially in Southeast Asia.” Unfortunately, governments don’t hand over strike data to NGOs easily, making it a slower and more dangerous process to rid land of these explosives.

According to Handicap International, 98 percent of cluster munition casualties have been civilians; 27 percent have been children. Sadly, some of the submunitions are brightly colored and resemble toys, such as the BLU-97/B that the U.S. dropped in Afghanistan in 2001.

“When you use cluster munitions in civilian areas, it’s using indiscriminate and disproportionate force which is against international humanitarian law,” said Colby Goodman, the Program Manager of the Child Soldiers and Arms Transfers Program at Amnesty International USA, commenting on the increased likelihood of children picking up these devices. The cluster munition-related civilian death toll highlights how blanket-like the destruction wrought by cluster bomb units is. Luckily, action is being taken to ban these weapons for good.

The Oslo Process is the progression of banning cluster munitions at an international level. It began in 2007 and most recently culminated in the signing of The Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway by 95 countries in December 2008. Unfortunately, the United States was not among them. Now, the Convention is open for new signatures and ratification by the signatories at the New York headquarters of the United Nations. In order to become binding, 30 countries must ratify the Convention. Even still, the Convention will only be binding for those countries that signed onto it (96 and counting). So far only 5 countries have decided to ratify the Oslo Convention to ban cluster munitions. The U.S. will not likely become a signatory in the near future, but the fact that many NATOallies have signed indicates that joint military ventures in the future will be impossible if cluster munitions are involved. Despite the U.S. lack of involvement with the Oslo Process, there is still progressive activity coming out of D.C.

On February 11, 2009, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced S. 416 and Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) introduced H.B. 981. The bills are known as “The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009,” and the two are identical to one another. The bills state that no funding will be given to any department to use cluster munitions unless they fit a couple of criteria first. These stipulations demand that the bombs have a less than 1 percent dud rate and that they not be used in civilian areas. However, the bills state that the president has the ability to override these conditions if it is a matter of national security. Furthermore, 90 days after the use of cluster bombs, the president has to present a plan to clean up the unexploded submunitions to Congress. According to David Carle, the Press Secretary for Senator Leahy (D-VT), who co-sponsored S. 416 along with Senator Feinstein, greatest opposition to this bill is from the Pentagon. These acts come months after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed a new defense policy stating that only cluster munitions with a 99 percent success rate will be used by the year 2018. Apparently, some in Congress find that nine years is too long to wait; if passed, the legislation will take effect immediately.

President Obama recently signed into law H.R. 1105, or the Omnibus Bill, which included a provision banning the export of cluster bombs whose dud rates are greater than 1 percent. Additionally, the receiving countries must agree to only use the bombs in areas in which civilians are not present. This is extremely similar to “The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009” which, because of the precedent and support behind it, has a great chance of passing into law.

Because very few cluster munitions within the American arsenal have a failure rate of less than 1 percent, it seems that the U.S. is on the verge of banning cluster bombs outright. However, a new development in weapons technology, sensor fused weapons, allows submunitions to use heat and image signals to seek out targets. Military personnel clamor about the high accuracy and low dud rate of this class of weapon, but it is not as clear cut as their arguments make it seem. So far, these sensors have not been proven to prevent civilian casualties, and it seems unlikely that they will do so. For example, a heat seeking submunition may be attracted to a vehicle full of civilians fleeing a combat zone.Additionally, the failure rates are much higher in an actual combat scenario than in testing phases.

“Weapons testing is performed in ideal conditions: perfect altitude and targeting a hard surface; but conflict areas hardly ever have perfect conditions,” Kenny said. Pilots may not be able to maintain a certain altitude, or the bomblet could hit a tree or soft ground; these would increase the unexploded submunitions. Although the pieces of legislation are a great starting point, that’s all that they are.

On behalf of all of those who have been negatively impacted by cluster munitions, please get involved with this issue. As citizens of the U.S., we have a great opportunity to pressure our elected officials to support legislation like The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009 in order to protect future generations. Not only will limiting cluster munitions save lives, it will save the country money on future endeavors to clean up unexploded ordnances. Finally, it is necessary to push for better transparency in military strike data so that clearing efforts are not compromised by uncertainty and fear. There is enough death and destruction in the world without littering foreign lands with indiscriminate, unpredictable weapons, so, together let’s stop it!